What does Chernobyl look like after people left due to the nuclear disaster?

Some animals are constantly reproducing, others are forced to evolve…

An abandoned park in Chernobyl.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.

Homes, offices, and even amusement parks were deserted. No one was allowed to enter the city without a permit.

After humans left Chernobyl, it was thought that this place would become a deserted city, but no, it has revived into a place full of animal life.

Wild Mongolian horses roam the lush city. (Photo: Atlas Obscura).

These days, YouTube producers occasionally disturb owls perched on abandoned windows, hidden cameras capture bison grazing, bobcats slinking around, and baby elk playing in puddles.

Photographers captured unexpected moments: foxes posing on empty sidewalks, catfish swimming in cool ponds, and herds of wild Mongolian horses running across empty spaces and past "danger" signs.

No one expected this scene. It was thought that the radioactive area would not only be harmful to humans but also unsuitable for any animal life for hundreds of years.

Yet researchers monitoring mammal populations in the exclusion zone, as well as in the Polesie radioecological reserve just across the border in Belarus, have found that there are just as many animals living there as in other reserves.

They observed more than 200 species of birds, along with mammals, amphibians, fish and insects. All were large and stable in number.

Of course , radiation exposure is not good for wildlife. Immediately after the disaster, all the pine trees within 4 miles of the plant had yellowed and died and had to be buried. Invertebrates and small mammals also died.

Large trees and vines have covered many structures in Chernobyl. (Photo: Getty Images).

Years later, scientists found a significant number of asymmetrical insects, albino swallows, and cataract-ridden voles. These characteristics may have been related to the factory accident.

A rusted Ferris wheel in Pripyat, Chernobyl. (Photo: Getty Images).

However, ecologists are beginning to realize that any such negative impacts are compensated, and perhaps even more compensated than the losses, by the nature here being completely untouched by humans.

Indeed, some species may be adapting well to the situation. Research has shown that frogs here are darker, which may help them to withstand some of the negative effects of radiation. For some species, the tragic land may now be a good place to live.