Rudy Mancke> Next on "NatureScene", we visit the area around Chernobyl, Ukraine, the site of a nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986, and we take a look at animals and plants typical of that region today.

Narrator> This "NatureScene" special is made possible in part by... a grant from the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust William E. Murray Trustee Additional support is provided by the School of the Environment at the University of South Carolina.

And by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

♪ ♪ [cardinal chirping] ♪ ♪ ♪ [rattlesnake rattling] ♪ ♪ [prairie dog yipping] ♪ ♪ ♪ Jim Welch> Hello, and welcome to "NatureScene" in Chernobyl, Ukraine, a city made famous in 1986 due to proximity to the nearby Chernobyl reactor site.

I'm Jim Welch with naturalist Rudy Mancke.

We're on the main boulevard in the historic old city, which had to be evacuated because of radiation after the accident.

Rudy Mancke> When the accident occurred, yeah, people who lived here and in other cities and villages were removed.

Everybody that within 30 kilometers of the site were removed, and this is called now, the exclusion zone.

Of course, we're wearing a little different clothing than we normally wear because we want to make sure we don't carry any radioactivity from this exclusion zone outside of the zone.

Jim> There's research and work going on, so we will see some people in traffic here on the street.

only for short periods, then they have to leave to get clear.

And come back to do some work again.

Rudy> We'll look at the reactor and Pripyat, a city that was evacuated, in a little while but we're coming to look at this place through the eyes of a naturalist.

And when you start doing that Just look down the street, in front of you and there are trees that pop out.

I really love horse chestnut, and this is the perfect time of year to see it!

Flowers, sticking up very obviously.

Jim> Blooms of flowers, in fact.

Rudy> I love them Of course, insects you would imagine are attracted to that pretty hot and heavily.

Opposite leaves on it, palmately compound leaves, which identify it very, very quickly.

That's a tree that was taken from Europe to North America and widespread as an ornamental in North America.

The other one down the way, clearly a maple because of the fruit on it.

Common name, Norway maple... really widespread in Europe.

Sometimes that's an ornamental in the United States.

I see some really nice-sized poplars, or black poplar.

We would use a black cottonwood because of the fuzzy fruit that develops, triangular-shaped leaf on it.

A lot of poplars do fairly well here.

Jim> It surprises me to see large trees when one thinks of the radiation factor.

Rudy> Here are a couple trees too that are really surprising because they're North American trees that have been brought over and have done quite nicely in Europe.

One of them, box elder is the name we would call it, or ashleaf maple.

Here it's often referred to as American maple, because it did come from America.

Compound leaves, and you see the fruit on that, identifying it quickly as a maple.

Then, the other one, rather tall here... false acacia may be a name that would be used here, or white acacia.

We know it as black locust, widespread in the Eastern United States, transferred here, and doing very nicely too.

Yellow flowers everywhere-- every little vacant, open lot-- greater celandine.

That's a wonderful yellow flower!

If you break it, yellow, sappy material coming out.

That's one of those medicinal plants, that are used here pretty commonly.

Jim> Mixed amidst the sound of trucks are the sounds of birds, because bird life is active... 350 species in Ukraine, many right here.

Rudy> It's amazing.

We're going to hear a lot of sounds, but the chaffinch that pops out most quickly, a very, very common bird.

I love the wing bars on that thing and I love the variety of colors on the back.

And even though people are moving and coming and going and talking and other sounds, those birds are up there hollering!

It's that time of year.

Spring has sprung, so to speak, so you're thinking about building nests.

That's a great bird!

Another one on the line there, now this is one, hopefully, we'll see on the ground in a minute.

White wagtail is the common name for that one.

See the black kind of bib on the front of that and a real long tail.

Jim> You should never miss it because it wags that tail up and down.

That's one to spot right away.

Rudy> Yeah...that's an interesting one there!

Fieldfare, right up on the line too.

There's a bird that should remind people in North America of the robins, the thrushes.

It's one of the thrushes, spotted on the front, Jim> That's nice.

Rudy> Yeah, pretty good size.

This would be the time of year when you would expect to see that animal thinking about nesting too.

Jim> On top of that conifer, there is a nest up in there.

Rudy> You see one?

