From the shadows of nuclear disaster, these resilient wolves show incredible resilience in the face of deadly disease.
Mutant wolves in Chernobyl evolved to fight cancer (Photo: Getty).
On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (today in Ukraine) suddenly exploded, with a force equivalent to 66 tons of TNT. The event disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and greatly affected the surrounding environment.
Nearly 40 years later, the roughly 1,000-square-mile area around the nuclear plant is becoming one of the world’s largest scientific testing sites, aimed at exploring the long-term effects of ionizing radiation. chemistry.
The subjects of research are often animals affected by nuclear disasters. Among them, the most notable is the wild gray wolf, as they have evolved to grow strongly, and even become the top species of food chain in Chernobyl.
The amazing thing is that these wolves were continuously exposed to radiation six times higher than the legal limit for humans. They also often eat contaminated animals and plants that grow from the soil.
“Essentially, they were living under constant exposure to ionizing radiation, even at low doses,” said Campbell-Stanton, a biologist at Princeton University.
Campbell-Stanton’s hypothesis is that the wolves in Chernobyl were experiencing a type of rapid natural selection. The cause may be due to changes in the environment around them.
Accordingly, the harshness of the radiation environment may have killed most wolves with cancer. However, it seems that some of them contain a special mutant gene, which gives them better resistance to cancer than other wolves.
They then continue to survive, and pass these genes on to future generations. Thanks to this, wolf populations can survive the threat of nuclear radiation.
Another condition that helps them grow strongly is the lack of human intervention.
“38 years after the disaster, nature seems to be regaining its rights without the constant presence of humans,” Campbell-Stanton said.
By studying the changes in the dynamic and real system of Chernobyl, scientists hope that people will soon find ways to fight cancer, as well as the effects of nuclear radiation. .
