Gallery: Wildlife is thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone Gallery Gallery: Wildlife is thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone + 31

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The Chernobyl exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife, with animals more abundant now than before the devastating nuclear disaster of April 1986.

A new study from the University of Portsmouth looked at how wildlife in the area had coped over the past 29 years. The team found that a huge range of plants and animals weren't just surviving, but actually thriving. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.


Exclusion zone entry point Tom Hinton

It's no secret that plants have been flourishing in the immediate vicinity of the explosion for years -- and drone footage from Chernobyl that went viral last year shocked everyone with its greenery. But researchers have now found that animals are also thriving in the 2,600 square kilometre exclusion zone.

It doesn't say that nuclear accidents aren't bad, of course they are professor Jim Smith, University of Portsmouth

Photographs taken from the area to accompany the new study show animal life is more abundant than it was before the disaster, bolstered by the near total lack of human contact.


In collaboration with the Polesky State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus, researchers were able to explore data from a number of long-term aerial surveys and animal tracks, which counted a host of mammals, including elk, deer, boar and wolves.

. "But it illustrates that the things we do everyday, the human population pressure, damages the environment. It's kind of obvious but it's an amazing illustration of it.”

Although Professor Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina told the BBC that the new study should be approached with caution -- especially when it comes to the wellbeing of small animals. "This study only applies to large mammals under hunting pressure, rather than the vast majority of animals - most birds, small mammals, and insects -- that are not directly influenced by human habitation," Mousseau said.