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Chernobyl Shrunk Birds’ Brains

February 11, 2011 by Corey 1 Comment

Chernobyl, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in world history, serves as an exemplar of just how far humans can go in destroying the natural world.  A recent study conducted by a team led by University of South Carolina biology professor Dr. Timothy Mousseau showed that the long-term results of the 1986 disaster include smaller brains in birds, five percent smaller on average, to be exact.  This is obviously not good for the birds:

In this study, published this month in the journal PLoS One, Mousseau and his colleagues studied 550 birds belonging to 48 different species living in exclusion zones set up around the site of the accident. The researchers found the small brains were particularly evident in the youngest birds.

“This suggests that many of the birds with smaller brains are not surviving to the next year, perhaps related to decreased cognitive abilities.” “Mousseau said not only are their brains smaller, but it seems they are not as capable at dealing with their environment as evidenced by their lower rates of survival”.

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.