Image used in the book in which this cryptid was introduced
The Chernobyl Mammoth Chicken is a cryptid said to be found in Ukraine. Despite being a Ukrainian cryptid, this has only been introduced in Japanese books.
Description[]
This cryptid was introduced in a 1989 Japanese book on occult trivia. According to the book's description, this information was obtained by Trevor Holloway, a British journalist living in Russia. According to his account, the chicken, which was found in the forests of Chernobyl and was being analyzed by the Soviet Union in a laboratory, was as tall as an adult male human or taller, weighed over 100 kilograms, and was still growing.
Around 2018, an image of a large chicken was posted on Twitter as "Chernobyl Rooster", but this was merely a large breed of chicken, about 3 feet tall.
Image posted as "Chernobyl Rooster" in 2018. Now known to be a hoax.
Explanations[]
His explanation shows that the chickens were exposed to radiation after birth and grew huge. However, it does not seem plausible that radiation received after birth would cause abnormal gigantism. Therefore, this is most likely a hoax. However, it is unclear whether this is a hoax made up when writing the book or whether this hoax information was obtained from tabloids or other sources.