How much area does the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone cover? Wolves roaming the land found to have anti-cancer abilities

Mutant wolves wandering Chernobyl's desolate streets appear to have developed cancer resistance. As per News Sky, they boosted hopes that the results would help doctors combat the sickness in humans.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation is a legally established exclusion zone surrounding the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor tragedy. It is also frequently known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-kilometer zone, or The Zone.

As per sources like Britannica, following the Chernobyl incident, the Soviet Union established the exclusion zone centered around the nuclear power plant, encompassing 1,017 square miles or 2,634 square kilometers.

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Chernobyl's mutant wolves appear to have gained resistance to cancer

The wolves have anti-cancer properties (Image via Pexels)

The 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl power station in Ukraine released radiation and radioactive substances into the environment. As a result, more than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city. Eventually, limitations prevented humans from resettling in the area.

Since then, the area has remained eerily abandoned. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) was put in place to restrict people from approaching the area where radiation continues to represent a cancer risk. The area around the old facility is around 2600 square kilometers, but no animals can live there.

However, although humans have not returned, wildlife, such as wolves and horses, can still be seen in the evacuated city's wastelands more than 35 years later.

The wolves have recently been sighted investigating the area and exposing themselves to cancer-causing radiation while roaming the abandoned city's wastelands. However, sources like the NY Post have reported that researchers discovered that this section of their genetic code appears to be resistant to an elevated risk of disease.

As per the same source, according to a study, these mutant animals have developed cancer-resistant genomes, which could aid humans in fighting the terrible disease.

The wild creatures had adapted to and survived the high levels of radiation that plagued the area since 1986 when a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power facility erupted.

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Experts are conducting research on Chernobyl's mutant wolves

Cara Love, an evolutionary biologist and ecotoxicologist in Shane Campbell-Staton's lab at Princeton University has been researching how these mutant animals have evolved to survive in their radioactive environment.

In 2014, Love and her colleagues traveled within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and fitted GPS collars with radioactive dosimeters on wild wolves. As per sources like the NY Post, they also collected blood from the animals to better understand their responses to cancer-causing radiation.

Moreover, according to Sky News, she claimed that the collars give them,

"Real-time measurements of where [the wolves] are and how much [radiation] they are exposed to."

They further discovered that these creatures are exposed to 11.28 millirems of radiation each day for their entire lives, which is more than six times the legal safety limit for people.

The immune systems of Chernobyl wolves appeared different from those of normal animals of the same species. The researchers discovered that they have an immune system similar to cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment.

Love further identified particular areas of the wolf genome that appear resistant to increased cancer risk. She now seeks to find mutations that improve the cancer survival rates. Her research has focused on identifying protective mutations that improve cancer survival rates.

According to 9News, Love said,

"Our priority is for people and collaborators there to be as safe as possible.”

As per the same source, she also presented her findings in January 2024 at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology's annual meeting in the United States.