the Med
them
you
him
chernobyl make
I'm when disaster struck the nuclear power plant in 1986
almost half a million people were displaced then
in the absence of human life wildlife for the whole time
now poorest marshes and feels teeming with activity
but this is land that has long been locked away
the habitat is on charm and wildlife on test
there rumor spread about 100
up walls that CK been here
now scientists want to trade fiction for fact
right will try to determine if mankind's disaster
gave nature a second chance or
is this forever tainted territory that could poison
everything that crosses his path bud
nature is made possible in part by
Canada take your inspiration from nature
leave it on touched by her presence capture its image and preserve it
forever
cannot living and working together to appreciate today
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from viewers like you thank you
0
day April 26 1986
meltdown at block for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
in the southwest and the Soviet Union the equivalent radiation
a 400 Hiroshima bombs is released
400,000 people are forced from their homes
4f clouds over radioactive dust
drift across Europe contamination on a continental scale
hardest-hit is an area up almost eleven hundred square miles
around the reactor
this land is declared unfit for human habitation
an exclusion zone that can only be entered by special permission
through one of several checkpoints visitors
including scientist and camera crews a given daily
and overall time limit and must be accompanied my official got
Hey
here the well-kept countryside suddenly ends
when the soviet union broke up
zone was split into between the new nations and Belarus
and Ukraine the new border is strictly maintained
even within the song
mine
beyond the checkpoints it's a different world
the world without humans
are
the zone contaminated radioactive on them
is this a glimpse into the fate of the world after dooms day
I'll
%um when humans fled wildlife stayed behind
how are the survivors and the newcomers
coping with the invisible blight on this line
Residence Inn migrants alike
no nothing lurking danger ok
the fall-out from the nuclear accident has seeped into the soil
from the soil radioactive particles
are absorbed by plans they've accumulated in the trees
no become concentrated
in the organs and bones up animals moms
yet strangely the ill-fated reactor has not created
desert lush wilderness it even invited Ian the very symbol the wild
the gray wolf
for years rumors have been escalating about the number of wolves in the zone
some say 300 or more German scientist
Barbara increased of prom burger are carnivore
experts they've studied wolves around the world
but never in such strange circumstances the prom burgers
are here to start a long-term study to be continued by local scientist
the hoping to answer some fundamental questions
how many wolves actually live in the zone
are the indigenous or recent immigrants
and is the zones wolf population
any different from populations in clean areas
these moose bones have been crushed by wolves
it a chance to find out
whether the world's diet is contaminated K the radiation
his fifty times normal
there are plenty of fresh wolf tracks here along the back
%uh the Privy out River a wolf
has been marking this young pine making it the perfect place
for a trap the protective gear
is to prevent contact with contaminated soil and to avoid traces
of human scent Barbara and Christoph
hope to radio collar several walls to study their movements
they bake the trap with walk you're a
that afternoon
the ice on the Privy at River shatters
the milling ice eats away at the bank's and takes a long contaminated said
since the last ICJ the shifting river
shaped and reshape the land around chernobyl
now it spreads radioactive contamination
across the flood plain
the wall traps are set for NY and to patrol
Barbara and Christoph team up with local colleagues
they carry dosimeters that constantly monitor
radio activity but they don't need protective gear
as long as they don't d in the soil
that was not the case in the spring of 1986
the heat great volumes up contaminated soil
removed and carted away entire villages were bearing are
a task that continues today ok
tens of thousands of so-called liquidators were deployed to contain
the harm the nuclear disaster
eventually the number of emergency workers surpassed
600,000 the new some 150 village communities
were relocated the people
mostly rural workers on collective farms
farms that are now a band
ten days after they set the traps Christoph get a message from the other
team
they've caught a walk
girth the state at the wharf population
says a lot about an entire ecosystem as the top predators here
wolves aren't indicator up the radio activity
across all chernobyl
this wolf has been in the trap for a few hours
he is frightened and he's playing dead
behavior like this is typical for young war
Marra and Christoph
have heard that more than 300 wolves live in the zone
if true that would make it the highest wolf density
in the world do wolves migrate to the zone by the hundreds
but die here because of the radiation that's the most prominent
rumor or is the opposite route were all these walls
