The dogs of Chernobyl: Populations in the nuclear exclusion zone (2023) | Hacker News Reader

The dogs of Chernobyl: Populations in the nuclear exclusion zone (2023)

science.org

109 pointsIndrekR25 comments

When I was there I met some of these dogs. Here are a couple of photos of the very friendly pooches: https://imgur.com/a/8vsKxzp

Beautiful creatures! It’s interesting that they converged towards that rugged but still very dog-ish appearance.

*Chornobyl

https://insp.pnnl.gov/-chorninit-spelling.htm#:~:text=The%20....

Both spellings are correct—they’re just in different languages. Chernóbil (Spanish) is also correct, but you probably wouldn’t point it out because it’s not Russian.

And I'm sure you see that there might me somewhat of a slight issue with calling Ukrainian cities in Russian, considering the political situation.

I guess it’s just as correct as referring to Alaska as “Aljáska” (Russian).

Except it's not.

Chernobyl is just another popular spelling that people have gotten accustomed to.

But no one outside the Russian Mir ever refers to Alaska as Aljáska.

There's no signficance or import to the chosen spelling. This whole flame war is completely pointless.

> Chernobyl is just another popular spelling that people have gotten accustomed to.

Exactly. And “Chernóbil” isn’t - that’s my point. So the argument about “Chernóbil” is as pointless as “Aljiáska”.

I hope you display the same sensitivity when it comes to Gaza. Really tired of Western hypocrisy.

What way of spelling of Gaza do you prefer?

Chernobyl happens to be the popular spelling. Don't start trying to tell people what to say and what not to say, that doesn't fly.

*Chernobyl.

While "Chornobyl" is the current official Ukrainian spelling of the city name, the catastrophe itself took place at the "Chernobyl NPP" and the zone is consequentially named "Chernobyl Exclusion Zone".

Renaming the past is not a way to win the future.

>Of all Chernobyl dog populations, dogs from Slavutych show the greatest haplotype sharing with purebred dogs, particularly with the Labrador retriever, boxer, and Yorkshire terrier

While i can understand Labrador and boxer, where is the Yorkshire comes from? For anybody who remembers dogs in 1986 in USSR you can hardly remember seeing any Yorkshire (or any other small breed really).

I want to hear about the cats of Chernobyl! I read in a book that "domesticated" cats are essentially the same as wild cats, they just have different habits because of the way they are raised. That suggests to me that in the absence of a human population (and the right climate) some would survive in the wild.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832311/ ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaUNhqnpiOE )

"It's been over 20 years since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. ...

This documentary shows a family of cats whose mother once lived with the former inhabitants of the zone. "

Domesticated cats survive so well in the wild that they have eradicated several other animal species:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-kill-a-stagg...

My cat spends 99% of her time outside. She likes to come in and hang out with my kids when they get home from school and take a quick nap, but then she's asking to be let out by the time we're eating dinner.

She'd rather be exploring, hunting mice/chipmunks, and fighting off raccoons and skunks for her food and water supply.

Wild house cats are called feral cats. They exist all over. They are extremely fearful and/or avoidant of humans. And by "all over" I mean in cities, living among us. A dog, that is lost in a city will invariably find a human to take it in. Sometimes cats will do that, but cats are pickier about their humans than most dogs are. The first generation of cats born in the while will essentially become completely wild once they are adults and the chances of domesticating them is very low.

I, too, would love to see and hear about the cats of Chernobyl.

After doing a bit more reading about this topic, I'd be really interested to see a follow-up study that includes samples of the local wolf population. Supposedly, one of the reasons the dogs all hang around the power plant is because they get driven out of the woods by wolves. I wonder if there is any genetic cross-over between them.

"Chernobyl Created the World's Rarest Dogs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVGwOP_zi8

Since 2017, organizations like the Clean Futures Fund have been providing veterinary care, including vaccination, spaying, and neutering, to manage the dog population and reduce disease transmission risks

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