Lethal Dose: Rat Poison & Local Wildlife
Local residents may inadvertently be poisoning wildlife. National Park Service researchers have found a direct link between
exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides, commonly known as rat poison, and the deaths of wildlife in and around the
Santa Monica Mountains. How rodenticide works its way through the food chain:

1

Targeted rodents
Rats and other rodents who eat rodenticide
do not die right away and may even become
lethargic as they approach death,
making them easy prey for
larger predators.

2

3

Predators
Raptors, snakes and larger
predators consume
poisoned rodents.

Top of the food chain
Mountain lions feed on smaller
predators laced with lethal poison.*

Unintended victims
In the Santa Monica Mountains…
• 11 of 12 mountain lions tested

positive for exposure and two died
from poisoning.
• 93 of 105 bobcats tested positive
for exposure and 70+ died from
related secondary disease.
• 20 of 24 coyotes tested positive
for exposure and 12 died from
poisoning.

As of April, 2014

• Secondary disease,

How anticoagulant rodenticide kills

What is mange?

such as mange.

These compounds interrupt blood-clotting,
which leads to uncontrolled bleeding and
death. They may also suppress the animal's
immune system, making it susceptible to
other diseases. Symptoms include:

A microscopic mite that burrows into the
skin and causes...

• Blood in urine and feces

• Nosebleeds
• Bleeding gums

Check the label

• Ruptured blood vessels, causing bruising
• Internal hemorrhaging

Here are the most common
anticoagulant compounds:

• Bromadiolone
• Brodifacoum

1. Extreme itchiness and skin lesions.
2. Fluid and nutrient loss through the skin.
3. Infection, starvation, hypothermia or
other complications, eventually leading
to death.

• Diphacinone
• Difethialone

SOURCES: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area research, L.E.K. Serieys, UrbanCarnivores.com

CREDIT: National Park Service
nps.gov/samo