Dogs of an unnatural hue have been spotted running around the Chernobyl exclusion zone.
According to two Instagram posts uploaded by non-profit organization Clean Futures Fund – one a series of photos, one a video – three dogs have gone from having normal, dog-colored coats to a distinct, bright blue tinge.
"We do not know the reason and we are attempting to catch them so we can find out what is happening," Clean Futures Fund wrote on Instagram. "Most likely they're getting into some sort of chemical."
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The culprit? Nothing weird, actually, although maybe a little gross: as the non-profit told Storyful, they think the dogs may have rolled in the ooze leaking out of a nearby Porta Potty. That's dogs for you.
The Chernobyl exclusion zone has been almost completely vacant of humans since 1986, when a reactor exploded at the nuclear power plant near the town of Pripyat, Ukraine. Since then, a large radioactive area around the plant, including Pripyat, has been off-limits to any humans without the proper government approval.
When the people of Pripyat evacuated in 1986, however, many had to leave their beloved pets behind. The descendants of those pets – and wild animals – have made the exclusion zone their home, where they appear to thrive.
The Clean Futures Fund has been working on the Dogs of Chernobyl project since 2017 to feed and monitor the cats and dogs that roam the area, catching and sterilizing them where possible to help keep feral populations under control. The three dogs were spotted in early October during the course of this work.
"No they have not turned blue because of radiation and no, we are not saying they have turned blue because of radiation," Clean Futures Fund asserted. "These are simply some dogs that got into some blue stuff and we are trying to catch them so that we can sterilize them."
And, as Dogs of Chernobyl veterinarian Jennifer Betz told IFLS, "I would suspect, as long as they don't lick the majority of the substance off of their fur, it would be mostly harmless."