https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Dog
Bow-wow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah…
"Everything I've done..."
Close up of pup's face. Close up of main character's face.
"... I did for you".
Close up of character's hand tapping the tablet. Cue soft ethereal music with female choir. There is a very bright explosion in the distance. The main character turns back. Camera zooms into their eye, where you can see the reflection of the blast wave fast approaching. White screen.
I've visited Kyiv twice and both times went on a guided tour around Chernobyl and Pripyat. I have fond memories of the beautiful dogs that knew how to play the tourists for food. I had read about them beforehand so I brought them some proper dog food. One of them had the biggest tick I've ever seen, it was almost the size of my thumb. Even though they roamed free some nice people care for them. They were tagged so probably most of them either sterilized or vaccinated.
In East Africa, the cows would get these massive ticks that were visible, when driving past on the road. They were the size of ping-pong balls (and sort of looked like bluish ones).
I don't care about writing a webserver in scheme or whatnot. I come here for this stuff these days.
I wish there was an easy way to find stuff like this and filter out the... Normal hn stuff. I love the long reads I've found here. Eg "the secret of nanda devi" or "the hunt for the death valley Germans"
Tagged also to include gps, one would hope.
A few dogs which otherwise would have been good candidates were too internally contaminated to re-home. Not too bad, it would have been something equivalent to a few x-rays a year if the dog slept on your bed every night. But the modal rescue dog has no radiation risk at all to worry about.
Beyond that, the workers in the exclusion zone are quite fond and protective of the stray dogs, so I think there would have been significant blowback if a significant portion of the dogs were re-homed.
The stray dogs in the Chernobyl exclusion zone were surprisingly friendly. Better socialized and behaved than a good number of pet dogs I see in the USA.
As mentioned elsewhere in the replies, if you think the program is interesting, consider donating to the Clean Futures Fund: https://www.cleanfutures.org/dogs-of-chernobyl/
Free-roaming dogs (in non-threatening environments) can socialize much more naturally than city dogs, who spend most of their time isolated indoors with few people and animals to interact with (stunting their social development).
The dogs are as loyal as I've ever seen while you're there. When you leave, they move onto the next group. The area is great, and the dog friend I made, just added to the experience.
> Genome-wide profiles from Chernobyl, purebred and free-breeding dogs, worldwide reveal that the individuals from the power plant and Chernobyl City are genetically distinct, with the former displaying increased intrapopulation genetic similarity and differentiation. Analysis of shared ancestral genome segments highlights differences in the extent and timing of western breed introgression. Kinship analysis reveals 15 families, with the largest spanning all collection sites within the radioactive exclusion zone, reflecting migration of dogs between the power plant and Chernobyl City.
Does that now mean they maybe gained/lost something or hardened, or just that tribes establlished themselves there?
It’s a fairly unusual situation where winter is a larger issue than the radiation: https://www.newsweek.com/meet-dogs-chernobyl-these-wild-anim...
"The Chernobyl dog population has great potential for informing environmental resource management studies in a resurging population. Its greatest potential, however, lies in understanding the biological underpinnings of animal and, ultimately, human survival in regions of high and continuous environmental assault."
Not surprising since even the title is basically the same message, duplicated.
Of course, that site has lots of heart-wrenching pictures of puppies.
If anyone has seen the new German-language All Quiet On the Western Front (richly deserving of all the accolades, IMNSHO), the initial scene is downright heartbreaking (not like the rest of the movie is any more upbeat, but that scene is the one that sticks).
I found it fascinating how they seem to have become their own breed with a beautiful monochrome coat, and are very friendly and approachable to humans still.
That comes across as an especially clear, or at least understandable, statement about why a paper represents preliminary research.