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Wildlife wonderland

Chernobyl — Just over 30 years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant forced the evacuation of almost 100,000 people and left parts of Europe cowering in fear over the resulting radioactive cloud.

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Chernobyl — Just over 30 years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant forced the evacuation of almost 100,000 people and left parts of Europe cowering in fear over the resulting radioactive cloud.

A contaminated exclusion zone around the plant has been free of humans since, with empty buildings and other structures standing in silent testimony to the tragedy that befell the area, in the Ukraine, in 1986.

But nature has not stood still. The exit of humans has allowed flora and fauna to reclaim the area, and a new study has shown that both animal and plant life are flourishing there.

The study, conducted by biologist Jim Beasley and colleagues at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, used remotely triggered cameras, which captured several species including wolves, foxes and boars.

As shown in these pictures, the study supports anecdotal evidence that wildlife is doing well in the region despite the catastrophic events of three decades ago.

Proof that carnivores are thriving within the exclusion zone has especially thrilled researchers, who note it is evidence that the animals are making a comeback despite being exposed to radiation both from the environment as well as their prey.

Some scientists have also used the photos to highlight the damage that humans do to the environment, and how it flourishes without man.

“It shows, I think, how much damage we do,” Mr Jim Smith, an environmental science professor at the University of Portsmouth and author of a 2015 study, was quoted as saying in The Washington Post.

“Not that radiation isn’t bad,” he told the newspaper, “but what people do when they’re there is so much worse”.

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