PARISHEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Two decades after an explosion and fire at the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant sent clouds of radioactive particles drifting over the fields near her home, Maria Urupa says the wilderness is encroaching.Packs of wolves have eaten two of her dogs, the 73-year-old told a visitor in May, and wild boar trample through her corn field. Meanwhile, she said, fox, rabbits and snakes infest the meadows near her tumbledown cottage.
"I've seen a lot of wild animals here," said Urupa, one of about 300 mostly elderly residents who insist on living in Chernobyl's contaminated evacuation zone.
The return of wildlife to the region near the world's worst nuclear power accident, first reported more than a decade ago, is an apparent paradox that biologists are still trying to measure and understand.
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Some researchers insist that by halting the destruction of habitat, the Chernobyl disaster helped wildlife flourish. Others say animals may be filtering into the zone, but that they appear to suffer malformations and other ills that threaten to send their tenuous populations crashing.
Both sides say more research is needed into the long-term health of a variety of Chernobyl's wildlife species, as governments around the world consider switching from fossil fuel plants, blamed for helping drive global climate change, to nuclear power.
(AP)