The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone covers about 2,600 square kilometers of Ukraine's Kyiv Oblast, established in 1986 after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster forced the evacuation of roughly 120,000 people from the city of Pripyat and more than 187 surrounding communities. Nearly four decades of almost complete human absence have allowed the zone's forests and wetlands to recover into what researchers now describe as one of Europe's largest de facto nature reserves, with wolves, wild boar, deer, moose and eagles now living at higher densities than before the disaster. Przewalski's horses and European bison have been reintroduced to the zone, and scientists continue to study how elevated radiation levels affect the health of the wildlife that now thrives there.
Facts
Classification
Biogeographic Realm Area (sq km) Connections
Demonstrates
Decades of human absence following the 1986 disaster have allowed ecological succession to reclaim the exclusion zone's fields and settlements.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hosts
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
Source World Wildlife Fund
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
Source Silurus glanis (Wikipedia)
Source Wikidata: Least Weasel
Additional Source Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)Article text
In Biome
Source World Wildlife Fund
In the Other Atlases
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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Chernobyl exclusion zone
WikipediaIntroductionQuote, Introduction
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, also known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, is also called the 30-Kilometre Zone or simply The Zone, was established shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.
2. Chernobyl exclusion zone (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, third paragraph, stating the current restricted zone area
The current area of approximately 2,600 km2 (1,000 sq mi) in Ukraine is where radioactive contamination is the highest, and public access and habitation are accordingly restricted.
Hosts: Least Weasel, Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
Hosts: Great Egret, Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
Hosts: Black stork, Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
Hosts: Short-eared owl, Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
Hosts: Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus), Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
Hosts: Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), Article text
The populations of traditional Polesian animals (such as the gray wolf, badger, wild boar, roe deer, white-tailed eagle, black stork, western marsh harrier, short-eared owl, red deer, moose, great egret, whooper swan, least weasel, common kestrel, and beaver) have multiplied enormously and begun expanding outside the zone.
View the Source World Wildlife Fund
World Wildlife Fund- In Biome: Temperate Forest
- Hosts: Gray Wolf
- Hosts: European Bison
- Hosts: Przewalski's Horse
View the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Silurus glanis (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHosts: Wels Catfish, article text (ecosystem), EntityId 279954, target E303059Quote, Hosts: Wels Catfish, article text (ecosystem), EntityId 279954, target E303059
An unusual habitat for the species exists inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone, where a small population lives in abandoned cooling ponds and channels at a close distance to the decommissioned power plant.
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