japan, page-7

I just watched a fascinating doco about how wildlife has flourished inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone after the people left.

It`s remarkable how resilient life can be.

Wildlife status

The Exclusion Zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station is reportedly a haven for wildlife.[13][14] As humans were evacuated from the area 25 years ago, existing animal populations multiplied and rare species not seen for centuries have returned or have been reintroduced, for example lynx, wild boar, wolf, Eurasian brown bear, European bison, Przewalski's horse, and eagle owl.[13][14] Birds even nest inside the cracked concrete sarcophagus shielding in the shattered remains of Reactor 4.[15] The Exclusion Zone is so lush with wildlife and greenery that in 2007 the Ukrainian government designated it a wildlife sanctuary,[16][17] and at 488.7 km2 it is one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in Europe.[14]

According to a 2005 U.N. report, wildlife has returned despite radiation levels that are presently 10 to 100 times higher than normal background radiation. Although they were significantly higher soon after the accident, the levels have fallen because of radioactive decay.[15]

Biologist Anders Møller from the University of Paris Sud in France has been examining the effects of radiation on animals around Chernobyl for two decades. "Areas with higher radiation have fewer animals, survival and reproduction is reduced, sperm are abnormal and have reduced swimming ability. Abnormalities are commonplace and mutations rates are much elevated," Møller said.

Last year[when?], Møller and Tim Mousseau published the results of the largest census of animal life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone [2]. It revealed, contrary to the Chernobyl Forum's 2005 report[3], that biodiversity in insects, birds and mammals is declining. Not all species are affected by radiation in the same way according to Møller. Some birds -- including migrant species and long distance dispersers -- are more vulnerable to radiation than others, he said. Martin Hajduch said animal numbers in the exclusion zone are probably higher now than before the accident. But that's because there are no humans there hunting or fishing.[citation needed]

"But if you look at how many species of animals are in the area, I think it would be less," Hajduch said.[4]

Some researchers say that by halting the destruction of habitat, the Chernobyl disaster helped wildlife flourish. Biologist Robert J. Baker of Texas Tech University was one of the first to report that Chernobyl had become a wildlife haven and that many rodents he has studied at Chernobyl since the early 1990s have shown remarkable tolerance for elevated radiation levels.[15][17]

Møller et al. (2005) suggested that reproductive success and annual survival rates of barn swallows are much lower in the Chernobyl exclusion zone; 28% of barn swallows inhabiting Chernobyl return each year, while at a control area at Kanev 250 km to the southeast, the return rate is around 40%.[18][19] A later study by Møller et al. (2007) furthermore claimed an elevated frequency of 11 categories of subtle physical abnormalities in barn swallows, such as bent tail feathers, deformed air sacs, deformed beaks, and isolated albinistic feathers.[20]

Smith et al. (2007) have disputed Møller's findings and instead proposed that a lack of human influence in the exclusion zone locally reduced the swallows' insect prey and that radiation levels across the vast majority of the exclusion zone are now too low to have an observable negative effect.[21] But the criticisms raised were responded to in Møller et al. (2008).[22] It is possible that barn swallows are particularly vulnerable to elevated levels of ionizing radiation because they are migratory; they arrive in the exclusion area exhausted and with depleted reserves of radio-protective antioxidants after an arduous journey.[18]

Several research groups have suggested that plants in the area have adapted to cope with the high radiation levels, for example by increasing the activity of DNA cellular repair machinery and by hypermethylation.[23][24][24][25] (see Radiation Hormesis). Given the uncertainties, further research is needed to assess the long-term health effects of elevated ionizing radiation from Chernobyl on flora and fauna.[15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_after_the_disaster#Wildlife_status