Wild Pigs in California Are Turning Neon Blue on the Inside, Officers Warn

Sudden publicity to rodenticide is popping California’s wild pigs blue, state authorities say. 

“I’m not speaking about a little bit blue,” Dan Burton, proprietor of a wildlife management firm in Salinas, California, informed The Los Angeles Times. “I’m speaking about neon blue, blueberry blue.”

Burton was one of many first trappers to find that native wild pigs had turned blue on the within. A subsequent investigation by the California Division of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) discovered that the pigs had consumed the anticoagulant rodenticide diphacinone, a poison utilized by farmers to regulate populations of undesirable rats, mice, squirrels, and different small animals. These substances usually include dye to determine them as poison, the CDFW reported, which possible explains how the pigs ended up with blue-colored muscle and fats.

Burton’s personal investigations discovered that the poisoned pigs appeared to be frequenting squirrel bait stations, which native farmers had been utilizing to regulate the squirrel populations focusing on their crops. Nonetheless, for the reason that poisoned bait had tiny doses of diphacinone, the pigs, regardless of turning blue, weren’t outwardly performing sick. 

Consuming animals poisoned by this rodenticide might end in secondary publicity to the poison, the CDFW stated. As such, the company is warning hunters to not eat any wild animals with indicators of blue contamination and to report any sightings of such animals to officers. Total, the company suggested hunters to train additional warning round areas with rat management applications, as additionally it is attainable that uncovered animals might not essentially be blue.

“Hunters must be conscious that the meat of recreation animals, reminiscent of wild pig, deer, bear and geese, is perhaps contaminated if that recreation animal has been uncovered to rodenticides,” stated Ryan Bourbor, pesticide investigations coordinator at CDFW, within the assertion.

This isn’t the primary time that officers have recognized wild pigs poisoned by rat poison. In 2018, a study by the CDFW discovered traces of rodenticide in about 8.3% of untamed pigs noticed lurking round agricultural or residential areas with rat management applications. Different analysis from 2011 and 2023, respectively, discovered that cooking meat poisoned with diphacinone didn’t get rid of the contamination, and folks and animals that eat the meat can exhibit indicators of rodenticide poisoning, reminiscent of lethargy.

In 2024, California prohibited using diphacinone, with exceptions for particular situations at licensed websites, as a part of laws meant to guard wildlife from unintentional poisoning. CDFW is asking anybody who encounters wild animals with blue fats or tissues to report their sightings to the company at [email protected] or (916) 358-2790.