The nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima serve as poignant reminders of the impacts humans have on the environment. Following the accidents, expansive human evacuation zones were created at both sites to safeguard human health, and today these landscapes remain some of the most contaminated ecosystems globally. Despite the contamination, wildlife have been allowed to persist in these landscapes, and in some cases species have been actively introduced into the evacuation zones, which are now serving as de-facto nature preserves due to the limited human presence in these areas. As a result, the status and health of wildlife populations that now inhabit Chernobyl and Fukushima are of substantial scientific and public interest, yet remain largely unknown. In this talk I will present the results of resent studies investigating the ecology, radiation exposure, and health of wildlife inhabiting the landscapes surrounding Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Results/Conclusions
Collectively, our research suggests many mid- to large-sized mammals have increased in abundance following the evacuation of humans from these landscapes, and several species are now more abundant in human-evacuated areas than the surrounding landscape, despite the presence of radiological contamination. In particular, species that are often in conflict with humans in rural landscapes, such as wild boar (Sus scrofa), and gray wolves (Canis lupus), have responded favorably to the absence of humans, and are several times more abundant within the established human exclusion zones. Further, our data provide evidence wild boar have modulated their behavior within evacuated areas, increasing their diurnal activity in the absence of human habitation. These data provide unique evidence of the natural rewilding of the Fukushima and Chernobyl landscapes following human abandonment, and suggest that if any effects of radiological exposure in mid- to large-sized mammals exist, they occur at individual or molecular scales, and do not appear to manifest in population-level responses.