Klaus Feichtenberger

25 years after the biggest nuclear accident in history, wolves reign the radio-actively contaminated no-man's-land, the so-called exclusion zone, of Chernobyl, which stretches from Ukraine into Belarus and Russia.

Rumors about wolves in the zone have been numerous, but hard facts are still rare. Carnivore experts wanted to find answers to their questions: How are the animals dealing with radioactive pollution? Do they migrate to the zone from uncontaminated areas and then die? Or is there a resident population? If so, is it suffering or healthy, stable or even growing? Do wolves spread from Chernobyl? Does the absence of humans outweigh the hazards of radio-activity?

The Austrian-Belorusian camera team has spent more time in the forbidden zone than any media team in the past - about 100 shooting days, distributed over an entire year. It was the first foreign team to shoot in the Belorusian part of the zone and brought back the first aerials of the zone shot in 20 years.