Animals can't live through radiation? Lol. They are prone to the same side-effects as humans. Those animals in Chernobyl are probably infected somehow. There's still humans that live in the general area as well.
Fur coats MIGHT stop alpha and some beta radiation, but anything above that like gamma the fur won't do crap.
All living cells will be damaged to a certain extent, with that level of radiation. Whether a tree is burned or it just has odd leaves, does not allow it to be a great and fertile place to live. Radiation is invisible, part of the 4th or 5th dimension and so nothing can really thrive in that.
The animals that live there now are mutated ancestors and prone to cancer. You could live there, but you'd die early. Your kids might have interesting mutations.
If its because of the human skin - can't we just wear super thick fur coats on our whole body?