born here because there were no humans to hunt their parents
and their prey could it be
their conditions are better for the Wolves here than they are
outside the shop and if their population is expanding
are the radioactive wolves seeking territories
be on chernobyl it's vital to know just how many wards there are
and where they go the paw
that was in the trap seems to be fine a radio collar
will enable the team to keep track of its movements face masks
matter now the walls for is almost certainly
radioactive simple exposure to this low-level
is not the problem blot if barbara increased of
ingested any radioactive here's they would be poisoned
the size
and stated the teeth confirm that this is a yearling
born in the very heart of the zone strong evidence
up an indigenous population the walls
GPS transmitter will deliver daily pinpoint data
to the local scientist who will soon take over Barbara increased of
call there wolf boy which means fight in Russian they've
successfully launched the study and wish boy
well wolves
didn't always receive such goodwill before the exclusion zone existed
they were ruthlessly 100 here wolves have faced persecution
almost everywhere the ROM alpha females were targeted
which affected the genetic health and the age structure
up the entire population but the biggest
enemy of the walls around chernobyl wasn't the heart
it was the all-out assault on the wilderness
back in the nineteen twenties the deforestation
and drainage have the preppy at Marsha's was a gigantic
national have accompanied by the road
propaganda
canals were built thousands of miles
tens of thousands of settlers came to work
on the new collective farms land improvement as it was called
was all about increasing food production for the soviet people
from the nineteen twenties until the nuclear disaster in 1986
this land was anything bot a wilderness
it was a vital part on the Soviet Union's
breadbasket
today the land outside the zone still looks the same
drainage canals and wheat fields stretching to the horizon
but what became love the canals and wheat fields inside the shop
forests and fields
have been flooded thanks to the return %uh beavers
beavers are native to Belarus
but they were in obstacle to farming and so were persecuted
like the walls with this pressure the Privia
now free of people it didn't take long for beavers
to reappear
thousands of them have been at work
day and night year after year damming up
man-made canals undermining dikes and restoring the marshes
for amphibians fish shellfish
in sex honors moose and water file
the notorious pretty at Marsha's were once so vast
they stopped the army %uh Genghis Khan now the swamps are back
thanks to a nuclear reactor and Europe's biggest rodent
on higher in dryer ground villages have been overrun
by other forces have wild nature ravaged by snowstorms
and forest fires the
chernobyls walls are part of a much bigger story
the return of cultivated land to wilderness a ceaseless
dynamic process happening much faster then
anyone imagined
here eating fruit trees collapse onto rules
remnant orchard are harvested by wild boar
bears and badgers rules
drown in waves have green garden flowers
once tended with care are left to run while
at the entrance have each village a rough stone recalls its name
and the number of people for whom it was home
two months have passed since Barbara and Christoph
left his own the man who's taking over the study
has run a walk monitoring program in Wildwood lines
outside the zone for many years professor bottom
Siro pitch the National Academy of Sciences a belarus
its May Andy searching
for this spring's wharf letters this is the
tipico place a he in the book you wouldn't want the
where r local water forgive bills on
why frost the only
this place it is the
a hug the accessible for people
because it even harder cool move here
Sekonda it through well she noticed the
hubby just it's so easy for props to escape route to hide
on disease uprooted trees and sources there is enough water
because is three nearby solely women some withdrawals
there is water 04 pops 23 anyone with less field experience
and local knowledge than body would never find a walk 10
in this jungle over the years
this man has learned to think like a wall to know
where they will feel safe
these pops
are just a few hours all lot and will only stay for 20 minutes
so the Wolfmother is not kept away for too long he counts the number of pups in
the litter
he notes the sexy beach pop and checks it's held
then he picks up hair samples from the den
for DNA analysis this population outside the song
and plucks a few hairs from the Pops
as well the bottom
will compare the data from this uncontaminated study area
to those he will gather inside the zone the professor and his team
will explore the Belarusian part of his own on
when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991
the republics a belarus and Ukraine declared independence
separating scientist working on either side of the border
the Ukrainian part of his own extends into the inland delta
linking the rivers pretty odd in need
this is the site up the Chernobyl nuclear plant
in the very shadow of the reactor Ukrainian wolf
expert marina the area has begun her own investigation
off the walls at the volcano
