The researchers say that understanding how dogs survive near Chernobyl could tell us a lot about living in irradiated landscapes. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00The Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 still stands as the greatest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen.
00:06Now, nearly 40 years later, researchers studying the radiation's effects on wildlife in the areas
00:11of Ukraine directly surrounding Chernobyl say the disaster has left a noticeable mark, even today.
00:16Scientists entered the zone and collected genetic material from some 302 free-roaming
00:20dog populations, or wild dogs still living near the reactor, finding that those that were
00:25discovered living within the 18-mile exclusion zone have genetically distinct DNA from others
00:30living at a greater distance. According to the researchers, this is no doubt a direct result
00:34of living so close to the sarcophagus or the giant cement structure that now encompasses the
00:39disaster site. According to Nature, the DNA of dogs is important to understand as their species'
00:44lives are so intertwined with our own, sharing the same habitats and often diets as humans,
00:48which the Associated Press reports the authors of the study posit these dogs could reveal the
00:53answer to, quote, how do you survive in a hostile environment like this for 15 generations, as one
00:58of the primary places humankind has its sights on is space, known for exposing those who travel there
01:03to far more radiation than anywhere else on Earth.