Tech News

Radioactive rat snakes can help control Fukushima Fallout

“As we drove around these curved, small mountain roads, we saw snakes crossing the road,” Gerke said, noting that the snakes are active when the weather warms up. “Every time we found it we jumped, caught it and took it to the Fukushima University lab.”

While the snake was large enough, Gerke and his team wrapped a piece of tape around its body. They then added a small GPS tracking device and a small dosimeter — a radiation measuring instrument — to the tape, which ensured that the devices could be removed at the end of the study. The snake was then returned to its natural habitat. The team dressed nine snakes in this way, and then collected the data remotely.

Scientists have identified more than 1,700 locations in the region where snakes frequented. Fukushima rat snakes avoid broad-leaved evergreen forests, but spend time close to streams, roads, and meadows. Trees and buildings are also common.

What he did snakes revealed? The Fukushima Exclusion Site is a contaminated prey that eats some radiation exposure from snakes, but most (80 percent) is in contact with contaminated soil, trees, and plants.

“Understanding how contaminants move in an ecosystem and how they move across different animals in the food web gives us a better picture of the impacts. [of the nuclear disaster] to the ecosystem, ”Gerke said.

The exposure of the individual snake is related to the small region over time and its behavior. For example, snakes that spend time in abandoned buildings have lower doses compared to those that did not, suggesting that buildings may act as hidden contamination. In addition, snakes that spent more time in trees had lower doses compared to snakes that spent more time on the ground. According to Gerke’s hypothesis, especially species that spend time on land are more vulnerable to adverse effects on radiation health if there have been negative effects on snake health.

“At the population level, we don’t think they’ve had that much of an impact [by radiation]. But it could be happening at the cellular level that we don’t know about, ”Gerke said. Scientists report that they understand the level of radiation that harms animals like mammals, birds and frogs, but not snakes.

The current study was the first to describe the home area, movements, and habitat selection of Japanese rat snakes. The results suggest that these animals may be effective bioindicators of local environmental pollution in nuclear disasters. But many questions remain. For example, are scientists able to develop models that shed light on the link between habitat use, radiation exposure, and radiation accumulation? If so, animals or humans may be aware of the health effects of chronic radiation.

Why take the time to understand snakes, anyway? “I’m afraid of snakes,” he often hears when Gerke reveals that he’s a herpetologist. Others offer unsolicited testimonies suggesting that humans’ negative attitudes toward the snake have the potential to harm animals: “I found a snake in my yard and killed it.” Gerke grew up in Florida with a rat snake; he confesses that he cannot relate to these feelings.

“Teaching to hate snakes is a disaster for ecology,” wrote Melissa Amarell, an article by Melissa Amarell, an advocate for Snake Preservation for Advocates for Advocates for Snake Preservation for Advocates. . According to psychologists, the fear of snakes is learned, not inherent. Of the 3,000 species of snakes on the planet, only about 200-7% are capable of significantly harming or killing humans. Meanwhile, snakes catch rodents with diseases. And they play a full role in almost every ecosystem in the food chain.

In addition to fear and hatred of snakes that can harm animals, they face additional challenges that threaten populations around the world, including legal and illegal gathering, habitat loss, disease, and climate change.


Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button