I'm more they will keep going to get a thriving beatable there's a pack
regularly patrolling the river back she said shit on what is an international
award just opposite
the city of Pripyat lies hidden yes it's not considered local
in a first survey marina explains
just looking at tracks and suitably dry weather she's been able to create a map
of the wharf territories
in the Ukrainian parted the zone she is discovered
that there is no area of his own where they are not found
for marina says this has always been a perfect habitat for the Wolves
the years have cultivation in the Soviet era
were simply a temporary inconvenience chill use this cat
for dietary and genetic analysis in the lap
the No
the ghost city privy on was once a thriving metropolis of 58,000 people
build near the old jewish trading port chernobyl
me
of it must have been a pleasant place to live
by any standard a model soviets said
the
the this
is the central square rose and jasmine bush's
entries flanking the avenues grow in unbridled profusion
it's a city that is green
in an unnerving unintentional weight
propionic was a young city full love life
a cultural center of
well-educated and privileged engineers and scientists from the nuclear plant
research labs and military installations raise their families here
all
in
all
E
to
now the roots are crowding into the streets and also prepared
attracting more and more wildlife in their wake
the
the under Belarusian side at the zone
professor Siro pitch is examining wharf skeletons
this livable churches probable church to you the Netherlands I'm sure
opportunity to sewer system yet through to you with his researcher
grigory Ivanovich the professor compare skeletons from
inside and outside the zone to detect possible defect
from radiation much interest you values and shit US senator
who blew you to us the most but the actual field research
still has to wait until winter when they can spot wolf tracks
in the snow
today after a snowstorm two members in this study group are preparing to do
just that
another book has been collared in addition to board a female yearling
named Lara on the electronic map
the researchers find the world's most recent GPS position
the deserted village across as ilya them
the GPS record shows that the youngsters have spent the best part of this year
together
always roaming around that village that means
their siblings but are they part of a pack
fresh tracks may give the answer you
Kong
in the zone only a few miles away Road are being cleared of snow
for police and Ranger patrols ok
%um young
the bright side is that many animals
now use these wrote so traction wolves are easy to see
and injured moose
the Wolves will soon spotter this white-tailed Eagle
is waiting for them to do their job
wolf kills help Eagles through the winter when the lakes are frozen
and they can't fish
the abandoned village across New Zealand with its fire tower his boy
in lower are part of the pack this could be their headquarters
on
tracks in the snow confirms this is the base
love a big pack
krasner zillion is surrounded by high
open ground the shelter it offers and nearby water
make this place attractive two walks the
the researchers camp 10 individuals
but there's no sign a boy and lower
in
there
from the rooftops the Wolves scan the landscape for deer
wild boar or the occasional bison calf
the deep snow with its icy crust
gives the Wolves an advantage over their heavier pray
but for this meal
the Wolves didn't even have to hunt you
you I'll
the calf has succumbed to the Russian winter her
the adult are Europe's heaviest animals to mighty
for wolves to bring down bison
have survived in Belarus and Poland since the ice age
once it became obvious that other wildlife was thriving here
they were reintroduced to the zone in 1998
hip
up
eventually the herd chases the walks away from the carcass
and returns to mourn their loss
this is typical bison behavior
the three herds in the Belarusian parlors own
are gradually growing two Belarusians the Bison
is the ancient icon on the wildwoods
until recently in Belarus
hunter shot walls from helicopters this
is now banned
my name's colleague gregori Ivanovich above the water research team
is his own Ranger he used to hunt wolves himself
but now flies over the zone spreading vaccination bait
for warms fox's and raccoon dogs to protect them against rabies
in winter
animals can easily cross the river boy
and Lara have gone exploring several times on thing
this abandoned factory attraction wildlife because it offers shelter
in harsh weather the entire area is criss-crossed
with water tracks these buildings
have been radiation free sanctuaries inside the zone
the fallout from the accident
came down with the rain and ran off the roofs
into the surrounding soil ok
but now the roofs
and rusting machinery are weakened by every heavy snowfall
making them far more hazardous the radio activity around them
for big her but wars
winter is a desperate season for wolves
it's just the opposite hunting is easy now
or even unnecessary a number of species profit from Neal's brought down by walls
Ravens
and white-tailed Eagles often lead the researchers
to the wall skills
right now
in the depths of winter the Eagles may act like scavengers
