# Wildlife in the Chernobyl "Zone of Exclusion"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wildlife-in-the-chernobyl-zone-of-exclusion/282501>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 31, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wildlife-in-the-chernobyl-zone-of-exclusion/282501 "2004-12-31T23:57:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wildlife-in-the-chernobyl-zone-of-exclusion/282501/1 "2004-12-31T23:57:44Z")

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I’m halfway through _Wolves Eat Dogs_ (Simon & Schuster, 2004), by Martin Cruz Smith (author of _Gorky Park_) – the first novel where we see detective Arkady Renko in post-Communist Russia. A lot of the action is set in the radioactive, sparsely populated “Zone of Exclusion” around Chernobyl, Ukraine (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone\_of\_alienation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_alienation) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl\_accident](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_accident)). One of the pastimes of the handful of scientists and militia (police) officers who live and work there, as well as the illegally resident poachers, is to hunt the local wildlife, such as elk and wild boar. But, as the local militia captain tells Renko, it’s only for sport; you don’t eat the animals, they’re radioactive.

Smith is know for novels that are highly realistic in terms of their social and physical backgrounds.

If these animals are so radioactive it’s dangerous for humans to eat their flesh, **how can they live?** Why isn’t the Zone of Exclusion a lifeless desert?

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**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wildlife-in-the-chernobyl-zone-of-exclusion/282501/2 "2005-01-01T02:22:13Z")

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The dose makes the poison. They aren’t healthy to eat over a long time because they contain radioactive heavy metals, but it won’t kill them or you instantly.

The Exclusion Zone is radioactive, but hardly a barren desert.