A team of scientists from the University of Georgia (USA) noted that in previous studies they had seen evidence of wildlife diversity in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but that white-tailed eagles, American minks and river otters were recorded by their cameras for the first time. As for the people, it is not known whether they will ever be able to return here and live in peace.
The word Chernobyl probably conjures up eerie images of buildings long abandoned by residents who fled from the fallout. But this territory in Ukraine is far from deserted, as evidenced by research showing that a variety of animals live there, from eagles to otters.
After the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986 in what is widely believed to be the worst nuclear disaster in human history, people fled an area of 1,000 square miles north of Kiev, known as the exclusion zone. Since then, scientists have been enthusiastically studying the animals that can inhabit this isolated area on the border of Ukraine and Belarus.
Especially to study the presence of scavengers, scientists from the University of Georgia tied fish to the remains and debris of trees, to branches, and placed it at 83 points along the Pripyat River, as well as in irrigation canals built by villagers in the early 20th century. The experiment was designed to reflect how fish are naturally transported along the river's edge. The lures were located at a distance of at least 1.1 thousand yards from each other, so scavengers did not get used to visiting the test sites. The researchers set up cameras to capture the animals that were tempted by the fish treat.
A week later, 98% of the fish carcasses were eaten. Cameras recorded ten species of mammals and five species of birds eating fish: mouse, weasel, American mink, Eurasian otter, pine marten, raccoon dog, red fox, wolf, Eurasian jay, common magpie, raven, owl and white-tailed eagle. In the course of various experiments, it turned out that the largest consumers were mesocarnivores - animals such as foxes, whose diet consists of 30-70% meat.
The group then examined how river coastal animals behaved in comparison with animals in canals, as well as how much and how quickly the fish were eaten. This led the researchers to conclude that the exclusion zone "supports a highly diverse and efficient vertebrate scavenger community," they wrote in their study published in Food Webs.
Who exactly ate depended on the place: for example, scavengers were more active near river banks, because it was easier to spot fish there. Their findings are important because of the impact that scavengers have on the broader food chain, linking adjacent ecosystems, scientists say.
In a 2015 study, ecologists discovered for the first time that animals such as gray wolves inhabit an area of the order of a thousand square miles.
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“In previous studies we have seen evidence of wildlife diversity in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, but this is the first time our cameras have captured white-tailed eagles, American minks and river otters,” commented one of its authors, James Beasley, associate professor at the Ecology Laboratory. the Savannah River and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
“We tend to think that fish and other aquatic life remain in the aquatic ecosystem. This study shows that when reasonable amounts of dead fish land on shore, a whole group of terrestrial and amphibious species will carry these aquatic nutrients into the terrestrial landscape,”Beasley said.
The scavengers the research team studied are not the only animals that roam the exclusion zone. A 2018 article by The Guardian reports on the roughly 300 stray dogs in the area. Residents of nearby villages were forbidden to take pets with them during the evacuation. Most of the beasts were shot, but a few survived, leaving behind a fanged community that could fend for themselves. As for the people, it is not known whether they will ever be able to return here in peace.
Kashmira Gander