WEBVTT - Episode 3: A Peculiar Hobby 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:20.765 School of Humans. On March thirtieth, nineteen thirty, Howard Gates 0:00:20.765 --> 0:00:23.485 wrote a letter from the warmth of a campfire somewhere 0:00:23.485 --> 0:00:25.285 in the Baja California Desert. 0:00:25.605 --> 0:00:29.405 I see spines in my sleep. I have been down 0:00:29.445 --> 0:00:32.805 to the axle a dozen times in mud, stuck in sand, 0:00:33.525 --> 0:00:36.565 had to carry my load up grades, bumped over rocks, 0:00:37.205 --> 0:00:40.885 broke a universal joint in l Aornoso, and again on 0:00:40.925 --> 0:00:44.325 a hill. Been through l Purgatorio and down the grade 0:00:44.365 --> 0:00:47.485 into El Inferno. Turned the truck flat on its side. 0:00:47.805 --> 0:00:52.325 Been in perils on the seashore and mountaintops, under overhanging rocks, 0:00:52.365 --> 0:00:56.445 and leaning cardons between the living rock and deep pits. 0:00:56.845 --> 0:01:00.525 I drank water out of ruts in the road, forgotten 0:01:00.565 --> 0:01:03.365 what a bridge looks like, and been sick in the 0:01:03.405 --> 0:01:07.645 mooly hay. Trip has been wonderful. 0:01:11.485 --> 0:01:15.685 Gates was a cactus breeder, seller, and collector. Later in life, 0:01:15.765 --> 0:01:19.005 he'd become president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. 0:01:19.965 --> 0:01:24.565 By old age, people hailed him as Mister Cactus, but 0:01:24.645 --> 0:01:28.045 in nineteen thirty he was just a guy who loved plants. 0:01:29.045 --> 0:01:32.605 Gates routinely flocked the desert to see his favorite specimens, 0:01:32.645 --> 0:01:36.645 sometimes risking his life in the world's most inhospitable climates 0:01:37.005 --> 0:01:43.245 to see them in the wild. And he wasn't alone. 0:01:43.725 --> 0:01:46.565 You may not realize it, but there's a world of 0:01:46.645 --> 0:01:51.845 cactus obsessives out there just like him. Consider Joelle Lode 0:01:52.325 --> 0:01:55.685 In past lives. He was a bank employee, a television actor, 0:01:55.805 --> 0:02:00.285 a librarian. But then he decided to do well, let's 0:02:00.285 --> 0:02:01.245 say bigger things. 0:02:01.685 --> 0:02:04.885 I went with my bicycles to go around the world. 0:02:06.365 --> 0:02:09.645 From his native France, Loday pointed his bicycle tires east 0:02:09.885 --> 0:02:13.445 and began peddling around the world. The trip would change 0:02:13.485 --> 0:02:16.885 his life. Cycling through the deserts of Turkey and Iran, 0:02:17.085 --> 0:02:19.725 he was mystified by the plants he passed along the way, 0:02:20.085 --> 0:02:22.845 charmed by their endurance and their ability to survive in 0:02:22.925 --> 0:02:28.325 such harsh environments. Later, biking across California, he'd have that 0:02:28.445 --> 0:02:33.165 same feeling when he encountered his first wild cactus. 0:02:35.245 --> 0:02:38.805 When I saw the first flowers on the cactai, I 0:02:39.005 --> 0:02:43.885 was really in love because the flower was so beautiful. 0:02:44.365 --> 0:02:48.445 In these desert where there is apparently nothing very nice, 0:02:50.005 --> 0:02:55.205 just snakes, scorpions as spies everywhere, But this flower were 0:02:55.565 --> 0:02:56.525 very attracting me. 0:02:57.445 --> 0:03:00.085 Lode couldn't help but get a closer look. 0:03:01.165 --> 0:03:06.445 I hadn't any signs in the fingers and everywhere in 0:03:06.605 --> 0:03:07.085 the body. 0:03:07.405 --> 0:03:11.205 So it is veryy painful, very difficult. But the flower 0:03:11.765 --> 0:03:17.165 are so wonderful, many many different colors, very exaggerated. 