Rare wild horses are seen living among abandoned homes in the Chernobyl exclusion zone after

Rare wild horses have made their home in an abandoned exclusion zone set up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown. Przewalski's horses, which are native to Mongolia, have been seen living in buildings in Belarus deserted following the nuclear power plant accident that killed 42 people at the time and led to the deaths of nearly 100 in the years that followed. Motion-activated cameras set up by scientists captured more than 11,000 photographs of the stocky endangered species sheltering in empty barns and homes in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) over the course of a year. A total of 36 Przewalski's horses were brought to the border of Belarus and Ukraine 15 years ago to increase biodiversity in the fall-out area. Within four years, the population almost doubled - and now scientists have discovered the horses are taking advantage of the abandoned buildings in the CEZ, which stretches over Ukraine and Belarus. Humans have not returned to the 1,600 square mile zone between Ukraine and Belarus but researchers have found evidence of wildlife thriving in the canals and rivers of the contaminated zone. The horses were recorded 35 times at nine of the ten monitored structures during winter, and 149 times at all eight monitored structures over the summer by experts at the University of Georgia in the US. Researchers found the horses, native to the steppes of Central Asia, use the structures to breed, shelter, and sleep and also take refuge from insects during summer months...MORE