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Subscribe to RSSWild monkeys fitted with collars containing detectors and GPS transmitters will help researchers at Fukushima University measure radiation in the forests surrounding a nuclear power plant crippled last March by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
The monkeys will wear the collars for a month and they will be remotely detached, says a team of scientists led by Professor Takayuki Takahashi.
"We decided to use monkeys for this project because the territory they cover is very well known to us," Professor Takahashi told the Telegraph of London. "It's the first time such an experiment has been carried out with monkeys."
The collars will contain a dosimeter, which measures radiation levels, as well as an altimeter to measure height above the ground, and a GPS tracking device, Takahashi said, according to a report in Life's Little Mysteries. As soon as February, the collars will be fitted on as many as three wild monkeys living in a forest in the Fukushima Prefecture.
Kyodo News via AP
Members of Japan's Self-Defense Force scrape the surface of a lawn while working on a decontamination operation around Iitate town hall in Fukushima prefecture on Dec. 7.
Analyzing the data collected by the collars will reveal the impact of radioactive material that spewed into the environment since the March 11 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling system at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, leading to the meltdowns of three of its nuclear reactors.
Scientists have relied on air samples, mostly taken by helicopter above the Fukushima forests.
The monkeys will allow scientists to discover radiation levels from the forest floor to the treetops.
The project will launch in Minamisoma, around 16 miles north of the power plant.
As many as 14 groups of monkeys are believed to reside in the mountains forests to the west of Minamisoma city, which is where the study will focus.
In April, scientists estimated that the total amount of radioactivity released was approximately one-tenth the amount released during the Chernobyl disaster. In the months since, scientists have continued to monitor radiation levels from the air, but they say using monkeys as "research assistants" will clarify the conditions on the ground.
"We would like to know how much impact (the radiation has) on the natural world, such as forest, river, underground water and ocean," Takahashi told reporters. "We will draw the map to show the movement of radioactivity."
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Leave a Comment:
So... Planet of the Apes II?
monkey to star in "any where but loose" remake with evolutionary new apendages, oposable thumbs..... right turn clyde.. film critics review reports.. two thumbs up...
"wear the collars for a month and they will be remotely detached"
That'll be a pleasant surprise.
This sounds like the start of a Japanese science fiction movie.
There's so many things I could say about this plan I don't know where to begin. All I can do is laugh and shake my head.
careful. animals rights activists will be out in full force screaming inhumane treatment of monkeys. i have one very simple solution to this big problem. let these liberal animal lovers take the place of these monkeys. strap the dosimeters around their neck and let them loose in the wild. the monkeys are unharmed. the liberal animal lovers have been sacrificed. NO PROBLEM!!!
yes because humans ruling the world, it's turned out SO good and fair for everyone right? humans suck.
Hmmmmm. why do you call animal lovers liberal? I happen to work with an office full of Republican animal lovers. Not that politics has anything in the world to do with this or any other animal related story.
Let the activists go there and protest?
Hey All, we know you do and we know what you suck!
I don't understand the relationship between liberals and animal lovers. Please explain?
Sucks to be a japanese monkey right now.....
It sucks to be the Japanese humans that brought this disaster to innocent people, animals and the planet.
The reactors that failed were made in the USA by GE and contained design flaws that were known to exist for decades, but not remediated. The Japanese didn't bring this disaster to innocent people, they WERE the innocent people. The US govt is ultimately responsible for lax standards and non-enforcement and don't kid yourselves that the same conditions don't exist here in the USA. That's why the San Onofrio reactor in CA is built smack bang on top of a known earthquake fault and why the Yucca Mtn. repository was built in one of the hottest seismic zones in the lower 48. Wise up, people! It's American politicians (mostly Republicans) who are ultimately responsible for this mess...and guess who's downwind of our imminent nuclear disasters.
What will the sequel look like?
Seems a little contrived, - they could just install a bunch of dosimeter/telemetry units on the ground at fixed locations with no need for GPS. Sounds like a typical university research project striving for relevance.
NigelWA: Maybe 3 monkey collars is cheaper than "a bunch of dosimeter/telemetry units"?
Should've been a reply, oops.
EXCELLENT!!! My plan is working perfectly, soon I will have my army of giant radioactive monkeys and I can rule the world!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA.
Dr. Oldwolf Evil? Giant Radioactive monkeys instead of laser beams on sharks?
coming soon to a zoo near you radioactive monkeys.....
They should put the collars on the CEOs of TEPCO and GE, and turn them loose in the forest without a map. I'll bet the monkeys would have a great time watching them.
Leave the 4 legged animals alone! Put that collar on the 2 legged PERPS that decided to harm people, animals and the environment with these toxins! Let those animals go in and detect. Thats fairness.
If the monkeys are already inhabiting the area, they're already being exposed. To be able to gather that information by placing a collar on them for a month does nothing to further harm them. It's not like they're being transported inside the failed plants and forced to be radiated to death. I think this is a good plan for gathering information.
Finally, Someone that gets it.
Godzilla VS Radioative Monkeys comming soon
The collars will remotely detach huh? How will that work? I know clasps and fasteners, and if they want the things to stay on until they are ready for them to fall off, the closure would be pretty solid. Retracting the closure mechanism could be done with electronics, switches and motors (complex, prone to fail), or more simply with a small shaped explosive charge (easy, cheap, fail-safe)...How much you want to bet they don't really care about the monkey so much as getting the collars back to study the data?
All That Is - Elmyr?
Skunky
they will detatch when the monkey is dead from the radiation and decompses..pure geinus those Japanese
Or, since the data is being transmitted already back to the lab, they don't need to worry about the transmitters. Besides, the monkeys already live in the area and "are already contaminated." That is what I got from reading the article.
this is the beginning of the rise of the planet of the apes...
They better not use Baboons! They might mistake their red Baboon @$$es for radiation poisen!
uh-ho here come the monkey rights activists....
Naw! It will take them awhile. They have to get all that pepper spray out of their eyes at O.W.S.!
Can't they use a robot instead? I'm honestly surprised that with the robots used to detonate explosives and to show us images of people buried under rubble, they cannot build one to detect radiation. Strap a Geiger counter on a robot or something.
Robots can lose signal if they have too much radiation - it will affect electronic signals as well - granted - this is for high flux areas. Robots are also slow, and need their batteries recharged. If I recall, they even tried robots at Chernobyl - their effect was nil. You would also need a LOT of robots on hand, something likely to not be available.
Do these GPS collars look like gold chains with medallions on them?
Hey aceman, wrong monkeys!
bahahahahahahahahaha
There can be only one reason for wanting to measure a dose for a whole month, and that is because the dose level is so darn low that a static measurement is practically non-existent, and no human wants to hang out in the forest for a month to gather the data.
If you want to be upset, be upset about monkeys being forced to wear an uncomfortable collar, but the media loves the paranoid reactions they get when they use the word radiation.