0:03:17.885 --> 0:03:23.845 From that moment, Lode was hooked. He bicycled across Death Valley, 0:03:24.285 --> 0:03:27.805 visited every country between Kenya and El Salvador, and dodged 0:03:27.845 --> 0:03:32.205 sniper fire and Yemen. He suffered heat stroke, encountered tomb 0:03:32.245 --> 0:03:37.005 raiders in South America, and was even deported out of China, 0:03:37.045 --> 0:03:40.125 all for the chance to photograph rare plants. 0:03:40.885 --> 0:03:42.965 I was in love with them, and I am still 0:03:42.965 --> 0:03:47.565 in love with them. 0:03:48.005 --> 0:03:51.405 Joelle Lode and Howard Gates are just two people out there, 0:03:52.245 --> 0:03:55.245 two people who have planned their entire lives around seeing 0:03:55.285 --> 0:03:58.245 their favorite plants in the wild. But there are many 0:03:58.285 --> 0:04:02.005 others with the same passion, and that love can be 0:04:02.085 --> 0:04:06.325 the fuel driving a meaningful, well lived life. But there 0:04:06.445 --> 0:04:10.685 is always a line, a line that divides passion from obsession, 0:04:11.165 --> 0:04:16.125 a hobby from a fixation. Sometimes obsession can blind you, 0:04:16.925 --> 0:04:18.965 It can make it difficult to see which side of 0:04:18.965 --> 0:04:22.525 that line. You're on. It can open a gateway to 0:04:22.645 --> 0:04:26.605 a life of danger and even a life of crime. 0:04:29.525 --> 0:04:34.605 From School of Humans and iHeart podcasts, This is Bad Seeds. 0:04:44.725 --> 0:04:47.005 I was browsing a store recently when a greeting card 0:04:47.005 --> 0:04:50.925 caught my eye. On the front was a pretty illustration 0:04:51.005 --> 0:04:54.285 of a cactus in full flower. Underneath it the words 0:04:54.765 --> 0:04:58.485 the desert works constantly to forbid it, and still the 0:04:58.525 --> 0:05:02.525 cactus blooms. I get it, it's one of those cheesy 0:05:02.605 --> 0:05:06.205 inspirational quotes, but you know what they're really is poetry 0:05:06.245 --> 0:05:09.325 and a cactus's spines, and it draws people in. 0:05:10.205 --> 0:05:13.565 This is a contrast between the beauty of the flower 0:05:13.965 --> 0:05:19.045 and the dangerousity of the plant. And this contrast between 0:05:19.485 --> 0:05:23.645 two things completely opposite are attraction to this plant. 0:05:27.885 --> 0:05:31.605 The cactus embodies the romance and grit of the wild West. 0:05:32.205 --> 0:05:36.085 It is rugged party. It stares adversities square in the 0:05:36.125 --> 0:05:39.565 face and dares to live in the world's harshest conditions. 0:05:40.165 --> 0:05:44.885 And not only does it live, it thrives, sometimes for 0:05:45.085 --> 0:05:50.285 hundreds of years. But put aside the romance, cacti are 0:05:50.405 --> 0:05:55.165 reclusive too. They sprout in far flung places, the sorts 0:05:55.205 --> 0:05:58.725 of locales that only in Indiana, Jones might explore. 0:05:59.445 --> 0:06:02.005 My first field trip to South America was in two 0:06:02.045 --> 0:06:04.885 thousand and sixteen, and I decided I wanted to come 0:06:04.925 --> 0:06:06.445 and say the cop be a part in Chile. 