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

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

“I’m not speaking about just a little blue,” Dan Burton, proprietor of a wildlife management firm in Salinas, California, advised 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 typically include dye to establish them as poison, the CDFW reported, which probably 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 have 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 appearing sick. 

Consuming animals poisoned by this rodenticide might end in secondary publicity to the poison, the CDFW mentioned. As such, the company is warning hunters to not devour any wild animals with indicators of blue contamination and to report any sightings of such animals to officers. General, the company suggested hunters to train additional warning round areas with rat management packages, as it’s also attainable that uncovered animals could not essentially be blue.

“Hunters must be conscious that the meat of recreation animals, corresponding to wild pig, deer, bear and geese, may be contaminated if that recreation animal has been uncovered to rodenticides,” mentioned 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 packages. 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 devour the meat can exhibit indicators of rodenticide poisoning, corresponding to lethargy.

In 2024, California prohibited the usage of 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.