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In January 2021, a picture of a strange, four-legged animal appeared in an online advertisement about the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear-reactor disaster in Ukraine. The ad claimed: “There Are a New Animal Species Taking Over at Chernobyl.”  Encyclopedia Britannica published that the Chernobyl incident was “the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power generation.” History.com reported much the same. Chernobyl is a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that was the site of a disastrous nuclear accident on April 26, 1986. A routine test at the power plant went horribly wrong, and two massive explosions blew the 1,000-ton roof off one of the plant’s reactors, releasing 400 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The worst nuclear disaster in history killed two workers in the explosions and, within months, at least 28 more would be dead by acute radiation exposure. Eventually, thousands of people would show signs of health effects—including cancer—from the fallout. However, the clickbait picture in the ad did not depict a “new animal species” that was “taking over at Chernobyl.” The resulting 30-page slideshow article didn’t even mention the photograph. In reality, it showed a spectacled (hairless) Andean bear named Dolores. On Nov. 5, 2009, BBC reported that Dolores and two other bears were dealing with “various states of baldness.” They came “from the Andean mountains of Ecuador, Peru, and northern Bolivia.” The bears – named Dolores, Bianca, and Lolita – are suffering from itchiness as well, so animal keepers apply ointments to soothe their skin.

“This problem with the spectacled bears is not just in Leipzig [Zoo],” Mr. Noetzhold told the BBC World Service. “There are other zoos in Europe and overseas having the same problem. And so we’ve had an international working group of zoo vets looking at this for some time already.”

Gerard Baars, director of the International Bear Foundation, said he had never seen such a condition before. “I could hardly believe it is a bear although I have been dealing with bears all my life,” he told the BBC’s Europe Today programme. The picture in the advertisement was perhaps chosen for the reason mentioned by Baars. Even the director of the International Bear Foundation didn’t know it was a bear. Readers who saw the ad likely wouldn’t initially identify the animal as a bear, either. Jan Woitas and the European Pressphoto Agency were credited for the photograph that was used in the ad. It appeared to be from 2009. Also on Nov. 5, 2009, the Associated Press posted a video of Dolores, Bianca, and Lolita at the Leipzig Zoo. The zoo official, who was not identified, spoke of research that was underway about the issue with the bears. He also mentioned that other zoos had seen similar problems with such bears. Here is a video. At least two blogs mentioned that Dolores died in 2011. We were unable to confirm this information with any credible source. However, one thing we can say for sure is that she was not a “new species” that was “taking over at Chernobyl.” For further reading, Scientific American reported on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in December 2020. The story looked at the possibility of “lingering radiation effects on animal populations.”

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The city of Pripyat is where Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers, support crew, city personnel and their families lived. Today, it is abandoned, with trees, bushes and animals taking over the massive squares and formerly grand boulevards. Chernobyl reactor 4 now encased in Giant Metal Dome That Will Last a Century and Withstand a Tornado as Ukraine Inaugurates Structure.

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Acute Radiation Syndrome from Large Exposures

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Acute Radiation Syndrome from Large Exposures

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A very high level of radiation exposure delivered over a short period of time can cause symptoms such as nausea and vomiting within hours and can sometimes result in death over the following days or weeks. This is known as acute radiation syndrome, commonly known as “radiation sickness.”

It takes a very high radiation exposure to cause acute radiation syndrome—more than 0.75 graygrayA gray is the international unit used to measure absorbed dose (the amount of radiation absorbed by an object or person). The U.S. unit for absorbed dose is the rad. One gray is equal to 100 rads. (75 rad)radThe U.S. unit used to measure absorbed radiation dose (the amount of radiation absorbed by an object or person). The international equivalent is the Gray (Gy). One hundred rads are equal to 1 Gray. in a short time span (minutes to hours). This level of radiation would be like getting the radiation from 18,000 chest x-rays distributed over your entire body in this short period. Acute radiation syndrome is rare, and comes from extreme events like a nuclear explosion or accidental handling or rupture of a highly radioactive source.
www.epa.gov

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The problem of trying to determine the effect of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on aquatic organisms is much more difficult than that of assessing the impact of UVR on terrestrial plants. The major reasons for this are that spectral irradiance changes dramatically with depth in the water column and that most aquatic organisms will be moving up and down in the upper water column, either through active motility processes or by physical mixing processes. It is thus not possible to determine the effect of UVR on planktonic organisms with any degree of certainty; the best one can do is to determine the effects under a wide variety of experimental techniques, and to estimate the potential damage to organisms when they are under completely natural conditions. link.springer.com

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Radiation works by making small breaks in the DNA inside the cells. These breaks keep cancer cells from growing and dividing and cause them to die.

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American Cancer Society | Information and Resources about for Cancer: Breast, Colon, Lung, Prostate, Skin

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Dedicated to helping people who face cancer. Learn about cancer research, patient services, early detection, treatment and education at cancer.org.

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Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space at the speed of light.

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Click here for pictures

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abandoned nuclear reactor core elephant foot nuclear disaster city animals nuclear accident sarcophagus roof russia

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In Ukraine, 6,000 children are born every year with genetic heart defects. Every year, more than 3,000 Ukrainian children die from lack of medical attention. Babies that were exposed in the womb to radioactive iodine after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident have had an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer in the ensuing 20 years, according to a new report.
Source:  www.verywellhealthy.com

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According to a 2001 study in Biological Conservation, Chernobyl-caused genetic mutations in plants and animals increased by a factor of 20. Among breeding birds in the region, rare species suffered disproportional effects from the explosion's radiation compared to common species.
source: www.mentalfloss.com