yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

30 Years After Chernobyl, Nature Is Thriving | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

The large reason why these animals seem to be persisting in high densities or a high abundance within the exclusion zone is because of the absence of humans. It's absolutely normal. As you drive around the exclusion zone, you're overcome by all the lush nature. It's really an eerie reminder of the tragic human impact that occurred there back around 30 years ago.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone is basically a 30 km radius that was created that extends around the nuclear reactor where the accident occurred. Within that 30 km zone, that's where preventive measures were taken to exclude people. So all the towns, villages, cities within that area, that 30 km area, were evacuated.

Thirty years after the accident, this woodland has increased up to one and a half or more times. So now approximately 70% of the area is under the forest. If you talk about large mammals like carnivores and ungulates, it's really good habitat because it's a wild territory now, and especially this very wild spot along the border with Belarus.

Also, many different water sources are like lakes and rivers and springs. The work that we've been involved with in the Chernobyl exclusion zone has been to look at the distribution and relative abundance of wildlife, particularly large mammals, and especially carnivores, specifically looking at radiation contaminations.

So as you move from areas of low to high contamination, do you see a subsequent drop-off in the number of species that you detect, the relative abundance of those animals? The species we most commonly documented were raccoon dogs, large numbers of photographs of gray wolves, red fox, Eurasian boar, and Eurasian badger.

When we have human-dominated landscapes, we have lower densities of animals, especially animals that come into conflict with humans like wolves. After people were removed, even though the landscape was highly contaminated, it allowed them to increase.

What this research is not looking at is the individual health of those animals. So it doesn't suggest that these animals are incredibly healthy, although on the surface, they appear very healthy. It doesn't imply that there aren't more subtle genetic effects, and that's an important area that I think we need to continue to explore with future research down the road.

More Articles

View All
All in for Education Livestream with Sal Khan
And she started using the printing out transcripts of Khan Academy - and get-and giving him these sheets of the stacks of paper when she visited him in prison. Through just the transcripts, Jason was able to start realizing that he, you know, in school, h…
Black Holes, Blazars, and Women of Color in Science | Nat Geo Live
JEDIDAH ISLER: Studying science changed me and it allows me to make contributions into the world. And everyone, regardless of their identity, should have that right. We cannot get to the best possible exploration, whether it’s on this planet or beyond, if…
Infinity
So imagine you’re Usain Bolt. You’re like six and a half feet tall. You have a couple Olympic medals—no biggie. You show up to your final Olympic race, and your only opponent is a tortoise. For some reason, he has gold medals around his neck. He can talk …
3 habits that boost mental clarity
I don’t know about you guys, but every once in a while, I’ll just have a day where my brain is actually working well. The gears of my mind are fully lubricated, fully torqued. When I’m in a conversation with somebody, I don’t have to search for the right …
Capturing Death - What One Photographer Learned on Assignment | Exposure
How do you want to die? Is really the question. You know, what is the quality of your death? What is the quality of a good death? It is the thing that we’re most afraid of. You’re going to die. You will be no more. Who, whoever it is that you believe you …
Exploring the Active Volcano of Mauna Loa | National Geographic
(Nature. The most powerful creative force on earth.) I’m Chef Melissa King. Cooking has taken me to incredible places, from TV competitions and celebrity galas to countries around the world. I’m heading out to places I’ve never been before to seek out ne…