Terrifying radioactive boars in Japan are multiplying faster than they can be killed and buried

Radioactive boars living around the Fukushima nuclear site in Japan are wreaking havoc as they run rampant in the region unchecked, The Independent reports. Following the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in 2011, a quarantine zone was established to keep humans safe from leaked radioactive material. As a result, the boars, whose population had been controlled by human hunters, have flourished, eating nuclear-contaminated foods and destroying the local agriculture. The boars have reportedly caused around $873,000 in damage to local farms.

In an attempt to curb the exploding population, the boars are being killed faster than they can even be buried. Containing 600 boars per mass grave, the city of Nihonmatsu has actually run out of public land they can use to dispose of the pests. Authorities have resorted to trying to incinerate the boars instead, but that too has proven to be difficult; hunters have tried burying carcasses themselves, but the boars are often dug up by wild dogs. The boars can grow to be massive, too, regularly weighing around 220 pounds.

While the boars were a local delicacy before the nuclear meltdown, tests have shown them to now be too contaminated for human consumption. The area directly around Fukushima remains at levels of radiation 300 times what is safe for people.

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While local plants and insects have shown mutations from the radioactive material, there is not yet evidence the boars are suffering from the radiation.