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A brown bear has been spotted in the disaster zone around the Chernobyl, the first time one has been seen in the area for 100 years.

The bear was photographed by an automatic camera trap in the exclusion zone around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant, the scene of one of the world's worst nuclear accidents.

Scientists are studying the area, evacuated since the reactor meltdown in 1986, to better understand the risks radioactivity poses to humans and wildlife.

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Spotted: This brown bear was photographed by a camera trap in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 

Return: It is believed Brown bears have not been seen in the area around Chernobyl for more than 100 years 

Peekaboo: The cameras have been set up around Chernobyl as part of research into the area's radioactivity

The brown bear pictures were obtained by Sergey Gaschak, a Ukrainian collaborator with the British-run TREE (TRansfer, Exposure, Effects) research programme into the effects of radioactivity.

It is far from the first large mammal discovered to be stalking the 30km-radius Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Dr Gaschak's camera's have already spotted lynxes, grey wolves, wild boar, elk, horses and otters, among other animals, living in the deserted area.

Project leader Mike Wood from the University of Salford told BBC News: 'We are basically working on the assumption that as you move people out of the equation and human pressure and disturbance is removed, then any animals that have a corridor into the exclusion zone find they are suddenly away from the pressures and dangers presented by people.'

More than 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes around the damaged Chernobyl power station after the April 1986 reactor explosion - the worst nuclear accident until the meltdown at Fukushima Daichi in 2011.

The explosion breached the reactor core, opening it to the elements and belching a massive plume of radioactive fallout that drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe.

The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers in one of history's biggest civil engineering tasks, said to have cost an estimated 18 billion rubles ($18billion).

See inside Chernobyl as it is gradually reclaimed by nature

Disaster site: The Chernobyl meltdown in April 1986 was the world's worst nuclear accident until the disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011

The TREE research programme aims to 'reduce uncertainty in estimating the risk to humans and wildlife associated with exposure to radioactivity and to reduce unnecessary conservatism in risk calculations.' It combines controlled laboratory experiments with fieldwork, most of which is planned for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

The researchers will be focusing on three different areas of different levels of contamination to get a comprehensive overview of what species are found in the exclusion zone.

At any one time 15 cameras will be operating in each area to catch a glimpse of the kinds of wildlife there. This first stage of the project will continue until late 2015.

'Once we have completed this particular stage of the study, looking at what animals are there and in what density, we are then going to be selecting one particular species to target for a trapping and collaring campaign,' Dr Wood told the BBC.

'We will be fitting collars with GPS to these animals, and also dose-measurement technology so that we are then able to track movement over the course of a year through the exclusion zone and get a real measurement of the exact radiation exposure that these animals get.'