Chernobyl's birds adapting to ionizing radiation

Date:

April 24, 2014

Source:

British Ecological Society (BES)

Summary:

Birds in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl are adapting to -- and may even be benefiting from -- long-term exposure to radiation, ecologists have found. The study is the first evidence that wild animals adapt to ionizing radiation, and the first to show that birds which produce most pheomelanin, a pigment in feathers, have greatest problems coping with radiation exposure.

Continued