mutant butterflies

People often think of areas effected by disasters to be a haven for wildlife in the years that humans are absent. However in some animals/areas it can lead to major genetic differences that impact the entire population. Around 12 percent of pale grass blue butterflies that were exposed to nuclear fallout in Fukushima as larvae immediately after the tsunami-sparked disaster had abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes, researchers said.

The insects were mated in a laboratory well outside the fallout zone and 18 percent of their offspring displayed similar problems, said Joji Otaki, associate professor at Ryukyu University in Okinawa, southwestern Japan. That figure rose to 34 percent in the third generation of butterflies, he said, even though one parent from each coupling was from an unaffected population. The researchers also collected another 240 butterflies in Fukushima in September last year, six months after the disaster. Abnormalities were recorded in 52 percent of their offspring, which was "a dominantly high ratio", Otaki told AFP.

"This is just one study," Noguchi said. "We need more studies to verify the entire picture of the impact on animals."

"There are a number of unknown factors surrounding the genetic impact of radiation," said Makoto Yamada, a medical doctor who examines Fukushima residents. "We still cannot 100 percent deny that the impact may come out in the future." So when thinking of radiation, its not only people who are being effected.

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