40 Years After the Chornobyl Disaster
April 26, 1986 - 40 Years After Disaster!
Forty years ago, the world was horrified to learn that the Vladimir I Lenin Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine had a major accident, requiring widespread evacuation. When Reactor 4 released massive amounts of radioactive material across Europe, over 100,000 people were permanently evacuated, leaving a lasting, often irreversible, impact on the region. They created the Chornobly Exclusion Zone, a protected area to prevent people from entering the radioactive zone. They call Chornobly a 20th-century Pompeii, an interesting comparison since both left human activity as a snapshot in time.
NOTE: Chornobly is the Ukrainian spelling, while Chernobly is the Russian spelling. I’ll be using the Ukrainian spelling in this article.
The unexpected result of creating the exclusion zone is that it accidentally created a wildlife refuge.
See National Geographic’s photo album of the zone.
One of the amazing wildlife species that has thrived in this strange wildlife refuge is the Przewalski’s horse, also known as the Phorse. They were natives to the Asian steppes, and breeding programs have always included locations in Ukraine. In the 1950’s they were considered extinct-in-the-wild. This is the last known photo of the Phorse in the wild.
After successful breeding programs in zoos worldwide, Prague Zoo and other conservationists have led the work of returning the horses to the wild. My book, NOT EXTINCT chronicles the story of recently returning the horses to the “Golden Steppes” of Kazakhstan.
Click on the book cover to see more or to order.
The work is hard! For example, the horses need to be flown from European locations to Kazakhstan. Scientists have learned that if the horses lie down during the two- to three-day journey, they are likely to die from circulation problems. They designed special boxes that support the horses standing the entire time.
Miroslav Bobek, Director of Prague Zoo is shown here during the process of releasing the Phorses onto the "Golden Steppes" of Kazakhstan.
We don’t know what the radiation in the Chornobly Exclusion Zone will do to the Phorses or other species. All scientists can do it to watch and monitor.
Read the book for more on the scientists work to return the Phorses to the wild—an exciting conservation story for kids!
