Chernobyl dogs likely turned blue from ‘port-a-potty’ waste, expert says

There may be a surprising reason behind the mysterious blue dogs recently seen wandering around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Photos taken earlier this year showed several dogs with bright blue fur wandering around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine, sparking widespread speculation online, including theories of radiation exposure and mutation.

But the scientific advisor for the organization that deals with strays says these ideas “couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Chernobyl Dogs by Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina “The blue paint probably came from an overturned toilet where dogs were rolling around in poop,” Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina said on Facebook.

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Mousseau noted that this behavior is similar to how some dogs are attracted to cat litter boxes.

“The blue color was just a sign of the dog’s unhealthy behavior!” Mousseau said. “As every dog ​​owner knows, most dogs will eat just about anything, including feces!”

He added that despite speculation on social media, the dogs’ blue fur “does not reflect any mutation or evolutionary adaptation to radiation.”

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Chernobyl Dogs, a program that cares for approximately 700 dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, first shared images of the blue dogs in October. (Clean Futures Fund via Storyful)

The Chernobyl Dogs program, affiliated with the non-profit Clean Futures Fund (CFF), which cares for approximately 700 dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, first shared images of the blue dogs in October.

At the time, the group was unable to capture the animals to determine the source of their unusual coloration.

“We were on the ground catching dogs for neutering and came across three dogs that were all blue,” Dogs of Chernobyl said on Instagram. “We’re not sure exactly what happened [on]. … We don’t know the reason and we’re trying to catch them to find out what happened.”

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FILE PHOTO: Two stray dogs with bright blue fur walk along the street. (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)

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Many dogs were left behind when more than 120,000 people evacuated following the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were told to leave the area immediately, according to the CFF.

“Evacuees were not allowed to bring with them anything they could not carry, and their pets had to be left behind,” the CFF website notes. “They were told they would return in three days, but they were never allowed to return. Their pets were abandoned.”

Timothy Mousseau did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.