The cause is known: "Blue tissue and flesh can be a sign of rodenticide ingestion, which can occur by eating bait – which often contains dye to identify them as poison."
Would you prefer: "Wild pigs' flesh turning neon blue in California don't eat wild pig or other game meats you kill because they're eating the rodenticide people put out there - authorities are concerned people will not know and get sick"?
Looking at the title I can see your point - you're thinking something like "Rodenticide consumption turns pigs' flesh blue" would have been better? I try to stick with the original title, but since I had to edit it to make it fit anyway, I guess I could have made it less click-baity. Thanks for the suggestion.
Leaving the title as is was the right thing. It's an interesting story. Thanks for sharing. My complaint is more with phys.org (and the entire rest of the attention economy) that is foremost focused in getting your attention instead of informing.
The title makes it sound like the cause is unknown and so this is mysterious, a possible cause for panic. Hence why GP specifically leads with that the cause is actually known and even explained in the article...
It describes a phenomenon that a layperson would find extraordinary, and does not mention the cause, which is in fact known. It's reasonable to interpret this as suppressing the cause from a title which reasonably ought to mention it.
Yes and no. OP's title says alarm: great fear and concern. However, there was reporting back in 2015 (https://gilroydispatch.com/blue-pig-shot-at-morgan-hill-ranc...) about this identical issue. The cause and the solution was known then, and even before.
It's a pun. I think? The article references squirrel bait as the cause. "Bait" combined with an article that you click on. So ... "click" "bait." Get it?
The tipoff is that people usually write it as one word, "clickbait," when talking about a sensationalistic title designed to simulates clicks generating ad revenue.
OK, so maybe that person's joke wasn't so successful, but it seems like a fairly gentle attempt, which shouldn't be punished.
I thought headlines were supposed to be a quick summary of the article as much as possible. Now I see many headlines that are basically "click to learn why!"
The cause is known: "Blue tissue and flesh can be a sign of rodenticide ingestion, which can occur by eating bait – which often contains dye to identify them as poison."