by Greg Mayer

From the BBC, a Radio Free Europe crew encountered a fox (Vulpes vulpes) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and gave it some bread and sausage. Click on the screenshot (not the arrow) to go to the video to see what it did; note that, cat-like, it uses its paw to help arrange the food for pick up by its mouth:

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, part in the Ukraine and part in Byelorussia, was created after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. It is an area of 1000 mi² (2600 km²) from which all people have been removed due to the extensive radioactive contamination. The area has thus begun reverting to a wild state, and biologists and other scientists are let in for short periods to study the wildlife. The PBS Nature series had a fine film on the zone, Radioactive Wolves, a few years ago. Whatever the effects of the radiation, the absence of man has led to a recrudescence of the large mammal community.

The area has become home to wolves, lynx, wisent, true wild horses, red deer, boars, moose (= elk), roe deer, and the most recently proven inhabitants, brown bears,which were first documented last fall by Dr. Sergei Gaschak.

The CEZ is an unintentional, but, to my eye, quite successful, experiment in rewilding. It’s practically Pleistocene: all they need are woolly mammoths. And, according to some, they’re on the way!