Przewalski's Horses Thrive in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

In the shadow of one of history's worst nuclear disasters, wild Przewalski's horses roam freely across Ukraine's Chernobyl exclusion zone, a vast radioactive landscape that has become an unlikely haven for wildlife four decades after the 1986 catastrophe.

The explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986, released radiation across Europe and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents, rendering the 1,000-square-mile area spanning Ukraine and Belarus uninhabitable for humans. Today, the zone supports thriving populations of wolves, brown bears, lynx, moose, red deer and even packs of feral dogs, reclaiming territory once dominated by Soviet-era agriculture and industry.

Among the most remarkable residents are the Przewalski's horses, stocky and sandy-colored equines native to Mongolia and once on the verge of extinction. Introduced to the zone in 1998 as an experimental conservation effort, these "spirit horses," known as takhi in their homeland, differ from domestic breeds with 33 pairs of chromosomes instead of 32. A free-ranging herd now grazes amid the contaminated grasslands, larger than Luxembourg, adapting to the eerie environment by...