but they're really top predators just like the wall
seen them here in such numbers
is another indication that this ecosystem is in robust health
I'll in continental climate
spring start almost overnight convenient way to highways
suddenly turn into impassable barriers
Eagles usually nest in big old trees but his own offers
something even better
zones fire towers arm and
only in the tender dry summer months Eagles need them in the spring
so a timeshare is easy to arrange
now the months of picking up frozen carry on our past
rivers ox pose and lakes are free to can
its fishing time
when the snow melts in the Carpathian Mountains nearly four hundred miles to
the southwest
the Privia River spreads out in the heart of the zone
it can reach you with almost ten miles
the water level rises by 25 feet
with dykes and canals all but destroyed
the pri PRI floods the abandoned fields and villages
accelerating the lands returned to wilderness
for a few days the desolation other ransacked homes
is softened by the rebirth of spring
blossoming orchards
our legacy chernobyls happier days the fruit trees
are sweet temptation for wildlife in the autumn
many animals will come for a treat
but now violins researchers
have come here looking for wharf pops born in the zone
these pops
are about three weeks old they're created is an old potato seller
month aka
I for or more
grigory has found three litters final proof
that their is an indigenous population thriving
in the very heart of the zone scientist
Rangers and guards are only given a limited time in his own
to keep total radiation exposure down to a safe level
by contrast
this man cares for animals that are exposed to radioactivity
for an extended time
white wraps are often stand-ins for humans
in potentially dangerous experiments after the exposure period
the rats are taken to lapd for a series of tests
make so far it is not proving easy
to establish clear links between low-level long-term radiation
and health risks even in the rash let alone
in humans but scientist will continue to monitor these rats
for any ill affects environmental studies
do not focus on individuals they take a broader view
up an entire wildlife population one important study of the effect
over radioactive environment on wildlife is being conducted
in a highly contaminated area close to the reactor
out here
face masks have to be warned the day is windy
and dusty and the reactor is less than a mile away
the wind direction at the time of the explosion and the fire
is clearly marked on the fallout map local
this
is the site of the infamous red forest that in the months
after the disaster turned rusty red today
though it is far from clean the forest is green again
a six-year study have dormite
living in this contaminated area is also showing evidence
%uh nature's resilience 46 percent have
every new generation living here shows slide abnormalities
twice the rate have clean areas for humans
this raised level love risk is unacceptable
but Ford or mice though some individuals are affected
the overall population remains healthy in fact
the density and reproduction rates are even better
then in control areas is that also true for radioactive wolves
the scientists believe it must be back in crasner zillion but im
in grigory are worried for weeks
boys and Larry's GPS transmitters have been silent
fortunately the Wolves also have radio tax
up maybe they can be spotted from the fire tower
with the aid the tracking antenna but the landscape is
almost deserted no sign a boy
or Lara security they just get a brief glimpse
a van unidentified wolf in the distance is a GV number
number in your freedom when do we know won't kill
know what you mean but just looking in the opposite direction just over the
border in Ukraine the ghost city of propionic
is suffocating in extreme summer heat with temperatures
up 113 degrees at high noon even the street urban living city
would be empty
but ornithologist sergei DOMA chefs key is
undeterred
this rafter specialist is monitoring several bruise have peregrine falcons
around the city
if Raptors are doing well
the populations have their prey must be fine too
the nesting season is the ideal time for monitoring the strength
a rafter population sergei
is interested in the size and development of Falcon brute
and in their survival rate church
his observation is that in the zone
falcons and eagles have established healthy populations
from many have prepared
tower blocks there's a view of the RTI Act that abruptly froze the city's
history
chernobyls man-made cooling pond
is highly contaminated a long narrow causeway
least the shore to a small Island giant catfish
eight feet long and more pride here
they're too big to be hunted even by these huge
white-tailed Eagles this stunning size
the ponds catfish in car has nothing to do with radio activity
but rather with their age
the fish keep growing all their lives catfish
can live for almost a century since the meltdown the survivors
have lived undisturbed in the shadow of the reactor
out on the small island
in the middle of the pond white-tailed eagles come to eat their prey
these armor Carr
look to have weighed 30 240 pounds the Eagles must have dragged them assure
their talent marks convey the power of these birds
the researchers wanna check
