Passage Summary: Even though the animals living near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are highly radioactive, their populations are actually booming.

Reasoning: The 1986 Chernobyl accident contaminated the area with radiation, and current wildlife there have high radiation levels in their bodies, yet wildlife populations in that region have grown significantly since the disaster.

Analysis: The paradox here is the conflict between the known harmful effects of radiation and the observed population growth. To resolve this, we need a factor that explains how the benefit of living in this area outweighs the cost of the radiation. Perhaps the evacuation of humans—who hunt animals and destroy habitats—provided a safer environment for wildlife than the radiation-free world they lived in before. Look for an answer that introduces a positive environmental change that compensates for the radiation's negative impact.