Spatial Behavior and Long-Term Decline of Radiocesium in Green Pheasants (Phasianus versicolor) in Fukushima: A Left-Censored Regression Approach

2026 · doi:10.32942/x2sq2r
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Abstract

Long-term monitoring of radiocesium (137Cs) in wildlife is important for assessing environmental recovery after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. We integrated GPS telemetry data with muscle 137Cs concentrations in green pheasants (Phasianus versicolor) to evaluate whether observed declines in radiocesium are consistent with reduced local environmental availability. Winter telemetry indicated highly restricted movement, with 95% KDE home ranges of 1.0–7.5 ha, suggesting that muscle 137Cs concentrations primarily reflect local contamination conditions. Using monitoring data from 2011–2024, the primary left-censored lognormal regression model (n = 370) estimated a significant temporal decline in muscle 137Cs concentrations. This trend was supported by supplementary mixed models examining detection probability (n = 379) and concentrations among detected individuals (n = 206). These results suggest that radiocesium concentrations in green pheasants in Fukushima are declining in a manner consistent with reduced local environmental availability.
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This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. Long-term monitoring of radiocesium (137Cs) in wildlife is important for assessing environmental recovery after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. We integrated GPS telemetry data with muscle 137Cs concentrations in green pheasants (Phasianus versicolor) to evaluate whether observed declines in radiocesium are consistent with reduced local environmental availability. Winter telemetry indicated highly restricted movement, with 95% KDE home ranges of 1.0–7.5 ha, suggesting that muscle 137Cs concentrations primarily reflect local contamination conditions. Using monitoring data from 2011–2024, the primary left-censored lognormal regression model (n = 370) estimated a significant temporal decline in muscle 137Cs concentrations. This trend was supported by supplementary mixed models examining detection probability (n = 379) and concentrations among detected individuals (n = 206). These results suggest that radiocesium concentrations in green pheasants in Fukushima are declining in a manner consistent with reduced local environmental availability. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2SQ2R Life Sciences Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, Fukushima, radiocesium, environmental monitoring, wildlife telemetry, left-censored regression, green pheasant, Fukushima, radiocesium, environmental monitoring, wildlife telemetry, left-censored regression, green pheasant Published: 2026-04-30 11:00 Last Updated: 2026-04-30 11:00 CC BY Attribution 4.0 International Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Language: English

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License: CC-BY-4.0