A team of researchers from the University of Georgia led by James Beasley confirms in their new work that various animal species are abundant in this area affected 30 years ago by radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
This is the first study with remote control cameras within the so-called “exclusion zone”, which covers the borderlands of Ukraine and Belarus most affected by the disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986.
The study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, exposes the deployment of 30 cameras (attached to the structure of a tree for several days) located in 94 different areas along 3 kilometers during a period of 5 weeks. Each of the photography stations was equipped with a fatty acid smell in order to attract the animals and be able to capture them and thus obtain the desired evidence.
The scientists were thus able to document the type of species and the frequency of their visits, especially with an emphasis on carnivores, given their position in the food chain that makes them more sensitive to contamination, both by water, air or by prey that devour.
In total, they identified up to 14 species of mammals, the most frequent being wild boars, gray wolves, red foxes and raccoon or Tanuqui dogs . All of them were seen in the immediate vicinity or even within the most highly polluted areas.
