In the shadow of tanks and missiles. The war in Ukraine is changing the behavior of wild animals

What happens to forest mammals when tanks roll through their habitats and shells explode overhead? Scientists set out to investigate the behavior of wild animals using camera traps deployed in an area of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces. Their observations confirm that armed conflicts have a profound impact on the balance of nature.

Chernobyl, a natural observatory

Living alongside humans is inherently risky for wildlife. War introduces entirely new factors into the equation: noise, habitat destruction, wildfires, and direct injuries. The conflict in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, has given scientists a unique opportunity to observe the real-time ecological consequences of warfare.

A paper published on June 18, 2026, in the journal Science summarizes data collected during just a few weeks of the Russian occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. After the 1986 nuclear disaster, the area was abandoned and isolated, gradually becoming a remarkable ecological laboratory. Abandoned villages and farmland were reclaimed by vegetation, leading to spontaneous rewilding. Despite persistent radiation, the zone was increasingly dominated by growing populations of wolves, lynx, red deer, moose, roe deer, and wild boar.

At the end of February 2022, Russian troops entered the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Heavy military equipment appeared, and human activity intensified in a place that had remained almost entirely devoid of people for decades. The military operations also brought artillery shelling, the construction of fortifications, and wildfires.

Tracking wildlife with camera traps

Even before the occupation, dozens of camera traps had been installed throughout the Exclusion Zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Their purpose was to monitor both the process of spontaneous ecosystem recovery and the effects of radioactive radiation on living organisms. The collected data suggested that radiation had clearly increased mutation rates and reduced mammal fertility, but the absence of human pressure had partially compensated for these losses.

The Russian invasion dramatically transformed conditions in the depopulated area around Chernobyl. To examine the effects of military activity on wildlife behavior, an international team of scientists from Norway, Germany, and Spain analyzed nearly 2,000 camera trap detections collected in 2021 and 2022. These findings were compared with field interview data and satellite observations, allowing researchers to link wildlife behavior with different levels of conflict intensity.

A landscape of fear. Wild animal behavior during war

A detailed analysis of the camera trap images revealed that the occupation significantly altered the nocturnal activity and daily rhythms of wild mammals. The animals responded not only to direct threats such as shelling and troop movements, but also to indirect factors including noise, human presence, and wildfires.

The greatest sensitivity to these changes was observed in herbivores, particularly roe deer and red deer, whose nighttime activity declined markedly. Foxes and lynx, on the other hand, began approaching areas with human presence more frequently, most likely in search of food. This opportunistic behavior suggests that predators possess greater behavioral flexibility.

Although the observations covered only a few weeks, they indicate that different mammal species respond to armed conflict in different ways. Their behavior appears to depend largely on the intensity of military activity and the associated thermal anomalies, especially wildfires. The researchers speculate that the long-term militarization of natural areas could lead to lasting changes in habitat use, animal behavior, and the structure of entire wildlife communities.

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Source:

Svitlana Kudrenko et al., Changes in wildlife activity patterns in response to war in Ukraine. Science 392, 1282-1286 (2026). DOI:10.1126/science.aed1493