Animals Thriving In Chernobyl Site 30 Years After Incident

In 1986, when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, the area became so dangerous that more than 100,000 people had to be evacuated to keep them away from the radioactive material that spread to Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Unfortunately, the animals were not top priority, and now, it seems that they are growing in number in one of the most radioactive sites on Earth.

30 years after nuclear disaster at #Chernobyl, it's not certain how radiation is affecting wildlife: https://t.co/7s3OLEAyhj

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) April 18, 2016

Considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history in terms of costs and casualties, it involved over 500,000 workers, 31 deaths, and an estimated cost of 18 billion rubles. The incident is only one of two level 7 (maximum classification) events on the International Nuclear Even Scale. The other is more recent - the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 in Japan.

In a study by Current Biology published in September, there are large numbers of different mammals like elk, deer, wild boar, and even wolves living in the area surrounding Chernobyl. The paper stated that it found no correlations between the number of wildlife tracks and the amount of radiation, suggesting that animals aren't as heavily affected by the hazardous materials as scientists initially thought.

The Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment backed these findings in their more recent study, where they used camera traps to model the animal population - and of course, get photographs from the supposedly abandoned area. Among the animals they recorded to be living there included the gray wolf, red fox, raccoon dog, and Eurasian boar - all of which are thriving in population.

Other animals present are weasels, badgers, moose, and even pine martens. However, the health of these animals weren't actually measured, and there are other studies that suggest the exposure to radiation may have reduced fertility rates of some animals - like birds - living around the Chernobyl site, although many other species seem to be doing just fine.