A family of moose roams free in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. (Photo : Valeriy Yurko/Polessye State Radioecological Reserve/University of Georgia)
After what could be considered as the world's worst nuclear accident, the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant was evacuated in 1986 after an explosion and a devastating fire, is now teeming with wildlife under well protected nature reserves according to scientists from University of Georgia and Portsmouth University.
Researchers conducted a detailed survey of this vast forested region around the collapsed plant where large terrestrial animals such as elk and different kinds of deer like roe and red deer along with wolves and wild boar thrive, even if their habitat is contaminated with radioactive fallout.
However, there was no evidence recorded that can support prior studies how wildlife in the region have suffered from radiation that escaped after the accident in Chernobyl in 1986, sending intense radioactive emissions across large parts of northern Europe leading to more radiation "hotspots" inside the exclusion zone.
During this nuclear disaster, more than 116,000 local residents were evacuated around the zone in Chernobyl, covering 4,200 square kilometers where only nuclear personnel and construction workers were able to have access to the site to monitor and maintain the reactors from further harm.
Since human activity disappeared from the exclusion zone, wildlife in the region gained more benefits when it comes to establishing a rich habitat than the damage that was already plaguing the radioactive zone from exposure to radioactive elements, researchers say.
According to lead author of the study Jim Smith from the Portsmouth University, it is estimated that wildlife population numbers are much higher than before the accident which does not mean that radiation is good for wildlife but apparently, human habitation that includes hunting and farming are worse for animals.
Using different field surveys and computer models to analyze the density of animal populations in the exclusion zone, researchers discovered no evidence that suggest that any animal species specifically mammals suffer from adverse effects from the nuclear fallout.
The results reveal for the first time that potential radiation effects on animals inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone could support a thriving mammal community after 30 years of chronic exposure to radiation.
In the early 1990s, population numbers of elk and wild boar were plummeting after the collapse of the Soviet Union but researchers say that the same populations were increasing in the exclusion zone. Wolves inside the zone were also seven times higher than other nature reserves in the region.
This new study is published in the journal Current Biology.