Jim> I see it.

Rudy> You got your binoculars, so, is it on the nest?

Jim> The bird is on the nest.

Rudy> Okay, great.

So, they're probably eggs, at least, in there right now.

There's the wagtail on the road in front of us.

See the wagging of the tail, a little bit, preening?

That's neat.

Yeah, that's really a neat bird!

Now, I'm listening for sounds.

You hear the cuckoo go cuckoo, cuckoo.

Jim> Like the clock.

Sure!

[cuckoo calling] cuckoo...cuckoo Rudy> That's kind of an interesting sound, and that's amazing, that's the male doing the calling.

The female has a much more melodious call, but the male has that cuckoo-cuckoo kind of sound.

That's interesting.

The other one is just going crazy-- And there it is, you can see it on the dead branch-- a thrush nightingale.

That thing hollers at night, as well as, in the daytime, and it just keeps going and going and going.

[nightingales chirping] Jim> Rudy, in this other tree, it looks like the shrike we see in America.

Rudy> The beak, absolutely, no doubt about it... dark line through the eye.

And when you look on the back it's kind of a reddish color on the back, so red-backed shrike is the common name for it.

Insect-eating bird... butcher bird, another common name.

On the line, we would call this a barn swallow, but it's just known as the "swallow" in this part of the world.

Pretty common, usually you find that bird around sites where people are living.

Jim> A great place for studies... and the University of South Carolina has conducted many studies here.

Rudy> That's an interesting place, and one of the other things, about this city, there's an interesting monument to those people who fought the fire when the reactor melted down and lost their lives.

It's very, very touching to take a look at that.

as we head toward the reactor.

[birds chirping] [wind flaw noise] Jim> It is exciting to be so close to the Chernobyl reactors.

That reactor, Number Four, where the world's worst nuclear accident happened in April of 1986.

Rudy> Four nuclear fuel plants here providing energy for the USSR.

Then the meltdown occurred during a training process, and a fire.

The top went down and collapsed.

That ventilation tower is amazing, up there still, today, in reasonable shape.

Then, of course, you try to wall it off as quickly as you can with concrete and other materials.

Still a lot of nuclear fuel left inside, but it now, at least, is contained in what's now called the Object Shelter.

Jim> A sarcophagus covering over it just to keep radioactive materials inside.

Rudy> Well, it's amazing.

It's tricky business when you're trying to deal with radioactive materials, and it really changed people's lives of course, and other animals and plants in this area then and of course, still is making changes in this world, modifying people's lives.

Nature reclaims and comes back... birds flying around.

Rudy> Well, look on the building across the way, under the little overhang, there's some nests being built.

I mean, those little birds, house martins are working as if nothing else is going on.

There's a lot of activity here and noises around them that doesn't even seem to affect them.

Those are insect-eating birds, now.

So, they're taking insects too, out of the air around this old reactor site and still able to survive.

Mouthfuls of mud... isn't that neat!

The way they're just putting one mouthful at a time, sticking it in place.

♪ Jim> From the top of what was once a beautiful hotel in Pripyat, we get a beautiful view of all the surrounding area and the reactor, itself, where we were standing, but a few miles away from where we are now.

Rudy> Just a couple of miles.

you can see in the distance.

And in that view around from the top, where you see all of these buildings.

This was a self-contained city... 50,000 people were living here, with hospitals, food services, and all of the rest.

Mainly, the people were working in and around the reactor site.

Jim> It was developed as a model city in the 1970s for all of the workers in the industry until the accident happened, of course.

Rudy> With gardens, amusement parks, and all the rest.

It's interesting to see the symbols on top of the buildings that were again, just left there when everybody moved away.

Of course, when people leave an area, then nature begins to come right back in.

♪ We're standing on the asphalt now, right at this amusement park area.

It really is interesting, the tall view, and then when you get down and see these buildings, all around you.

Bumper cars, and ferris wheels, and all the rides for the children and families of Pripyat.

Rudy> And you had people walking here, and a large number of people just carrying on their daily business, one day and then, of course, they left, and things began to slowly but surely rust away, and nature begins to sneak back in.

The manicured lawns and gardens have been modified.

