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About two and a half years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 2011. Some research on the accumulation and effects of radionuclide in wild animals released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant has been progressing since then, but the actual condition and management of wildlife on the whole are inadequate in many cases mainly because of strongly limited human activity especially in the evacuation area. Some changes in behavior have been recognized in Japanese macaques Macaca fuscata as probably due to changes in farming conditions and the associated impact on food due to radioactive contamination in the high-dose area, in the evacuation area in Fukushima Prefecture. And concentrations of radiocesium in two macaques captured in the high-dose area were very high. On the other hand, macaques captured in a middle-dose area, Fukushima City, showed very high values especially in the accident year, and a decline of white blood cells was also observed. In large hunting animals, even in the low-dose area of Fukushima Prefecture and other peripheral prefectures, individuals that have more than the regulation value in food (100 Bq/kg) were present. In addition, because of high dosage in the evacuation area, the management of wild animals has been become difficult, and changes in home range and population increase of wildlife species have been documented there as well as in the low-dose area. Conflict with humans due to population increase via decreased hunting activity has occurred. Recently, the legal treatment of radionuclides in the environment has changed to as the same status as pollutants under the new "Revised Basic Environment Law" since 2012. However, only rodents were selected from mammal species as the 26 species of the standard flora and fauna for environmental impact assessment by the Ministry of the Environment. And the monitoring area is within a 20 km distance of the Nuclear Plant. Therefore, we propose here that macaques and large-sized hunting mammals, such as boar Sus scrofa and sika deer Cervus nippon, should be added to monitored species in the standard flora and fauna for environmental impact assessment. A monitoring method should be applied that is unified and intentional not only in the evacuation area but also in the low-dose area. Standardization and sharing of assessment methods and evaluation methods of radionuclide activity effect should be attempted. Conservation and management measures of wild mammals, the sharing of information among local, and rapid release of outcome information to domestic and international are required.
Research papers (academic journals)
