We all remember Chernobyl — the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster that spewed radiation equivalent to more than 20 Hiroshima bombs in an area of Belarus and the Ukraine — but what has happened in that area since?
The Soviets evacuated almost every human (a few holdouts still remain) and restricted access to an area twice the size of Rhode Island. Then, two interesting things occurred. First, animals that had been eliminated from the area due to Soviet modernization efforts moved back into the ecosystem, and an animal population explosion began. The Chernobyl zone has become one of the largest nature preserves on the European continent, and now is home to lynxes, wolves, moose, otters, boar, owls, and a huge array of other wildlife. The animals live their lives against a backdrop of crumbling Soviet style buildings that are falling apart against the one-two punch of the elements and Mother Nature. It’s like a post-apocalyptic sci fi novel — except it’s real.
The second point is even more interesting: the animal population has been exposed to radiation levels thousands of times greater than what is thought to be safe, but the generations of animals are not exhibiting the kinds of deformities or mutations that scientists expected. In fact, the animals look pretty normal. A Russian photographer named Sergei Gaschak has spent years taking photographs of the animals of the Chernobyl zone, and as the accompanying photo from The Independent reveals, they are beautiful and wild and noble — just like animals of the same species in non-radioactive areas.
What does it all mean for humans? I don’t think anyone is suggesting that people should move back into the Chernobyl Zone just yet, but perhaps the success of the animals means we still have a lot more to learn about radiation and its real effects on living creatures. Humans, and other mammals, may just be a lot hardier than scientists working in their laboratories think.
I’m not particularly interested in the lesula’s keister, unusual though it may be. I’m much more intrigued by the lesula’s very human-looking face. Look at those large, intensely accepting eyes! Look at that placid expression, that calm demeanor! The lesula looks like a strange combination of your Mom when you were about six, a stolid priest hearing confession, and Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist.
A peaceful suburbanite will sip her morning coffee and look out into the backyard, and be startled to see a brown, loose-limbed creature ambling across the lawn. They call them “urban coyotes,” and 
Awful, blood-sucking horseflies, to be precise. The researchers contend that the patterns of stripes reflect light in a way that makes zebras unattractive to flies. They conclude that the coats of black and brown horses, poor devils, reflect light in a horizontal way that horseflies love, whereas the coats of white horses don’t reflect light in that way and, as a result, white horses are less troubled by painful fly bites. When stripes were added, the researchers found, even fewer flies were attracted. Hence, they believe that stripes evolved to keep flies away.
So, I wasn’t really moved to tears when I saw this piece about 
I’m looking forward to the show because I like listening to live music and because some of the songs on The Wall are among my favorite songs, ever. The album came out when I was in college, when Pink Floyd was a staple on every stereo system. Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here were generally recognized, then and now, as two of the very best rock albums ever recorded, and Animals wasn’t chump change, either. Then years passed without a new Pink Floyd album. When the word got out that The Wall was in the offing it became one of the most eagerly anticipated album releases ever. When it finally hit the record stores I immediately bought a copy and listened to it from beginning to end and most of my friends did, too.
It happened when we turned the corner from Route 62 onto Ogden Woods Boulevard. The skunk was waddling across the street, low to the ground and heading for a stand of trees (perhaps some of the last remnants of the original Odgen Woods). We saw its black fur with distinctive, bright white marking as it disappeared into the underbrush, but I don’t think it saw us.
The scientists quoted in the article link the decline in the wolverine population to diminished snowpacks in the wolverines’ natural habitats, which they surmise would reduce the food supply for wolverines. The scientists apparently didn’t address the possibility that the carrion-consuming, rat-eating wolverines are dying of embarrassment because they are the unfortunate mascots of the recently underachieving University of Michigan sports teams.