When you get cracks like this developing, you figure seed, wind-blown seed can blow in, get stuck in the cracks, and begin to germinate with a little but of water.

Jim> A young tree started up through a crack right there.

Rudy> Cottonwoods are coming in.

Of course, as they're going to make the crack even wider, and slowly but surely, this will be broken down.

And trees are coming in.

The poplars... not only that one, but we've got some aspen in here.

I even see a willow coming in on the side.

And you see a number of other trees that are beginning to move out on this space.

Grass is, you know, left uncut... that's a perfect hiding place for the we'll say, brown hare, which is a large, rabbit-like animal that's here.

I see a few droppings over there on the ground.

Larger than rabbits we're used to in the United States, but this is one of the hares that comes back into situations like this... Jim> So, birds and mammals have come back.

The trees are coming back through seed and regeneration.

Nature reclaims when man leaves.

Rudy> Radioactivity is still high here, oh of course, especially the mosses along the side seem to have picked up large amounts and hold it.

So, this is not a place that people can be anymore.

It's almost eerie to stand in a place with all these big buildings ...and no people, just us and a few mammals coming and going.

Birds beginning to come back, and that sort of thing.

It's an amazing place!

♪ Jim> Rudy, with the beautiful blue sky and sunshine and all this greenery around and the sounds of birds and the butterflies, it's hard to believe we're still in the 10-K zone near Chernobyl, which could be considered dangerous because of radiation.

Rudy> Wow!

This is a good mixed forest, which is nice.

Biodiversity is something that always says that things are in pretty good shape.

And really, the plants are the plants on both sides of the road are interesting.

One that comes out when you've got a little bit of extra sunlight and not a lot of activity along this road anymore... aspen, one of the poplars.

You can see those little toothed leaves on there rounded teeth on the leaf shake in the breeze really nicely.

So, aspen trees are pretty easy to identify.

When the leaves pop, plenty of food, then look at the animals that are coming to take advantage of it.

I love the little leaf roller... one of the moths that rolls things up almost like a little cigar, hanging down there.

The caterpillar lives inside and gets a little protection.

Jim> Those are caterpillars we see on the leaf?

Rudy> Well, no, those are beetle larvae believe it or not, on the leaves that are stripping the leaves.

You can see a lot of leaves missing there.

Again, they're fresh leaves, so those must be tasty for the larvae.

Just clustered together there.

One of the leaf beetles, I would suppose.

The other trees that come in here now are silver birch, Betula pendula... pendulous branches on them.

That was one really put up with high levels of radionuclides, so it survived really nicely.

Jim> It's like the mixed northern forest with a few conifers about.

Rudy> Sure...much like what you would see in the Northern United States or in Canada.

One of the ones now, here's, again, the maple, Norway maple in here just like we saw earlier.

Again, opposite leaves with that kind of red stem on it.

And then underneath that, hazelnut, that's one that a lot of animals take advantage of because of the fruit that's so quickly and easily recycled.

And then some little flowers.

Look at the white ones down here!

Starflower is the common name that we know that as in North America.

Very, very common in this region of the world, too, and it's basically the same plant.

Jim> Rudy, right beside it, looks like lily of the valley, but smaller...false lily?

Rudy> That's what we call that.

Maianthemum is the genus name.

May lily is usually the name that's given for it here.

You could see the flowers haven't opened yet, but there are clusters of flowers and two leaves on the stalk.

that ends up flowering.

Of course, you've got one nice side of the road over here.

You look on the other you see some of the same things, yet, now, there is the real lily of the valley, Look at it, spread all over the place!

And this is the time of year when it pops.

It's one of those spring wildflowers that bring joy to people who see a lot of snow, and, of course, snow-white, often picked and put in a vase and given to people you care about.

Jim> Showy and snow-white.

Now, there's a yellow, mustard-looking plant that looks like it hasn't fully opened, as far as the flower.

Rudy> Well, it's one of the spurges, one of the flowering spurges.

Flowers on the spurges always look a little odd.

It seems to be very common and again doing nicely right on that disturbed side of the road.

I'll see, and I'll show you another plant that really has done well here and all over the northern hemisphere.

Bracken fern is the common name for that, stem underground, and you can see new leaves coming up.

