It's 40 years since the Chernobyl disaster.
切尔诺贝利灾难已经过去40年了。
This is what it has meant for wildlife living around the devastated nuclear power plant.
这就是它对生活在这座受毁坏核电站周边的野生动物所意味着的一切。
"Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa!"
“啪-啪-啪-啪-啪！”
In the middle of the night, a noise from the darkness in the abandoned, irradiated landscape of Chernobyl.
午夜时分，在切尔诺贝利这片被遗弃、遭受辐射的土地上，黑暗中传来一阵声响。
Pablo Burraco, a scientist, stepped quietly between the trees, not far from the ruins of the power plant at the centre of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
科学家巴勃罗·布拉科在树林间悄然前行，离那座处于世界最严重核灾难中心的核电站废墟不远。
In the aftermath of the catastrophic reactor explosion in 1986, the surrounding area was evacuated for many miles, so few people trod where Burraco now did.
1986年灾难性的反应堆爆炸之后，周边许多英里范围内的人都被疏散，因此很少有人踏足布拉科如今行走的地方。
With only his head torch illuminating the ground before him, Burraco closed in on the source of the night-time racket – a tiny male tree frog, urgently calling for its mate.
只有头灯照亮眼前地面，布拉科一步步靠近夜间喧响的来源：一只小小的雄性树蛙，正急切地呼唤配偶。
A swoop of his hand and he had plucked the 5cm-long (two inch) amphibian from its perch on a small tree.
他手一挥，就把这只5厘米长（两英寸）的两栖动物从小树上的栖身处摘了下来。
It was 2016.
那是2016年。
Burraco, an evolutionary biologist at Doñana Biological Station, a public research institute belonging to the Spanish National Research Council, was making his first field trip to this troubled part of the world.
布拉科是多尼亚纳生物站的进化生物学家，该站隶属于西班牙国家研究委员会，是一家公共研究机构；这次是他首次前往世界上这片饱受灾难影响的地区进行实地考察。
Peering at the creature now safely confined within the curl of his fingers, Burraco immediately noticed the frog was slightly dark in colour, unlike other frogs of the same species that lived further away.
布拉科凝视着这只已被他弯曲的手指安全扣住的小生物，立刻注意到这只青蛙颜色略深，不同于生活在更远处的同种青蛙。
"It was super exciting," he says, recalling the moment.
回忆起那一刻，他说：“那真是太令人兴奋了。”
This frog raised a question that many have asked ever since the explosion at Chernobyl: had radiation from the stricken power station changed the creatures living near it?
这只青蛙引出了一个自切尔诺贝利爆炸以来许多人一直在问的问题：那座受灾核电站释放的辐射是否改变了生活在附近的生物？
That's what Burraco wanted to find out.
这正是布拉科想要弄清楚的事情。
Four decades have now past since Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded on 26 April 1986, sending radioactive material far and wide.
自1986年4月26日切尔诺贝利4号反应堆爆炸、将放射性物质扩散到远近各地以来，如今已经过去四十年。
Winds eventually carried radioactive dust as far as the UK, Norway and even parts of North Africa.
最终，风把放射性尘埃带到了远至英国、挪威，甚至北非部分地区的地方。
But the landscape immediately surrounding the power plant in northern Ukraine received the heaviest dose.
但乌克兰北部这座核电站周围紧邻的地区承受了最重的辐射剂量。
Intense radioactive hotspots still persist today.
强烈的放射性热点至今仍然存在。
Many feared the effect of such radioactive contamination would be devastating for the animals and plants living nearby.
许多人曾担心，这种放射性污染会对附近生活的动植物造成毁灭性影响。
Almost all the humans in the surrounding area immediately left.
周边地区几乎所有人都立即离开了。
These creatures could not.
这些生物却做不到。
During the 40 years since the disaster, it has become clear that many species are living quite happily within the 37-mile-wide (60km) exclusion zone set up around the ruined power plant.
灾难发生后的40年里，人们已经清楚地看到，许多物种在围绕受损核电站设立的宽37英里（60公里）的隔离区内生活得相当自在。
But that's not to say nature hasn't changed here – sometimes for the worse.
但这并不是说这里的自然没有发生变化，有时这种变化还变得更糟。
For years, researchers have documented weird, twisted trees, swallows troubled by tumours and even an eerie black fungus that lives inside the radioactive ruins of the reactor building itself.
