"Lions and Tigers and Zombie Wolves, Oh My!"

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On December 6th, 2018 Jon Lockett posted the article, MUTANT TIME BOMB, all in caps I might add, and I can only assume that was for effect. He starts out with two statements;

1. Chernobyl wolves infected with radiation feared to be spreading mutant genes across Europe"

2. A scientific study raises the possibility the packs could spread radiation-caused mutations to other wolf populations

He then goes on to lay foundation saying:

"Scientists fear wolves living in Chernobyl's radioactive forbidden zone may be spreading mutant genes across Europe. The European grey wolf population has boomed at the site since the human population moved out and it became a virtual wildlife preserve."

"The wolf population inside Chernobyl's exclusion zone is booming since the disaster. Research now reveals some of the wolves - potentially affected by damaging radiation - have been crossing Ukraine's borders into Russia and Belarus. The news has sparked concerns among some in the scientific community that the animals may mate and spread mutant genes to other packs. The site became off limits to humans after the nuclear power plant disaster on 26 April 1986, due to concerns about the high levels of radiation."

Okay, so we're supposed to believe this "fear" scientists have will cause a disaster by this "booming" wolf population breeding with wolves outside their area. I think that bodes well this question: If this area of radiation is so bad, and the potential for mutation is so dangerous - why did this population boom? What evidence is there? Let's continue!

He goes on to say

"Wolves were tracked leaving the exclusion zone and one even crossed into Russia. Scientists believe the mutant gene theory is worth looking into The researchers found while the adult wolves stayed within the zone, the juvenile roamed far beyond its boundaries." .........."This raised questions about the effect of wolves potentially affected by radiation carrying mutant genes to pass onto other wolf communities."

He continues with:

"Studies of other animals -mostly smaller ones like birds, rodents, and insects -show that Chernobyl radiation can cause mutations and ill health. And work done in creatures such as barn swallows and voles suggests these mutations may be transferred to the next generation."......... wildlife ecologist Michael Byrne told Live Science he believes the mutant gene theory is something worth looking into.

I give the author credit for this small attempt to be unbiased by including this point by "the University of Missouri animal movement and ecology expert:"

"We have no evidence to support that this is happening. "No wolves there were glowing - they all have four legs, two eyes and one tail."

So to help pump the scare mongering well to the fullest he goes on to say:

"The Chernobyl exclusion zone is also home to other species including moose, horses, bison, boars and red badgers. Last year, we told how radioactive boars were running wild in the Czech Republic after eating mushrooms contaminated after the Chernobyl disaster."

But what do we find? They're all still alive, they all still have legs, eyes, tails, no obvious signs of mutation and they're all still having babies, who are also capable of having babies. So all these concerns are supported by what? Speculation and extrapolation, fear mongering, weasel words and media hype.

Let's get the facts of the matter. Intense doses of radiation are deadly and can seriously impact health. But we need to get rid of this idea that radiation at every level is dangerous. That's a false assumption and bad science based on what's called the Linear No Threshold toxicity model that has now been shown to not only to be junk science, but was in point of fact fraudulent.

Source: Mutant Time Bomb - or - Weasel Words, Junk Science and Scare Mongering

In other words, another story as told by a Journalist.

Why can't they just report the facts without taking "journalistic license" with their stories?

But that would make them mere reporters, and there's nothing special about that.

If wolves really were "mutating" more than normal due to Chernoble (which is actually quite possible AFAIK) then those mutations would be more likely to harm the wolves themselves than to harm humans. Would make the wolves less big, and less bad, and less able to eat little Red Riding Hood than before. Not more so. That's because a random change in a creature's blueprint is more likely to cause harm than give an advantage to the creature.

So its nothing to worry about (unless you're worried about conversation of wolves).

But...
It sure makes a great premise for Hollywood!

This story will inspire several franchises of Hollywood blockbusters I bet!

In a way they already have. I remember when I was a young lad in 1954, I convinced my dad to take me to see a movie called "Them!". It was the scariest movie that I ever saw. It begins with two policemen in a police car driving down the road in the dead of night in pitch blackness. They come across a young girl walking down the side of the road. They stop their police car and begin to ask her questions. But she is in a state of total shock. She is white as a sheet and nonverbal. [Now I lived in the country at the time and they got this scene very real to a young boy of 6 years old.] The police travel down the road and find the girls home somewhat torn asunder. But no sign of the parents. One policeman takes the girl to the police station while the other stays behind. Then there is the sound effects. It sounded like very loud crickets [A boy living in the country knows the sound quite well.] Then you see the fright on the face of the policeman who stayed behind just before he is torn to bits.

So the premise to this movie was radiation from nuclear testing caused genetic mutations in ants. And these half ton ants were out foraging (a killing spree).

Yeah. During early years of the postwar, coldwar, atomic age, there was a slew of movies that used nuclear radiation as premise that way. Godzilla , in the first Japanese movie incarnation in the Fifties, was awakened from his abode beneath a south pacific island by the nuclear tests at Bikini, or ...sumpin like that.

And they were into giant things back then. Your movie "Them" about giant ants. Though dated in some ways I think it actually still stands up as a pretty cool movie.

And then there was the "killer shrews". I don't think that was linked to radiation, but it was about shrews (tiny smaller than mice insectivors related to moles) enlarged to the size of wolves . The result of a scientist's experiment gone wrong in the Amazon jungle. Played by German shepherds fitted with porcelain fangs the shrews tear the whole place up and spread death and terror.

Then there was "the Night of the Lepus", about a farm community in Iowa held hostage by a pack of giant ...bunny rabbits ...the size of grizzly bears. The rabbits are filmed in slow motion in a bid to make them look big and menacing. Doesn't work. There was a movie from that era about giant gila monster the size of a Greyhound bus. Another about a giant vulture a hundred times as big as a B52 flying around destroying the nation from the air.

Are you referring to the 1957 Japanese horror film Rodan that was about a 200 million year old Pteranodon. Now that was a good movie.

No.

A very American, very Fifties, thing, that I saw on TV in circa 1969.

A big bird with feathers that would gobble up air craft. It would outrun the fastest latest jet fighter planes, and eat them in midair.

There was a nationwide alert to stay inside because of the creature!! !

But of course teenagers disobey. And the teens were very American Caucasian teens. A group of guys in highschool letter jackets, with their gfs, were hanging out on lovers lane in their hotrods. A grownup admonished them for ignoring the warnings about the Walmart sized bird flying around, and how they all shouldnt be outdoors. But the wiseacre teens just replied "well, we will just put salt on its tail!Ha ha".

Needless to say the teens all got devoured by the bird in the next scene.

But finally the protagonist scientist figures out somekind of special poison to shoot at the bird.

And gets the airforce to lend him an old WWII two engine prop plane because "we need manuervability and not speed".

In the climactic scene the bird almost closes in on the plane with its claws, but they shoot the bird with the magic bullets with the plane's tail gun. And then they roll the credits as the big dead bird slowly sinks into the ocean, it huge chicken claws going down last.

Don't recall the title of the movie though.

That was my only thought reading this, and the only concern regarding this.

That unfortunately is a very serious concern. Wolves have more than a hard enough time as it is what with all the trigger happy eejits out there and greedy politicians having their ear

Quite a few animals are living in the exclusion zone. It is worrying