The Radioactive Wolfman of Chernobyl

When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down in 1987, global nuclear mutant fears exploded too. It was the biggest nuclear event in human history and humans couldn’t get away fast enough. Hundreds of thousands of survivors left everything behind and never came back.

But even the most paranoid survivor could not have predicted what would happen twenty-five years later in that nuclear wasteland they left behind.

The area around Chernobyl has evolved into a wild no-man’s land ruled by packs of radioactive wolves and their lycanthropic leader, the lupine Dr. Vadim Sidorovich, Radioactive Wolfman of Chernobyl.

Dr. Vadim was caught howling with his radioactive wolf pack in the Chernobyl woods by a PBS documentary crew who ventured into the area recently.

“He was talking to the wolves. He called them to come and they came!” said Harry Smith, who narrated the documentary.

The documentary, called Radioactive Wolves, reveals the life of the Radioactive Wolfman and his pack, one of an estimated 16 radioactive wolf packs now living in the area.

These radioactive wolves have developed some disturbing traits. Just a single hair from one’s fur or a drop of saliva from one’s mouths could poison you. Never mind their sharp teeth and claws.

And how exactly do they get on the roofs of those abandoned houses? In photo after photo, you see them on the rooftops of empty houses, howling.

And deep in the woods, Dr. Vadim Sidorovich howls back.

What are they talking about? All we know for sure at this point, is there are more and more radioactive wolves every year and nobody knows if they are being born in the area, or if they coming there, brought by the howling Dr. Vadim and his pack.

So how did a mild-mannered zoologist from the Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences in Belarus become the Radioactive Wolfman?

Well I’m trying to find that out. Here’s what I know so far. For years Dr. Vadim was famous for his work with the lupine kind. This work put him in some dangerous lupine situations.

For example when a nine-year old girl was taken or a woodcutter disappeared, leaving only his clothing behind to identify him, it was Dr. Vadim who was called to investigate. He documented these situations in a book called The Hunter and The Hunted.

During this time Dr. Vadim became famous for going right into the radioactive wolf dens full of babies, to count the pups and take DNA samples of their fur. But he had to be careful because if the mother wolf caught him there, well, let’s just say he would be the hunted. But he didn’t wear any protective gear at all.

Did Dr. Vadim get caught in a radioactive wolf mama’s cave? Or get too close to finding the truth about these disappearances? Are these radioactive wolves so dangerous they changed him without even biting?