Dogs with Blue Fur Spotted in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (3 photos + 1 video)
Such individuals had never been seen in the zone before. 
Dogs with unusual blue fur have been discovered in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone—a phenomenon that has sparked intense debate among scientists and animal rights activists. According to the British newspaper Daily Mail and volunteers with the American "Dogs of Chernobyl" program (Clean Futures Fund), packs of completely blue individuals were captured on camera several months ago. Despite their alarming fur color, the animals are active and show no signs of illness or weakness.
Since 2017, participants in the "Dogs of Chernobyl" program have been caring for approximately 700 dogs living in the 45-square-kilometer exclusion zone. Volunteers feed the dogs and periodically draw their blood for testing.
Experts suspect that the dogs' coloring may have been caused by exposure to chemicals, which is indirectly confirmed by local animal volunteers: blue dogs have never been seen in the zone before, and they likely were exposed to some chemical. In other words, the dogs simply rolled in a blue solution, and once the chemical washes off, their fur will return to its normal color. At the same time, genetic studies show that Chernobyl dogs have acquired a number of unique characteristics over the years of living in radioactively contaminated conditions. These include resistance to heavy metals and radiation, as well as specific differences from other populations.
These animals are direct descendants of domestic dogs abandoned after the evacuation in 1986. The populations formed in the four decades since the accident demonstrate close connections within the exclusion zone ecosystem, maintain contact with each other, and differ from other breeds. Until recently, according to observers, there were no blue dogs among the dogs – they appeared quite recently and remain rare.
