Wild pigs in Germany are radioactive. A new study explains why

Wild boars in the forests of southern Germany are known to have high levels of radioactive caesium. The levels are high enough that they have been deemed unsafe to eat. 

Some reports have even claimed that they sometimes bite and charge at humans with their tusks. They also appear to be highly protective of their young ones. 

The alert over them being radioactive has become a bigger concern, which has been attributed to the Chornobyl disaster in 1986. The levels of radioactivity have fallen in other animals, but still persist in the boars, which has been termed the "wild boar paradox". 

According to the new research, the Chornobyl disaster doesn't appear to be the only reason, as the nuclear weapons tests from the mid-20th century are also responsible. 

Scientists have said that both sources have led to contamination of the boars through their diet and the hunting of tusked wild boars (Sus scrofa) for their meat has reduced because they may appear healthy, but some of them have dangerously high levels of radioactive caesium. Reduced hunting has also led to overpopulation issues. 

The study was published in the journal American Chemical Society on Wednesday (August 30). It found nuclear weapons testing across the globe released enough fallout into the atmosphere to expose the wild pigs. 

The study further added that "more than ever, with threats of nuclear strikes or accidental releases in the course of the Russo-Ukrainian war, it is now imperative to be able to identify the source of any release... and evaluate their environmental consequences." 

In a study published in 2022, it was reported that in German wild boars, the data sets reveal a distinct geographical and seasonal dependence with higher activity concentrations in winter than in summer. 

Radioecologist Felix Stäger from Leibniz University Hannover in Germany and colleagues write in their paper: "Our work reveals deeper insights into the notorious radio-caesium contamination in Bavarian wild boars beyond the total radionuclide quantification only." 
 

A similar situation has engrossed East Asia after the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) unilaterally launched the discharge of Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the sea, angering the neighbours over fears of contamination. 

Some environmentalists and China have protested the discharge of nuke-polluted water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was destroyed in March 2011 after a massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake generated powerful tsunami waves that caused the meltdowns of three of its nuclear reactors, one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. 

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