多年来，研究人员记录下了怪异扭曲的树木、受肿瘤困扰的燕子，甚至还有一种阴森的黑色真菌，生长在反应堆建筑本身具有放射性的废墟内部。
Some creatures might have adapted to better cope with the contamination – but this idea is notoriously difficult to prove and still hotly debated.
一些生物可能已经适应了环境，从而能更好地应对污染，但这一观点出了名地难以证明，并且仍然引发激烈争论。
Recently, researchers have highlighted other reasons why some animals may have flourished in this injured landscape.
最近，研究人员强调了某些动物可能在这片受创土地上兴旺起来的其他原因。
Burraco and his colleagues have visited Chernobyl and the surrounding areas many times over the years, sampling more than 250 tree frogs in total.
多年来，布拉科和同事们多次造访切尔诺贝利及周边地区，总共采样了250多只树蛙。
In 2022, they published data indicating that frogs inside the exclusion zone were, on average, darker than those outside the zone.
2022年，他们发表的数据显示，隔离区内的青蛙平均而言比隔离区外的青蛙颜色更深。
They focused on locations where radiation levels were particularly high immediately after the accident in 1986.
他们重点研究了1986年事故发生后辐射水平特别高的地点。
Their hypothesis, which Burraco emphasises remains a hypothesis, is that the dark colour of some frogs – attributed to higher levels of melanin in their bodies – might somehow act as a protective barrier, reducing the effects of radiation, and that darker frogs fared better in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster.
他们的假说是，一些青蛙颜色较深是因为体内黑色素水平较高，这也许会以某种方式起到保护屏障的作用，减轻辐射影响，因此颜色更深的青蛙在核灾难后的处境更好；布拉科强调，这仍然只是一个假说。
But there's no hard proof of this yet.
但目前还没有确凿证据证明这一点。
One researcher, biologist Timothy Mousseau at the University of South Carolina, is critical of the tree frogs study.
一位研究人员、南卡罗来纳大学生物学家蒂莫西·穆索对这项树蛙研究持批评态度。
He says the sampling of frogs was not comprehensive enough to show a distinction between those inside and outside the exclusion zone, arguing that the occurrence of melanisation does not correlate with current levels of radioactivity around the Chernobyl disaster site.
他说，青蛙采样不够全面，无法显示隔离区内外青蛙之间的差别，并认为黑化现象的出现与切尔诺贝利灾难现场周边当前的放射性水平并不相关。
Burraco pushes back against these points.
布拉科对这些观点提出了反驳。
The frogs, he notes, were sampled from a variety of areas with differing radiological exposures that are otherwise similar in terms of habitat, for example.
例如，他指出，这些青蛙取样自多个地区，这些地区的辐射暴露程度不同，但在栖息地方面除此之外是相似的。
He also notes that radiation levels have changed since the time of the accident.
他还指出，自事故发生以来，辐射水平已经发生了变化。
Another scientist, radiobiologist Carmel Mothersill, professor emeritus at McMaster University, says the 2022 paper is "sound" in terms of its methodology and she points out that the authors are cautious in how they interpret the data.
另一位科学家、麦克马斯特大学荣休教授、放射生物学家卡梅尔·莫瑟希尔说，这篇2022年的论文在方法论上是“可靠的”，并指出作者在解读数据时很谨慎。
In truth, this is a classic example of the kind of disagreement that has bubbled away for years among scientific investigators of Chernobyl's wildlife.
事实上，这是研究切尔诺贝利野生动物的科学调查者之间多年来一直暗中持续的那类分歧的典型例子。
First there is the question of responses – how do you know that some unusual feature documented in an organism is caused specifically by exposure to radiation and not, say, other contaminants in the landscape such as heavy metals, which are also known to pollute the area?
首先是反应的问题：你怎么知道某个生物身上记录到的异常特征，确实是由辐射暴露造成的，而不是由环境中的其他污染物造成的，比如同样已知会污染该地区的重金属？
Similar debates surround reports about genetic patterns in the genomes of feral dogs living around Chernobyl, for example.
例如，关于生活在切尔诺贝利周边的野犬基因组中遗传模式的报告，也引发了类似争议。
There's no hard evidence that this was caused by their exposure to radiation.
没有确凿证据表明这是它们受到辐射暴露造成的。
Studies have also shown that bank voles living in contaminated sites around Chernobyl carry higher levels of genetic diversity in their mitochondria – the tiny energy generators inside their cells – compared to those in non-contaminated areas.
研究还显示，与生活在未受污染地区的林䶄相比，生活在切尔诺贝利周边受污染地点的林䶄，其线粒体中的遗传多样性水平更高；线粒体是细胞内微小的能量发生器。
These differences might be attributable to mutations caused by exposure to radiation but other factors could also be at work.
