The peer-reviewed study, published this past week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, found in the boars high levels of radiation that the researchers believe come from nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere carried out long before the Chernobyl meltdown.
It also answers a question that has stumped researchers and hunters: Why is the radiation in the wild boar population relatively high, when most other wildlife are uncontaminated, many generations after the accident?
(Spoiler: It’s because they eat deer truffles.)
The findings were so unexpected that when Georg Steinhauser, the paper’s lead researcher, and a colleague first saw the results, they thought there had been a mistake.
“That can’t be right — that’s not possible,” Professor Steinhauser recalled his colleague exclaiming.
Persons:
Georg Steinhauser, Steinhauser, Martin Steiner
Organizations:
Science & Technology, German Federal Office for Radiation
Locations:
Central Europe, Ukraine, Bavaria, Germany, Belarus, Russia