Camera traps inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone reveal how Russian military occupation of the site in February and March 2022 changed the behavior of wildlife living in the area.
Following the invasion, which included significant armed conflict inside the exclusion zone, mammals such as deer and horses became less active and spent less time roaming at night, a new study reports.
The researchers compared camera trap footage collected during the early months of Russia’s 2022 invasion with recordings from the same period a year before the conflict began. The findings, published Thursday (June 18) in the journal ScienceIt offers a rare glimpse of how animals react to the immediate disruption caused by war.
“I want the opportunity to analyze how increasing invasions affect wildlife[d] never happened,” Svitlana KudrenkoShe conducted the study as part of her PhD at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany, she told Live Science in an email. “In contrast to pre-industrial times, current interstate conflicts are highly harmful to wildlife due to a long list of wars, often conducted from a distance.”
The study took place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, an approximately 1,000-square-mile (2,600 square kilometer) area surrounding the 1986 site. chernobyl nuclear disaster. Following the reactor explosion, authorities evacuated the area and restricted most human activities. For decades, with little or no human activity, Wildlife population has increasedTransforming the area into a natural laboratory for scientists studying ecosystem recovery and animal behavior.
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Following the Russian invasion, researchers revisited the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 2025.
Black storks and a gray heron resting on metal structures in the former cooling pond of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2020.
An aerial view of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant cooling pond in 2019.
Inside view of the Chernobyl Power Plant cooling tower.
But in February 2022, Russian forces took control of the region during the initial phase invasion of ukraine. Military vehicles, military activities, weapons firing and other wartime disturbances suddenly transformed one of Europe’s most unusual wildlife refuges into an active war zone.
To examine the impact, researchers analyzed data from camera traps already operating in the exclusion zone from 2020 to 2022. The ecological impacts of armed conflict are difficult to study because war zones are dangerous and often difficult to access for researchers.
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Using existing networks of automated cameras, scientists captured wildlife reactions that would have been impossible to record otherwise. In total, the team analyzed nearly 2,000 photographs and videos from the exclusion zone to build a picture of behavioral changes in response to the conflict.
The images and footage revealed the reactions of 11 wild mammal species, showing that some animals changed their behavior during heavy fighting.
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Roe deer are seen near the Uz River in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Przewalski’s horses are seen near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2020.
Roe deer tied across the road in an abandoned village of Kupovets in 2024.
Gas masks were left behind after the Chernobyl evacuation in 1986.
Several mammal species – including roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), red deer (cervus elaphus), moose (Alice Assis) and red fox (vulpes vulpes) – were less active during the occupation than before the conflict, especially at night, the team reported.
The findings show that conflict can have impacts on entire ecosystems. While Russia no longer occupies the Chernobyl exclusion zone, the authors highlighted that this study still shows how animal behavior can adapt to war.
The researchers said camera traps could become a valuable tool for measuring the environmental costs of conflict and understanding how wildlife cope with sudden human disturbance around the world.
“Our study highlights the need to develop and implement research and conservation strategies focusing on the impacts of armed conflict on wildlife and the environment in general, especially in areas of conservation importance,” Kudrenko said.
Kudrenko, S., Vishnevsky, D., Korepanova, K., Bischoff, R., Zdroser, A., Selva, N., Domashevsky, S., Obrizon, S., Gahbauer, M., Borsuk, O., Varukha, A., and Heurich, M. (2026). Changes in wildlife activity patterns in response to the war in Ukraine. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aed1493
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