The eerie wilds of Chernobyl
Thirty years after the devastating nuclear disaster, animals are thriving where people no longer live
A 1986 aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
(AP Photo/Volodymyr Repik)In the wake of the explosion in what is now Ukraine, the Soviet Union was painfully slow to react, calling the "radiation situation" merely an "accident." Residents
A white-tailed eagle sits on an abandoned school's roof just 19 miles from the exclusion zone in Tulgovichi, Belarus, on Jan. 29, 2016. The Chernobyl exclusion zone is an officially designated area that spreads out approximately 1,000
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Wild boars walk in the forest of the state radiation ecology reserve in the exclusion zone near the village of Babchin, Belarus, on Feb. 22, 2011.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
A white-tailed eagle lands on a wolf's carcass in the exclusion zone in the abandoned village of Dronki, Belarus, on Feb. 15, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Moose peek through the brush near the abandoned village of Dronki, Belarus, on Jan. 28, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Birds nests dot the trees in a park outside the village of Babchin, Belarus, on Jan. 26, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Wolves walk in the exclusion zone in the abandoned village of Orevichi, Belarus, on Feb. 25, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
Bison meander in the exclusion zone near the abandoned village of Dronki, Belarus, on Jan. 28, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
A white-tailed eagle picks the carcass of a fox near the village of Babchin, Belarus, on Jan. 12, 2009.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)
A moose runs in the exclusion zone near the village of Babchin, Belarus, on Jan. 27, 2016.
(REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko)Editor's note: A previous version of this article misidentified a species. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.
