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Study: Chernobyl area has 'abundant wildlife'

By Shawn Price

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Large mammal populations are growing in the Chernobyl power plant area, a new study found.

In an article for the journal Current Biology, the area known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone -- the 1,000 square-mile area around the infamous nuclear power plant -- is seeing populations of some large mammals that are higher than they were before the accident.

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The area has been free of human intrusion since it was evacuated in 1986 after the plant's reactor disaster.

Researchers have found elk, roe deer, red deer and wild boar numbers similar to those in four uncontaminated nature reserves nearby. Wolf numbers were found to be seven times higher.

"These results demonstrate for the first time that, regardless of potential radiation effects on individual animals, the Chernobyl exclusion zone supports an abundant mammal community after nearly three decades of chronic radiation exposures," researchers said.

But professor Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth, who led the study, made it clear the numbers do "not mean that radiation is good for wildlife."

"It's just that the effects of human habitation, including hunting, farming and forestry, are a lot worse," Smith said.

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He said the long-term census results show what happens to wildlife "when you take humans out of the picture."

The study did not look at the long-term health effects of radiation on individual animals.

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