Here it's just called "bracken."

But this is a fern you see in North America and Europe, a really widespread species, makes adjustments nicely.

One other plant down there, compound leaves on it... rowan-tree is one common names for it here.

Often called mountain-ash in North America.

But again, what a wonderful mix of plants in here!

Butterflies now coming to that flowering spurge.

That nice, good variety of them coming in for a sip of nectar so they can keep flying for a couple more weeks.

♪ Jim> Not much traffic on these roads near the Chernobyl reactors anymore.

Rudy> ...and the woods have gone away here.

This is a lot more open, a lot more sunlight.

And a perfect place for a snake.

Look at the grass snake, right on the side of the road there!

Let me see if I can get him in my hand real quickly.

Jim> What a beauty!

Rudy> My goodness... isn't that an interesting animal!

Jim> Up close and it looks like his tongue drooped down like he's dead!

Rudy> You're just not going to see a snake do this often, but this is playing dead, fainting death, I'd imagine, if he were on the ground, he'd roll over on his back.

Tongue out, and that's the windpipe right above it.

Oh, that's interesting... look at that thing!

I'm not going to let him turn over, but now look at the eye on it.

Round pupil in the eye, then a space, and then the nostril.

No pit that you would expect if it were one of the pit vipers.

It's is one of the nonvenomous snakes... really pretty common.

Loves water, loves wetter places, so there's water nearby.

Look at the back of the head.

Look at the markings.

Jim> Do you see that gold-yellow?

Rudy> Yeah, isn't that nice?

It doesn't form really a ring, but ringed snake is another common name for this.

And then the belly on it, sometimes really dark.

It has dark markings on the belly.

Sometimes the dark markings actually run together.

Isn't that beautiful?

Jim> Yeah.

Checkered pattern, like and I smell the musk, Rudy.

Rudy> Well, there's a lot of musk on this one.

This is one of those snakes that sprays a good amount of musk when it's picked up or something like that.

Feeds on frogs a lot, so it does like wet places.

And toads.

It recycles frogs or toads.

This is one of those snakes that lays eggs.

This isn't the time of year for egg laying, but mating has probably already occurred, or in process here.

This is about average size.

Look at him, coming back to life now!

Jim> You're going to let him go, right here?

Rudy> Oh, yeah... We've scared him enough!

Let's put him on the side here and maybe.

There he goes.

Oh, that's an interesting snake!

Jim> Really?

Rudy> The scientific name is Natrix natrix.

I love that...genus and specific name, the same.

[birds chirping] The snake's heading toward the water, so let's do the same, Jim.

A little low area here, and the world changes.

The world changes.

There are plants here we hadn't seen elsewhere.

What else do you see obviously?

Jim> Beaver activity is so obvious on the small shrubs and even larger trees.

Rudy> It's really nice and you can see that's really fresh.

That's been going on for a while.

The lodge, not out in the open because there's not much water here, quite frankly.

But that's probably the lodge right there with all the logs piled up on the side.

I guess they burrow back in the bank.

Whenever you dam up something like this-- got a little extra water - - the trees that pop in.

There's the birch again that we've already seen and a relative, the alder.

The common alder comes in here nicely.

I see it with last year's fruit on it.

It almost looks like little cones.

I also see some male flowers hanging down on it.

That's just like the alders that you would see in the United States.

Different species perhaps, but genus, Alnus, a-l-n-u-s. Jim> Beavers love birch and alders, but now here's Scots pine, that reddish bark.

They wouldn't go for that, that much.

Rudy> That's probably the last resort, but I imagine they would take advantage of it.

Scots pine, pretty widespread on the continent of Europe.

You see the way the bark peels off up there at the top.

That's a typical species in sandy areas, and this place is usually relatively dry, but it does extra especially well when it's down by water.

One other plant down there.

See the yellow flowers on there?

Marsh marigold is one of the common names for that.

That's a gorgeous spring wildflower, and it's here at the right time of year.

I love that color!

Jim> Associated with wetlands?

Rudy> Yes...and wetlands in Europe as well as wetlands in North America.

[birds chirping] (Jim) A thatched roof on one old log house in "Old Settlement."

