Rare animals are returning to Chernobyl (PHOTOS)

The population of wild animals has increased immensely during the last 30 years. Nowadays, are a lot of foxes, deer, and wolves. Agro-Center writes about the return of the animals with reference to The Telegraph.

Researchers believe that the absence of humans is the primary cause of the growth of the wild. The British newspaper cites the report published in Current Biology magazine. Researchers used a helicopter and followed animal tracks in the snow. They wanted to track the wildlife Chernobyl region.

It turned out that even rare species of animals like, for example, Eurasian lynx, have returned to the abandoned area. A European white bear, which hadn’t been seen in this area for almost a century, has returned, as well as a large population of wolves, wild boar, roe deer, and foxes.

According to professor Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth, the Chernobyl accident did not cause severe damage to the environment:

“The accident had created a nature reserve. We are not saying that radiation is safe for animals. But humans and the exploitation of the land are worse”,

says professor.

The return of wild animals to the abandoned zone is well documented. In 2013, in Belarus, the police and hunters began hunting for wolves from Chernobyl.
In November 2014, researchers set 42 cameras on the Ukrainian side to monitor the growth of wild animal populations. The research results show new pictures of endangered species, including rare species such as bison, bear and even Przewalski’s horse.

Ukrainian scientist Sergiy Gaschak from the International Radioecology Laboratory of the Chornobyl Center began researching the wildlife of the area with photo-traps. Here’s what his camera managed to catch: