Brown bears have moved into Chernobyl exclusion zone

BBC : Following the 1986 explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, a 30-km-radius exclusion zone was established around the site, and everyone living inside that area was relocated. Since then, the area has been extensively monitored for the effects of radiation on plant and animal life. A team of researchers led by Mike Wood of the University of Salford in the UK recently spotted a brown bear in footage taken by some of the cameras distributed around the exclusion zone. Not only is this the first confirmed sighting of a brown bear in the area since the explosion, it’s the first brown bear seen in the area in more than 100 years. Wood and his team monitor several areas in the exclusion zone that have varying levels of radiation contamination. They plan to tag and track larger mammals in the area to study the effects of the contamination on the animals.