https://www.geek.com/news/study-wildlife-thriving-in-fukushima-evacuation-zone-1815556/?source

One of the many wild boars roaming the Fukushima evacuation zone (via University of Georgia)

Nearly a decade after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, wildlife populations are thriving in areas of the prefecture uninhabited by humans.

A camera study by the University of Georgia collected more than 267,000 photos and recorded 20-plus species in various parts of the landscape.

The findings—including wild boar, Japanese hare, macaques, pheasant, fox and its relative the racoon dog—were published Monday in the Journal of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Scientists and laypeople alike are understandably curious about the status of flora and fauna after a nuclear accident like those in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Well, thanks to a similar camera study in Ukraine last year, UGA has some answers.

“Our results represent the first evidence that numerous species of wildlife are now abundant throughout the Fukushima Evacuation Zone, despite the presence of radiological contamination,” according to UGA wildlife biologist James Beasley, an associate professor at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

The team identified three research zones, as previously established by the Japanese government after the 2011 accident:

• Highest level of contamination—humans excluded
• Intermediate level of contamination—humans restricted
• Very low (“background” levels of contamination—humans inhabited

For 120 days, cameras captured 46,000-plus images of wild boar from 106 sites.

The creatures, often in conflict with humans, were most frequently photographed in empty areas of Fukushima: More than 26,000 snapshots of the swine came from the uninhabited zone (versus 20,000 in total between the restricted and inhabited regions).

Other species such as racoons, Japanese marten, and monkeys were also seen in higher numbers in the uninhabited and restricted regions.

“This research makes an important contribution because it examines radiological impacts to populations of wildlife, whereas most previous studies have looked for effects to individual animals,” Thomas Hinton, a professor at the Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University, said.

Taking into consideration other variables (distance to road, time of activity [based on cameras’ date/time stamps], vegetation, etc.), the team found that extent of human activity, elevation, and habitat type—not radiation levels—were primary factors in population growth.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident—the most severe since 1986’s Chernobyl disaster—was started by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Radiation released into the atmosphere forced some 154,000 residents to leave nearby communities and created a 20-kilometer (12.5-mile) evacuation zone around the Fukushima plant.

An ongoing intensive cleanup program to decontaminate affected areas and decommission the plant is estimated to take up to 40 years.

More on Geek.com:

• New Snake-Like Bot to Probe Innards of Fukushima Reactor
• Chernobyl Vodka Made in Exclusion Zone Coming Soon
• Google AI Lets Anyone Track Global Wildlife