ANIMAL ODDITIES

Radioactive wolves, delete-happy dogs and justice for ‘spy pigeon’

RADIOACTIVE CANCER WOLVES Since 2014 Cara Love, an evolutionary biologist and ecotoxicologist from Princeton University, has been carrying out research on the wolf population living in the 1,000 square mile (2,600 km2) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Using radio collars to track the animals, she was able to make “real-time measurements of where [the wolves] are and how much [radiation] they are exposed to”. She discovered that they were receiving over 11.28 millirems of radiation every day, more than six times the safe limit for humans. She also found that the wolves had evolved altered immune systems and that their DNA had changed significantly, developing areas resistant to increased cancer risk, enabling them to survive and thrive in the extreme environment of the exclusion zone.…

You're reading a preview of

Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 446

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.