CNN
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Nearly a decade after Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident, researchers have discovered that wildlife is thriving in areas where humans have been evacuated, despite radioactive contamination.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan. The earthquake and tsunami left more than 20,000 people dead or missing and hundreds of thousands more homeless.
Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melted, releasing radioactive material into the air and forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate the area.
Now scientists are discovering that wildlife is abundant in areas where humans no longer live.
Researchers at the University of Georgia used remote cameras to recover more than 267,000 photos of more than 20 species, including raccoons, wild boars, macaques, pheasants, foxes and Japanese rabbits, in the area surrounding the power plant.
“Our results represent the first evidence that wildlife is abundant throughout the current Fukushima evacuation zone despite radioactive contamination,” said James Beasley, associate professor at the Savannah River Institute of Ecology and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. he said in a statement.
Photographic data was collected from 106 camera sites in three districts. Areas excluded from humans due to the highest levels of contamination; Areas where human access is restricted due to moderate levels of pollution; And areas where people can stay.
Over 120 days, the cameras captured 46,000 photos of wild boars, more than 26,000 of which were taken in uninhabited areas.
On the other hand, about 13,000 photos were taken in areas where human access was restricted due to contamination, and about 7,000 photos were taken in areas where people live.
Researchers have also seen greater numbers of animals such as raccoons, Japanese martens, weasels, and Japanese macaques or monkeys in uninhabited or restricted areas.
Species considered to be in “conflict” with humans, such as wild boars, were primarily photographed in areas and areas where humans had been evacuated, Beasley said.
The study monitors radiological effects on entire wildlife populations, but does not provide an assessment of the health of individual animals, the scientists noted.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and was produced alongside the team's research on Chernobyl, where wildlife thrived in the aftermath of the disaster.