25 years after the Chernobyl meltdown, Germany's wild boar population is on the rise.  Unfortunately the boars don't respect human boundaries of state, and have been feeding on mushrooms over on the Ukrainian side of the border.  Mushrooms turn out to be excellent at absorbing radioactivity from their environment - which they then pass on to the boars.

German news outlet Spiegel is reporting that the problem of radioactive boar's meat is becoming serious, especially in the rural southern part of the country.  Although Germany has strict requirements on allowable radioactivity levels in wild game, many rural hunters are not going out into the field equipped with Geiger counters.

Wild boar are the wild relative of the domesticated pig.  But unlike the cheerful pink piggy of children's literature, wild boar are both tough and aggressive.  Hunting wild boar is no walk in the park; boar can and do injure, dismember, and kill hunters and their dogs.  Both male and female wild boars have tusks, which are longer and sharper in the males.  Wild boar are happy to put these tusks to good use, slicing and stabbing at their attackers.  

Wild boar can also be destructive to their own habitat and to that of humans.  Their feeding habits are disruptive to say the least, digging and churning up the soil, disrupting root systems and destroying smaller shrubs in search of food.  The omnivorous wild boar will eat just about anything it comes across, and can quickly eat itself out of house and home.

None of which was a problem in earlier times, because wild predators helped keep the boar in check.  Wolves are the traditional predators of wild boar in Europe, although wolves' numbers are sadly dwindling.  

Combined with this lack of predation, for unknown reasons Germany's wild boars have been giving birth to much larger litters than the norm.  Although wild boar typically have litters of between three to five piglets, wild boar in Germany are giving birth to litters of six to eight piglets.  Twice as many as normal!

In response, a huge market has opened up for wild boar meat.  Hunters have been given increased license to take wild boar, and the meat is sold at farmer's markets, local butcher shops, and even upscale grocery stores.

In other words, radioactive boars are a pretty big problem!  

Ironically, the radioactive aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has been a boon for local wildlife.  The Exclusion Zone, an area 30 kilometers in every direction from the Chernobyl reactor, was a rich and vibrant forest ecology before civilization encroached upon it.  

After the nuclear reactor melted down, not counting the 10 kilometer dead zone immediately surrounding the reactor, the forest - poisonous though it may have been - began to return to pre-human levels of animal populations.  Although it remains "one of the most contaminated areas in the world," endangered species like bear, wolves, storks, and beavers have started to thrive.  

(It's also a little bit haunted, according to a particularly engrossing episode of Destination Truth!)