Calm After the Storm
Amidst a scene of a nuclear explosion, a town flourishes, though not in the way one would think. In 1986, the town of Chernobyl, Ukraine suffered a nuclear explosion from one of their power plants. This caused 116,000 people to be homeless, as they had to be evacuated permanently from their homes. The area that they evacuated was known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone. This was a 1,000 square mile area surrounding the nuclear explosion.
Later on, researchers visited the area that was full of radiation and noticed something a1mazing. The flora and fauna of the area seemed to be thriving.
The Forests of Chernobyl
Animals and forests sprouted up in the area after people had left, despite the atmosphere that was thought to be not so liveable. The scientists observed a great amount of elk, roe deer, red deer and wild boar in this contaminated area, and noted that the number of the wolf population is actually seven times greater than those in nature reserves that aee uncontaminated.
How They Studied a Contaminated Area
The study was not the easiest to conduct. Jim Smith, who led the study through the University of Portsmouth did so by analyzing the animal populations by helicopter, so as to 1. Not disturb the animals and 2. Not have to risk the radiation still out and about through the area. His, and the researchers’, ultimate goal was to find out whether the animals were immediately affected by the radiation. The interesting piece of information they found out was that they may have been affected, but it affected them a lot less than humans living there did. Without the humans, the animals are repopulating the area because they dont have to worry about all of the ways humans lorded the land. This included population control enacted by humans, hunting, farming, or forestry. There are no limits to what the wildlife is capable of when the humans leave the picture.
Something to look at in the future would be the way animals were affected long term by the radiation that they have to deal with on a daily basis. For now, this area abandoned nuclear disaster area will remain a nature preserve, continuously expanding and untouched by human life.
