Scientists hope that brown bears will return to permanent residence near the Chernobyl Biosphere Reserve.
In 2022, the presence of a brown bear was again recorded on the territory of the Chernobyl Radiation and Ecological Biosphere Reserve.
As reported on the reserve’s Facebook page, last year bears were captured by camera traps in the southern part of the reserve. This is already the second visually confirmed appearance of this large mammal on the territory of the Chernobyl reserve.
“Like in 2020, in 2022, we again recorded a brown bear in the protected territories. We hope that this individual will stay here permanently,” the reserve’s employees said.
They reminded that the photomonitoring of large mammals in this territory was started in 2020 as part of the project “Forest – Wild Nature Without Borders”, which is being released in partnership with the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Ukraine (FZS Ukraine).
In the same year, a brown bear was photographed for the first time on the territory of the reserve.
In 2022, due to occupation and hostilities, research was suspended. But at the beginning of the summer, the work of the office of the biosphere reserve in Chornobyl was resumed, and in view of the security and regime requirements, scientific research was continued.
Brown bears in Ukraine
Until the 17th century, the range of this largest predator covered the entire forest and forest-steppe zone of the territory of modern Ukraine. However, due to the anthropogenic transformation of the natural environment at the beginning of the 20th century, the bear survived only in the Carpathians.
They started talking about its appearance in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2001-2002. However, no signs of the species’ permanent presence on the territory were found at that time.
In 2010, bear “bumps” were recorded on a pine trunk, identified by qualified zoologists. In 2014-2016, employees of the Chornobyl Center NSU obtained reliable certificates of the presence of the species with the help of camera traps. However, until 2020, there was no reliable information about the status of the bear’s presence – are they residents or “guests”, their numbers, etc.
