This horrifying story sounds like something out of a bad science fiction film, but it’s actually happening right now in Japan. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, Japan has struggled to control the flood of radioactive material into the surrounding ecosystem. Immediatley after the incident, a quarantine zone was created to protect the human population from radioactive material. An unintended result has been an explosion in the boar population, and these animals can’t read quarantine signs.
The now uncontrollable boar population, which was once kept in check by local hunters, has caused more than $873,000 worth of damage to local farms according to The Independent. These pests have been eating food contaminated by radioactive materials, exiting the quarantine zone, and encroaching on nearby agricultural resources. Local communities are scrambling to keep the radioactive boar in check, but they can barely kill and bury them fast enough.
The city of Nihonmatsu has been filling mass graves with up to 600 boar per burial plot, but they’re almost out of public land available for boar disposal. Some people attempted to burn the boar, but the sheer volume of carcasses has proven to be too difficult for mass incineration without further spreading radioactive material. Hunters trying to help by burying the boar themselves have been asked to stop after multiple incidents of wild dogs digging up the contaminated bodies. These boar are so radioactive that they cannot possibly be used as a food resource. The area surrounding the Fukushima nuclear facility is still 300 times more radioactive than the legal safety limit for humans. Plant and animal mutations are being reported, but the radioactivity has done little to curb the reproductive capability of these wild boar.
