Animal populations in Chernobyl are thriving due to human exodus

Disaster zone resembles a wildlife sanctuary.

PETER DOCKRILL
6 OCT 2015

When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in Ukraine in 1986, it wasnt just an
environmental catastrophe for humans. The local animal wildlife took a terrible hit too, with the
radioactive dust cloud that stemmed from the explosion killing or harming a huge number of
animal species in the surrounding area.

But now, some three decades later, the animal population of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is
positively thriving, despite the lingering radiation that still permeates the landscape. The sheer
fact that virtually all of the areas human residents cleared out after the disaster, creating an
impromptu wildlife habitat free from the negative impacts we usually pose to animal species,
seems to have done them a world of good.

According to an international team of researchers, a resurgence in the numbers of elk, deer, boar,
and wolves in the 4,200-km2 Chernobyl Exclusion Zone shows that the nuclear disaster in some
ways had an eventual upside for the areas animal populations.

Its very likely that wildlife numbers at Chernobyl are much higher than they were before
the accident, said Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth in the UK. This doesnt mean
radiation is good for wildlife, just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting,
farming, and forestry, are a lot worse.

Its worth underscoring that the researchers findings arent an assessment on the impacts of
radiation on the animals theyre simply an empirical measure of population numbers sourced
from census data and helicopter surveys of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Those methods found that the populations of elk, roe deer, red deer, and wild boar in the
radiation-affected area are comparable to the animal levels in uncontaminated nature reserves in
the region. Wolf populations are particularly strong, being some seven times higher in the
Exclusion Zone than surrounding reserves.

These unique data showing a wide range of animals thriving within miles of a major nuclear
accident illustrate the resilience of wildlife populations when freed from the pressures of human
habitation, said co-author Jim Beasley of the University of Georgia.

While the researchers acknowledge that previous studies on the effects of Chernobyl showed
significant detriment to animals and their numbers, they found no evidence of a long-term impact
on population levels.
The study doesnt just show us how animals can bounce back in the face of radiation outbreaks
imposed by events like Chernobyl and Fukushima. Its also a salient reminder of the adverse
effects human habitation has on animals in their natural environment. Chernobyl was
certainly toxic, theres no doubt about that but in the long run, it appears the presence of people
is even more threatening to animal populations.

The results from these unique data will help society balance the negative impacts to wildlife
from chronic radiation exposures against how the removal of humans alleviates one of the more
persistent and ever growing stresses experienced by natural ecosystems, the researchers write.

The findings are published in Current Biology.