Wildlife rebounding in Chernobyl area
The exclusion zone around Chernobyl has become a new home for wildlife, researchers say. Stock image.
The research, published Oct. 5, in the journal Current Biology, sheds light on the resiliency of animals in the wake of a nuclear accident that raised international alarm.
It has been nearly 30 years since explosions at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. Technicians had been conducting an experiment when the accident occurred April 25- 26, 1986. Two workers died the night of the accident, and 28 others died within the next few weeks as the result of acute radiation poisoning, according to the World Nuclear Association.
“Extremely high dose rates during the first six months after the accident significantly affected animal health and reproduction at Chernobyl,” recounted the study, "Long-term census data reveal abundant wildlife populations at Chernobyl." But any long-term radiation damage to populations is "not apparent from our trend analysis of large mammal abundances.”
For all species, researchers said, their work “rejected radioactive contamination as an important predictor of mammal density” within the Polessye State Radioecological Reserve, the Belarus sector of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The Belarus and Ukrainian sectors of the exclusion zones have similar radiation levels, according to the research.
Compared with four uncontaminated reserves in Belarus, similar densities of elk, red deer, roe deer and wild boar were found, the authors wrote. Wolf density at the reserve was actually seven times higher.
The research was conducted by an international team -- two scientists affiliated with the Polessye State Radioecological Reserve, another from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, a researcher from Fukushima University, Japan, two researchers from the United Kingdom and James Beasley, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.
In a news release from the University of Georgia, Beasley remarked, "Our data are a testament to the resiliency of wildlife when freed from direct human pressures such as habitat loss, fragmentation and persecution." The multiyear data show that “a multitude of wildlife species are abundant throughout the zone, regardless of the level of radiation contamination."
Sources:
- Current Biology: Long-term census data reveal abundant wildlife populations at Chernobyl, Deryabina, T.G., et al.
- University of Georgia Today: International research team finds thriving wildlife populations in Chernobyl.
- The New York Times: Soviet Announces Nuclear Accident at Electric Plant, April 28, 1986.
- World Nuclear Association: Chernobyl Accident 1986.
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