This was settled by folks several hundred years ago who were persecuted for religious reasons, came here, and had to move after the accident.

Rudy> Held up really well... thatching is going, but Lilacs everywhere... not only beautiful to look at, but boy, those smells are nice!

Spectacular place, even though people haven't lived here for a while, but there are things surviving.

Look at the sand right there!

Sand lizard, common name for that one with that brown stripe down the back.

Jim> Would that be something we might see back in the States, as well?

Rudy> Well, we have lizards that are not related directly to that one, but they're all over Europe.

There are a number of species.

That looks like a female, with eggs inside... Look how big she is.

She's probably got eggs inside that she'll be laying soon.

A perfect place for something called a sand lizard, for sure.

Jim> This old settlement was one of 74 towns and villages that had to be evacuated because of the accident.

Close-by is the cemetery that served this area for so many years.

Rudy> That's beautiful up on the sandy ridge with the pines.

Once you've got a lot of deep sand, Scots pines seem to dominate.

Then moose droppings telling us that, that largest of the deer are here.

Sometimes that's called an elk in Europe, but we know it as a moose.

It seems to be pretty common when you add a little water and get a little lower.

[birds chirping] Jim> We're on a street in the town of Kupovatey, one of the settlements that was vacated because it is in the exclusion zone with radiation.

Then people began to want to come back, come back home.

They had a connection with the land, and so resettlers have moved back here.

Fifty or so people living in this community.

Very different from the earlier village, where nobody's been back since the '86 removal.

Look at the fences here, in much better shape, and houses with really good roofs on them, and people--look at that-- working out in the field.

Those look like pretty rich soils out there.

Jim> Great gardens they're putting in, because this town is now worked again, people using these streets, the barns, and the houses.

(bird sounds) Rudy> And the clappering.

Listen to that!

I heard that just a moment ago!

Right up here, white storks on the nest.

Two of them, basically announcing that they're back.

They spend the winter much farther south in Africa, come back, settle in, sometimes reuse the same nest, but I guess it's first come, first serve.

They're proud that they're the first pair here.

They mate for life, you know.

They're so close to the village and the people.

that doesn't bother them?

Rudy> That direct connection between that bird and people, is something I think has been going on for thousands of years.

Villages without people are without storks.

Great flyers too.

And that bird takes off and spreads its wings, it's really an amazing sight!

A lot of white on it, but when the wings are spread, you see the black on the wings too, a little more obviously than when they're sitting there.

They can soar way, way up, and like we said, they go all the way to Africa and back in the migration pattern.

Finding food now, invertebrates mainly, out in the fields.

A lot of the fields that they go to are the fields that are plowed by humans, with tractors and by hand, exposing animals.

Then you bring them back to the nest when you finally have young in there.

Jim> What about radiation factor here?

Rudy> There's got to be radiation still left here, but those birds are active and, of course, made the comeback just like people did.

One of the plants that loves to pop up in places along the roadsides... speedwell, Jim, common name for it.

Genus name is Veronica.

I think that's a beautiful little flower!

It's kind of small, but when you look at it closely, it's nice.

Jim> Plants and animals both coming back.

There's a little insect nearby.

Rudy> Ladybird beetle there, a lot of red on it with the black spots, a little white on the front.

Wonderful recycler of aphids... not only the adult, but the larva, kill and feed on aphids.

So, that's a perfect insect for a farming community like this.

And then, to give you some idea of how long these houses have been here, look at that giant oak, that's European oak.

And that is a monster.

When you see a tree like that, you usually suppose it was in a community and left because it was close to buildings and not cut for fields.

Jim> Nature is coming back to Chernobyl... plants, animals, and people.

It's good to see it even though we're in the exclusion zone.

Rudy> Well, nature is very resilient.

There have been modifications, certainly.

The first modifications were death for lots of plants and animals, but nature is on the way back, just like the resettlers are.

Jim> Thanks for watching "NatureScene" at Chernobyl, Ukraine.

We'll see you again next time.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (ocean waves crashing) Narrator> This "NatureScene " special is made possible in part by... a grant from the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust William E. Murray Trustee (ocean waves crashing) Additional support is provided by the School of the Environment at the University of South Carolina.

(ocean waves crashing) and by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.