The Extreme Rewilding of Chernobyl: this is what happens when humans leave

In this video, we explore Chernobyl as an example of what happens when humans leave and nature takes over. It's the perfect example of extreme rewilding. Humans are kept out by radiation and this gives wild animals an opportunity to recolonise the area.

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WHY WE MADE THIS VIDEO
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As a kid, I've always wondered what the world would look like if we suddenly left. There was something exciting about the thought of buildings slowly crumbling and being covered in plants ... something exciting about nature returning to a place from which it had been banished.

BACKGROUND
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The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on the 26th of April 1986 whist conducting a test on the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR.
It's the long term consequences that are of interest to us here. Long story short, the accident led to widespread radioactive contamination in the surrounding areas and an exclusion zone was created. This area spans 30km in all directions from the reactor covering approximately 4,200 km2 and is pretty much uninhabited except for a small group of about 200 people living at the edge.
About 70% of the exclusion zone is forest. The monoculture pine plantations that were there in 1986 have given way to more biodiverse primary forests". Although 200km2 of those forests burned up in 2020. Which is a big shame and gave everyone a scare... Local conservationists though expect a significant recovery to take about 10 years.

So what about the wildlife?
The exclusion zone has a wide variety of species including Grey wolves, Eurasian lynx, brown bear, black storks, European bison, roe deer and boar

and studies have shown that high doses of radiation
"during the first six months after the accident significantly affected animal health and reproduction. However, any potential long-term radiation damage to populations is not apparent from" the observed trend in the population data.
In fact, the authors go on to state that
"Relative abundances of elk, roe deer, red deer and wild boar within the Chernobyl exclusion zone are similar to those in four (uncontaminated) nature reserves in the region and wolf abundance is more than 7 times higher."
"These results demonstrate that, regardless of potential radiation effects on individual animals, the Chernobyl exclusion zone supports an abundant mammal community after nearly three decades of chronic radiation exposures."

The four nature reserves areas they used for comparison in this study all had relatively smaller sizes - ranging between 1/4th and about half the size of the exclusion zone. Also, these areas have much higher population densities than the exclusion zone for obvious reasons... as most of them include scattered villages in their boundaries.

So what can we conclude from all of this?
A sad first conclusion has to be that even radiation is not as detrimental to wild ecosystems as the good old Homo Sapiens... The pressure we put on ecosystems is simply devastating.
Our second conclusion is that nature can bounce back and do so very fast when we give it the opportunity to do so.

Finally, in more practical terms, our comparison with the other four nature reserves gives us a few hints of what we need to put in place to allow wilderness to thrive. The exclusion zone has similar population densities to those other reserves but what sets it apart is the wolf and lynx densities. Large predators are a great indicator of a fully restored and self-sustaining wild ecosystem. What is special about the exclusion zone is its larger than average size and low human population density. Nature needs space. That's it. When considering the large rates of land abandonment in Europe and the opportunity this brings we could use this knowledge to plan which chunks we want to give back to nature and make sure we make them large enough to be meaningful and that we make sure to leave it alone and give it the space it needs.

⏱️TIMESTAMPS⏱️
0:00 Intro
0:16 What would the world look like if we left?
0:52 Rewilding
1:54 Chernobyl
2:42 What happened?
3:14 Long term consequences
4:14 What about the Wildlife?
5:42 Conclusion
7:26 Outro

[iamsakai]

This place should be converted in to national park, so that animals live freely n humans will stay away as usual due to radiation. Let nature heal itself

[joaocarlosferro]

The Belarusian side is protected as a nature reserve with about 200.000 ha of one of the most interesting landscapes in Europe.

[cassieoz]

It's been suggested that the lack of obvious radiation related ill health in the animals is due to their (mostly) shorter lifespans. Most of them don't live long enough to accumulate radiation damage.

[leonardowynnwidodo]

Indonesia also had a similar scenario. The area of what is now Ujung Kulon National Park used to be a village, until the eruption of Krakatoa forced the villagers to evacuate from the peninsula. As a result, nature was able to grow back, and now it houses the last population of Javan rhinos in the world

[gretukz]

Yes, rewilding in abandoned places makes sense. But those places have been abandoned for a reason. Usually it is because of difficult terrain, or the fact that the soil is not very fertile. Chernobyl is a unique case, however most places that we leave behind are pretty useless and not very rich in resources not only for us but also for the animals we are trying to bring back.

[johanvink]

videos like this makes me wish more and more that the Netherlands actually did what it promised a while back. unify all of their nature reserves into one large connected one. This wouldn't decrease the human density but at the very least not make the nature parks a bunch of unconnected islands. With how much is in these it might be as large as 1/3 of the Netherlands and there were even plans to connect it to other reserves in Belgium and Germany.

[haroldbrown]

The other place on Earth that is similar is the Korean Demilitarized Zone. It's about 250 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide. My understanding is there have basically been very few people in the zone since 1953 and as a result, the area is filled with wildlife.

[tonycr]

So sad to see that the worst thing that happened to the planet is us. The rest of the living creatures will not destroy the only place they have to live.

[ThatBritishHomestead]

This was awesome. I have always loved those photos of urban areas that are reclaimed by nature. We often see old insane asylums in this state as they are disused. Obviously not to the extent of Chernobyl.

[starboy]

It is very good that Mossy Earth helps natural environment.These ecosystems need us as much as we need them.But when give enough space, Nature will find a way.

[alanwayte]

Tragic that in April 2022 Europe is at war in the zone, and food security means less land will be available to return to rewilding as agriculture gears up especially in U.K.

[jacobrosset]

Congrats on making it to the YouTube algorithm. subscribed.

[cyruskhalvati]

The fish in the cooling channels have mutated significantly. Jeremy wade has an episode on it. The wells catfish there are completely unlike any other wells populations through the entirety of europe and asia.
The radiation in the exclusion zone may just lead to higher cancer rates, but the closer to the reactor core you get the more likely you are to see mutated populations.

[boarbot]

Glorious production from such a small creator!

[zuzanna]

About the lynx and wolf population: Carnivores need much more living space than any other species. Keep in mind a wolfpack is going to need to hunt every day or every other day at least in order to survive. They will probably need to either hunt large animals like deers or wild boars (all of them, in turn, need a large grassland or a forest to sustain their large population and not starve). So you need a vast grassland/forest to maintain a large population of deers and then these deers can only provide food for a small number of wolfs. Basically, the bigger the area, the more carnivores it can support.

[dm]

Can you imagine how beautiful this world was before mankind. A world in perfect dynamic balance. Evolving naturally, . One can only dream.

[samstone]

Great video. We always forget that we need nature to survive as a species, but nature does not need us. It will always evolve, change & recover.

[skipperg]

Actually only 50 people died due to Chernobyl accident.
A single accident at coal mine can claime several times as many lives. And that not to mention millions and millions of people who die every year due to air pollution.

[jeanml]

I enjoyed this excellent presentation! I also shared it with my child's class. They are currently learning about nuclear power plants and this is a perfect addition to the conversation about Chernobyl and re-wilding. Thank you.

[tjab]

Fantastic You folks are doing a remarkable job in educating society. Please keep up the great work!!!