这些差异可能归因于辐射暴露造成的突变，但也可能有其他因素在发挥作用。
Mothersill points out that many pine trees, which are especially sensitive to radiation, died after exposure to fallout.
莫瑟希尔指出，许多对辐射尤其敏感的松树在暴露于放射性沉降物后死亡。
Birch trees took over in some locations, she says, creating a completely different kind of forest: "It's teeming with trees and wildlife but it's not the same as it was before the accident."
她说，桦树在一些地点占据了主导，形成了一种完全不同的森林：“这里到处都是树木和野生动物，但已经不是事故发生前的样子了。”
Animals living there will naturally respond differently to that changed environment and this alone, rather than radiation per se, could explain differences in those animals.
生活在那里的动物自然会对这种改变了的环境作出不同反应，单是这一点，而不是辐射本身，就可能解释这些动物之间的差异。
One key change that may have had an important effect on wildlife near Chernobyl is the sudden withdrawal of humans.
可能对切尔诺贝利附近野生动物产生重要影响的一个关键变化，是人类突然撤离。
In areas once frequented by people, wolves, bears and bison now roam.
在曾经人们经常出入的地区，如今狼、熊和野牛在四处游荡。
Populations of deer, wild boar and elk have flourished.
鹿、野猪和麋鹿的种群都兴旺起来。
The number of wolves has even been estimated to be seven times higher in the exclusion zone compared to surrounding nature reserves, perhaps thanks to the abundant prey.
据估计，禁区内狼的数量甚至是周边自然保护区的七倍，这或许要归功于丰富的猎物。
Species including the Eurasian lynx have also returned to the area after vanishing long before the accident.
包括欧亚猞猁在内的一些物种也回到了这片地区，它们早在事故发生很久以前就已从这里消失。
Brown bears, in particular, had not been sighted in this part of the world for more than 100 years until a camera trap caught one inside the exclusion zone in 2014.
尤其是棕熊，在这个地区已有一百多年没有被发现，直到2014年一台红外相机在禁区内拍到了一只。
And, famously, groups of dogs apparently descended from pets abandoned after the 1986 disaster, are also plentiful in this area.
同样广为人知的是，这一地区还有许多成群的狗，它们显然是1986年灾难后被遗弃的宠物的后代。
Guards paid to prevent people illegally entering the exclusion zone are known to take care of these wandering canines.
受雇阻止人们非法进入禁区的警卫，据说会照料这些四处游荡的犬类。
( Read more about the guards caring for Chernobyl's abandoned dogs.)
（阅读更多关于警卫照料切尔诺贝利被遗弃犬只的内容。）
Leaving the other factors aside, is it possible that plants and animals near Chernobyl have actually evolved to cope with radiation?
撇开其他因素不谈，切尔诺贝利附近的动植物是否真的已经进化出应对辐射的能力？
This is one of the most controversial claims of all.
这是所有说法中最具争议的说法之一。
Some of the unusual characteristics of these organisms could be described as true adaptations in the evolutionary sense – that is, things they have inherited and give them an edge in their environment.
这些生物的一些异常特征可以被描述为进化意义上的真正适应，也就是说，这些特征是它们遗传下来的，并让它们在所处环境中占有优势。
There are some hints that this has happened.
有一些迹象表明，这种情况已经发生。
A 2012 study, for example, found evidence that soybeans grown in the Chernobyl area had adapted to better cope with both radioactivity and heavy metal stress.
例如，一项2012年的研究发现证据表明，在切尔诺贝利地区生长的大豆已经适应了环境，能够更好地应对放射性和重金属压力。
Those bank voles inhabiting Chernobyl have also been found to have greater resistance to DNA damage.
研究还发现，栖息在切尔诺贝利的那些林䶄对DNA损伤具有更强的抵抗力。
Mousseau says that the black fungus growing within the stricken reactor building, where radiation levels remain very high, seems to be benefitting from that darker colour.
穆索说，在受损反应堆建筑内部生长的黑色真菌似乎正受益于那种更深的颜色，而那里的辐射水平仍然很高。
"That's significant, that's positive evidence supporting the hypothesis that melanin provides some level of resistance to the effects of ionising radiation," he says.
他说：“这很重要，这是支持黑色素能在一定程度上抵抗电离辐射影响这一假说的正面证据。”
There's still no answer to the question about whether darker frogs evolved their colour as an adaptation to protect them from radiation.
