[ RadSafe ] " Chernobyl wildlife baffles biologists "

[John Jacobus]

Unless they capture, tag the animal and track them
after the release, I am not sure how useful any of the
studies on mortality are.

--- "Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj at aecl.ca> wrote:

> Chernobyl wildlife baffles biologists; 
> Animals are returning to area near meltdown, but
> scientists are split on
> their long-term fates
> Toronto Star, 8 June 2007
> Douglas Birch, Associated Press
> 
. . .
> But Timothy Mousseau of the University of South
> Carolina, a biologist who
> studies barn swallows at Chernobyl, says a high
> proportion of the birds he
> and his colleagues have examined suffer from
> radiation-induced sickness and
> genetic damage. Survival rates are dramatically
> lower for those living in
> the most contaminated areas. 
> . . .
> In other studies, Mousseau and his colleagues have
> found increased genetic
> damage, reduced reproductive rates and what he calls
> "dramatically" higher
> mortality rates for birds living near Chernobyl. 
> The work suggests, he said, that Chernobyl is a
> "sink" where animals migrate
> but rapidly die off. 
> Mousseau suspects that relatively low-level
> radiation reduces the level of
> antioxidants in the blood, which can lead to cell
> damage.
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
“All men dream, but not equally. Some dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds and wake in the day to find it is vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


       
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