how contaminated the fish bones of
me these fish pond
should not be touched with bare hands what this contamination
does to the Eagles is still not known on
room
sunrise over the old chernobyl Riverport ok
the accident left many ships trent only a few Hawks
remain
from here the researchers take a trip down the propionic
through the inland dealt to its confluence with the river deep
this is one of Europe's largest and most crucial habitats
pool waterfall
glowing waterways have long been clearer radiation out here
the fish can safely be even by humans
countless wooded and Sandy Island offer ideal breeding places
for birds their colonies have sent markets
cormorants cranes and herons around 120 species in all
one birdie in particular has been attracted to the zone
the black stork with its marked preference
for deserted landscapes without human disturbance
as sacred places
cemeteries Harbor the last remnant have ukraine's
primeval folks trees big enough to support a stork nest
weighing a ton on one official day
each year friends and relatives come to visit the dead
the rest of the year belongs to the storks
late summer
bottom Siro pitch tries his luck again hoping to spot
boy and Lara a stretch of road
near crasner zillion is the border line at the PAX territory
the road
is always doubted by fresh scat marks especially this bridge
over an old drainage canal bottom
has picked up boys signal from two positions he must be nearby
somewhere down this road
some
a huge wild boar crosses the world followed by a wall
wearing a collar its boy
on his walk patrols grigory noticed a strange
change in the landscape and he wants to consult va
many beaver dams
have decayed and are destroyed in some areas
the water level is sinking and grigory suspects that wolves are involved with
%um proper from on her
limit the life of a little moody chairman to bottom
it's a familiar scenario the walls here in the south he says
are quite a bit smaller than the Wolves farther north do a little research
company now through with them both for
so they keep risky attacks on big animals to a minimum instead
they target beavers which are easy to hunt and
abundant month when people who've been rebuffed the annual
the ninja bomb involved and controlling
beavers account for 60 percent of the world's died
so walt's are slowing down and even reversing
the return of the swaps
of since the last
ICJ this land was wrong not only by big who'd
animals like moose dear and bison but also
wild horses
the last genuine wild horse in Ukraine was killed
in 1879
now the last species a wild horse left on earth
is this your pass key which only survived in captivity
group a few miles keys have been released here since the nineteen
nineties
to help restore the lands regional biodiversity
at the rate they have been reproducing there should be about 200 individuals
by Ukrainian poachers have left just 60
during the 20th century alone human history
dealt devastating blows to this wetland wilderness
it has been ravaged by the battles have two world wars
and the improvement craze above the Stalin era ironically
the world's biggest nuclear disaster has turned it
into a unique refuge for endangered species
full follow
each September professor bottom Siro pitch
is out in the field to call the young wolves it's a way to see each litter
an estimate their survival rate using
Co
could body in and grigory
systematically covered the entire Belarusian part of the song
0
cool
I
wolves
have been volumes life he has worked and lived with them
for decades he speaks
their language
the
you
all ok
the
you within a week
body identifies the territory's have 17 packs
me
the
the new
the
the new there
them
from
was this information I mean abundance of love three
on the local or old I ok with this yums at the
is around not so my new water for and you too
Indian this the claim made by locals
seek on that individuals or more I'm
by comparing no similar information
a similar observation that done in nepal kingwood month
on the same area is the chernomyrdin his own do a russian pop
I could issue looms that
closing film oxymorphone population number in turnovers all-news 120
show
twenty-five years after the Chernobyl action the wolf population in the zone
appears to be the same as in a clean reference here
no more no less
for humint this land is lost but in a strange twist of fate
wolves may have gained an unlikely chance to survive in peace
in the shadow on the nuclear disaster
turn to PBS stories that define the American experience
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Armstrong she said it is madness beyond
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the everglades water releases has been invaded by chance
yet another number dumped by the owners
and by accident Burmese pythons to life here a problem
under to order slate now and ecosystem
is in jeopardy really almost any animal out there endangered species are
threatened
no matter how big or small and a battle has begun
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leave it on touched by your presence capture its image and preserve it
forever
cannot living and working together to appreciate today
and care for tomorrow additional funding provided by
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