But Dr Mousseau suggests a more likely explanation is that evolution has already been at work near Chernobyl, killing off individual birds that cannot cope with the background radiation and allowing the genes of those that have some tolerance to be passed on.
These mutations didn't affect health until long after the individual had fulfilled his or her role in propagating the species, so they were more or less ignored by evolution.
"The next evolution of the portal will be what we call one-to-one, so what each individual newsagent sees will be tailored to them, " Mr Kirkwood told BBC News Online.