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Wildlife Returning To Chernobyl

The wilderness is encroaching over abandoned towns in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. One of the elderly residents who refused to evacuate the contaminated area says packs of wolves have eaten two of her dogs, and wild boar trample through her cornfield. Scientist are divided as to whether or not the animals are flourishing in the highly radioactive environment: "Robert J. Baker of Texas Tech University says the mice and other rodents he has studied at Chernobyl since the early 1990s have shown remarkable tolerance for elevated radiation levels. But Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, a biologist who studies barn swallows at Chernobyl, says that while wild animals have settled in the area, they have struggled to build new populations."

23 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Wild animals? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 5, Funny
    wild animals have settled in the area, they have struggled to build new populations

    It's hard to attract females when you have 2 beaks, 3 hooves and only 1 eye.

    1. Re:Wild animals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is /. breasts and a skirt will do.

    2. Re:Wild animals? by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

      And for the women of slashdot, those attributes listed in the GP would be a step up.

    3. Re:Wild animals? by corifornia · · Score: 5, Funny

      Interesting, the fat guy in the cubicle next to me meets that description...

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      crap.
    4. Re:Wild animals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      >And for the women of slashdot, those attributes listed in the GP would be a step up.
      OMG! The idea of a swimsuit calendar "The Women of Slashdot" has just created a singularity of desire and confusion in my mind!

    5. Re:Wild animals? by russotto · · Score: 3, Funny

      Seeing how I've been composing a DnD book about undead sexuality

      Tsukiko, is that you????

  2. Ob by A.Chwunbee · · Score: 3, Funny

    I for on am welcomming our're new three-headed frog overloads!

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    select * from base where originalOwner = 'you' and currentOwner != 'us'.
    0 rows returned.
    1. Re:Ob by Mercano · · Score: 3, Funny

      All glory to the hypnotoad.

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      #include <signature.h>
  3. Case in point by packetmon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Packs of wolves have eaten two of her dogs, the 73-year-old says, and wild boar trample through her cornfield. And she says fox, rabbits and snakes infest the meadows near her tumbledown cottage. ... Then we have... Others say animals may be filtering into the zone, but they appear to suffer malformations and other ills.. Inference: She saw what she thought was a pack of wolves when in fact it was a three headed wolf.

  4. Great! by spungo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally a town I can look normal in!

  5. Movies by Lovedumplingx · · Score: 4, Funny

    If movies have taught me anything it's that this is the start of the downfall of man.

    In a few years we'll be herded into wooden pens by mounted apes and then experimented on.

    Oh the folly of it all!!!

  6. Photos by suv4x4 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Any photos of giant insects or ninja turtles? At least maybe a cross between a spider and a man?

    Damn. Radiation in real life is BORING.

  7. Re:Isn't this really, really old? by El+Yanqui · · Score: 3, Funny

    I swear I read about this a few years ago too. I had hoped this time around that we were talking about animals with superpowers.

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    Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex.
  8. Re:Same as in Bikini by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bombing and radiation is better for wildlife than sub divisions. At last a solution for California that we can all accept.
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    Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
  9. Anyway, they will adapt soon by iamacat · · Score: 3, Funny

    There are already bacteria living in active zones of nuclear reactors. Animals with fast reproductive cycle will likely adapt first, both because of faster evolution - especially in the face of accelerated mutations - and because they don't have to survive as long to produce offsprings. It's only a matter of decades before we catch 5 eared rabbits with ECC in their DNA in addition to RAID1 that we currently have.

  10. Re:Isn't this really, really old? by doombringerltx · · Score: 5, Funny
    FTFA:

    The return of wildlife to the region near the world's worst nuclear power accident, first reported more than a decade ago, is an apparent paradox that biologists are still trying to measure and understand. Its just checking back on it. Like those those VH1 "Where are they now?" shows. One looks at Vanilla Ice's career today, this looks at Chernobyl. Pretty similar disasters
  11. Re:Returning only now? by Aladrin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Noooo, God reached down his noodly appendage and made them healthy!

    You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? ;)

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  12. Re:Returning only now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ahh. You must be part of the white house.

  13. Re:Returning only now? by mcmonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    yes, one generation was screwed up with cancers and freaks but the next generations seem to have overcome that.

    Just like we overcame being children of the baby boomers. Neat.

  14. Re:Insect by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thus the joke about the cockroach being the next master of earth in case the A,H and other 1 letter bomb start to fall ?

    The F-bomb?

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    The enemies of Democracy are
  15. Re:Same as in Bikini by rleibman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Most of the problems of the world can be traced to the fact that we have 6 billion humans instead of 1 billion humans. If there were only a billion of us, the world would be an abundant paradise.

    Are you volunteering to get off?

  16. Oblig. Eddie Izzard by sakasune · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Anything! Anything with a pulse! Or NOT! Pulse OPTIONAL!"
    -Dressed to Kill

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    "You're arguing for a universe with fewer waffles in it," I said. "I'm prepared to call that cowardice."
  17. Re:We could wipe out life. by suv4x4 · · Score: 3, Funny

    As another poster commented, without fresh DNA coming into the area, the local wildlife would not be as successful. Destroy all the ecosystems of the entire world, add a little nuclear winter and we will have created the worst extinction event the world has ever seen.

    I think, however, that this epic tragedy will be offset from all the people who'll gain superpowers as a result.