Brown bears seen in Chernobyl after 100-year absence

A team of scientists has been using camera traps to try to learn more about the impact of nuclear radiation on wildlife.

"Our Ukrainian colleague, Sergey Gashchak, had several of his camera traps running in one of our central areas over the past few months in order to start to get a feel for what (wildlife) was there," project leader Mike Wood from the University of Salford told the BBC.

"There have been suggestions that [the bears] have existed there previously but, as far as we know, no-one has got photographic evidence of one being present on the Ukrainian side of the exclusion zone," he said.

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At least 110,000 people were evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986 when a nuclear reactor exploded and began shooting radioactive debris into the atmosphere. The local community was immediately moved outside a 30km-radius exclusion zone.

The area has subsequently been studied closely by scientists hoping to learn more about the impact of radioactive contamination.

Wood's team's research is part of a study called Transfer, Exposure, Effects [Tree], which aims to shed light on the impact of radiation on humans and wildlife and to potentially "reduce unnecessary conservatism in risk calculations".

Tree's photographic exercise will be followed up with a trapping and collaring campaign.

"This opens up the opportunity for us to not only test models of how well we can predict radiation exposure but [also]... do some very direct studies on the results between the field radiation exposure and radiation effects," Wood said.