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April 21st 2006 at 8:52 am in BBC NEWS reported yesterday about wildlife defying the radiation still there after the disaster with the, now infamous, Chernobyl nuclear facility in ‘86.
“Animals don’t seem to sense radiation and will occupy an area regardless of the radiation condition,” says radioecologist Sergey Gaschak.“A lot of birds are nesting inside the sarcophagus,” he adds, referring to the steel and concrete shield erected over the reactor that exploded in 1986.
“Starlings, pigeons, swallows, redstart - I saw nests, and I found eggs.”
There may be plutonium in the zone, but there is no herbicide or pesticide, no industry, no traffic, and marshlands are no longer being drained.
It even appears that the rare species of Przewalski’s horses are even breeding there. (If you check the Wikipedia article, you’ll note its conservation status is criticial.) Incidentally I happened to see a documentary some time ago about Chinese biologists and their breeding-programme to keep this species alive so it’s a good thing they are ’surviving’.
Amazing eh, nature? It’ll fall back on its feet as long as you keep the humans at bay. 
BTW if you never caught this in the past, for a real spooky series of photos check out this tour through the Chernobyl-area by motorbike. It’s pretty impressive and it nicely shows the consequences of the dangers of nuclear energy when things go terribly wrong (which they will, in the end)…
I do think the radiation is bound to have some effect on the genes, negative or positive. For all we know, these species could somehow have now evolved into a more radiation-resistant type.
But I leave that to the real scientists to found out.
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