至于颜色较深的青蛙是否进化出这种体色，作为保护自己免受辐射影响的适应性变化，目前仍没有答案。
But various studies have suggested that some fungi become darker as an adaptive response to radiation.
但多项研究表明，一些真菌会变得更黑，这是对辐射的一种适应性反应。
Experiments carried out on the International Space Station, for example, have shown fungi do this.
例如，在国际空间站进行的实验已经表明，真菌会这样做。
But Mousseau adds that, in his opinion, there is zero evidence to support the idea suggested by some researchers that the fungus has evolved to harness the energy emitted by radiation to help it grow.
但穆索补充说，在他看来，没有任何证据支持一些研究人员提出的观点，即这种真菌已经进化到能够利用辐射释放的能量来帮助自身生长。
For Mothersill, it's important to tease out whether mutations that emerged in plants and animals immediately after the accident have been passed down to successive generations of those organisms, even while radiation levels have fallen in the environment over time.
对莫瑟希尔来说，重要的是弄清楚事故发生后立即出现在动植物身上的突变，是否已经传给了这些生物的后续世代，尽管环境中的辐射水平随着时间推移已经下降。
Transgenerational mutations, if you like.
也可以说，是跨代突变。
There is a hint of this in those bank voles again.
在那些欧洲林鼠身上，又能看到这方面的一点迹象。
Research from 2006 found that aberrations in the animals' chromosomes persisted over successive generations even when voles were taken away from Chernobyl and allowed to reproduce in a contamination-free laboratory.
2006年的研究发现，即使把林䶄带离切尔诺贝利，并让它们在无污染的实验室中繁殖，这些动物染色体中的异常仍会在连续几代中持续存在。
Certainly, not all species are thriving.
当然，并非所有物种都在繁盛发展。
Recent research has found that the combination of radioactive contamination and rising temperatures from climate change are together placing growing strain on barn swallows living around Chernobyl, which may make it harder for them to survive as global warming continues.
近期研究发现，放射性污染与气候变化导致的气温上升共同给生活在切尔诺贝利周边的家燕带来越来越大的压力，随着全球变暖持续，这可能使它们更难生存。
The influence of the Chernobyl disaster is far from confined to the creatures living in the immediate vicinity of the power plant.
切尔诺贝利灾难的影响远不止于生活在核电站近旁的生物。
Take the edible mushrooms in Poland, blueberries sold in the US, or firewood burned in Greece that all contain very small amounts of radionuclides dispersed by the nuclear disaster that happened decades ago.
比如波兰的食用蘑菇、美国出售的蓝莓，或希腊燃烧的柴火，它们都含有几十年前那场核灾难扩散出的极微量放射性核素。
• How plants reclaimed Chernobyl's poisoned land
• 植物如何重新占领切尔诺贝利被污染的土地
The story of how Chernobyl has affected wildlife is complicated, argues Jonathon Turnbull, a geographer at Durham University.
杜伦大学地理学家乔纳森·特恩布尔认为，切尔诺贝利如何影响野生动物的故事很复杂。
You can't just say nature in the exclusion zone is thriving or dying, he says: "There's the spectacular story of 'Chernobyl changed everything'' – that doesn't go very deep."
他说，不能简单地说禁区内的自然正在繁盛或走向衰亡：“‘切尔诺贝利改变了一切’这个说法很吸引眼球，但并没有深入多少。”
Rather, there exists a menagerie of subtle effects and responses.
更确切地说，这里存在着各种各样细微的影响和反应。
An entire ecosystem that experienced a terrible disaster but kept living and growing.
这是一个经历过可怕灾难却仍在继续生存和成长的完整生态系统。
It's no surprise, says Turnbull, that so many questions still litter this landscape 40 years on.
特恩布尔说，40年过去后，这片土地上仍充满这么多问题，并不令人意外。
* This article has been updated on 27 April 2026 to remove the words "heat generated by" radioactive contamination in the study about barn swallows as the exact mechanism is not fully understood.
* 本文已于2026年4月27日更新，删除了关于家燕研究中放射性污染“产生的热量”这一表述，因为确切机制尚未完全明确。
For essential climate news and hopeful developments to your inbox, sign up to the Future Earth newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week.
想在邮箱中收到重要气候新闻和充满希望的进展，可以订阅 Future Earth 新闻简报；The Essential List 每周两次推送精选专题和洞见。
For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
想阅读更多 BBC 关于科学、技术、环境和健康的报道，请在 Facebook 和 Instagram 上关注我们。