Lucy Devine
Dogs near the Chernobyl site have developed a 'super power' after living so close to the disaster zone.
On 28 April 1986, the flawed Number 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing at least five percent of its radioactive reactor core into the environment.
Following the disaster, dozens of people died within a few weeks of the explosion, and approximately 350,000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the plant.
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Although the explosion happened many decades ago, it still remains relevant to this day, with the event continuing to impact those living nearby.
For example, stray dogs living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) - which is the radioactive area surrounding the nuclear plant - may have actually adapted to the toxic environment.
A new study collected blood samples from 116 stray dogs in the area and found they had managed to not only adapt to the environment, but thrive in it too.
"Somehow, two small populations of dogs managed to survive in that highly toxic environment,' said Norman J. Kleiman, environmental health scientist at Columbia University.
"In addition to classifying the population dynamics within these dogs... we took the first steps towards understanding how chronic exposure to multiple environmental hazards may have impacted these populations."
The findings were published in the Canine Medicine and Genetics journal back in March 2023.
Scientists found that the stray dogs had a number of genomic locations - which are essentially the positions of genes within chromosomes - that varied from the rest of the genome.
Researchers said that 52 genes 'could be associated with exposure to the contamination of the environment at the Nuclear Power Plant'.
The findings could suggest that the contamination has caused the dogs - who are likely to be offspring from dogs left behind by the evacuation - to develop mutations allowing them to adapt to their environment.
The study is just some of the research being conducted into the site and whether animals and humans could safely one day return.
Earlier this year, scientists discovered wolves living in the zone were resilient to the radiation that causes a number of different cancers.
Meanwhile, in March, experts visited Chernobyl to investigate nematodes, which are tiny worms living in the soil.
Despite the obvious high radiation levels, the genomes of the worms were not damaged at all.
Dr Sophia Tintor, lead author of the study, said: "Chernobyl was a tragedy of incomprehensible scale, but we still don’t have a great grasp on the effects of the disaster on local populations.
“Did the sudden environmental shift select for species, or even individuals within a species, that are naturally more resistant to ionizing radiation?”