0:06:07.445 --> 0:06:10.765 That's Stefenberger, but a lot of people just call him 0:06:11.085 --> 0:06:15.005 the Cactus Explorer. He is crisscross South America on the 0:06:15.085 --> 0:06:18.965 hunt for some of the world's rarest cacti. The adrenaline 0:06:19.045 --> 0:06:21.885 rush of finding them, he says, can be like stumbling 0:06:21.965 --> 0:06:22.885 upon riches. 0:06:23.565 --> 0:06:26.245 It became kind of addictive. I mean, there's so many 0:06:26.285 --> 0:06:29.405 species defined, and some of them are quite difficult to access, 0:06:29.445 --> 0:06:31.965 and so it took me a long time to actually 0:06:31.965 --> 0:06:34.285 travel around and see all of the species. But I 0:06:34.285 --> 0:06:39.045 became really fascinated with how they survive where they do, 0:06:39.725 --> 0:06:43.085 and the ecology behind them and the story behind all 0:06:43.125 --> 0:06:45.925 of that. Living on the edge of the welds drissed Desert, 0:06:45.925 --> 0:06:46.885 the Ota Kama Desert. 0:06:49.965 --> 0:06:52.125 There's a book of photographs by the owners of the 0:06:52.165 --> 0:06:56.085 Cactus Store in Los Angeles called Xerophile, and it describes 0:06:56.125 --> 0:07:01.845 this pursuit beautifully. Cactus hunters, it says, are quote willing 0:07:01.885 --> 0:07:04.965 to spend months planning a trip across the globe, weeks 0:07:05.045 --> 0:07:09.245 driving town dirt roads, hiking across mountaintops, and riding on muleback, 0:07:09.525 --> 0:07:12.365 all the hope of finding that one habitat, that one 0:07:12.445 --> 0:07:16.805 plant they are seeking. Often they don't find it, so 0:07:16.845 --> 0:07:20.445 they keep looking, or return the next year, or never leave. 0:07:21.565 --> 0:07:23.285 It describes Burger perfectly. 0:07:23.965 --> 0:07:30.005 It takes a lot of internal motivation to actually be like, right, Okay, 0:07:30.045 --> 0:07:32.005 I want to plan a trip to Peru, and I 0:07:32.045 --> 0:07:35.005 want to go to this isolated mountain range, and I 0:07:35.045 --> 0:07:37.845 have to learn Spanish or you know, work out what 0:07:37.885 --> 0:07:39.125 I need to do to get there. And it's not 0:07:39.125 --> 0:07:41.805 always easy. It takes a lot of effort, and it 0:07:41.925 --> 0:07:43.565 costs a lot to go and see a lot of 0:07:43.565 --> 0:07:45.725 these plants and habitats. So you have to be really 0:07:46.125 --> 0:07:51.685 passionate about it and really genuinely interested in habitat any 0:07:51.685 --> 0:07:53.725 college or else, you just won't have the motivation to 0:07:53.765 --> 0:07:55.045 go and do it. 0:07:54.245 --> 0:07:58.885 It's that last part, the very real risk of failure, 0:07:59.485 --> 0:08:03.125 that makes cactus hunting more than just a peculiar hobby 0:08:03.885 --> 0:08:04.165 for me. 0:08:04.285 --> 0:08:07.245 The fun in it is it's kind of like a 0:08:07.485 --> 0:08:09.485 It's like it's like a parking moon haunt. It's like 0:08:09.525 --> 0:08:11.085 a treasure haunt. Set of thing. You know, you got 0:08:11.125 --> 0:08:13.085 looking for something difficult, you find it gives you a 0:08:13.125 --> 0:08:14.005 lot of satisfaction. 0:08:14.565 --> 0:08:18.605 For some, that satisfaction is addictive, and it can be 0:08:18.645 --> 0:08:22.805 taken too far. In the federal government, the US Fish 0:08:22.805 --> 0:08:28.085 and Wildlife Service employs criminal investigators, undercover cops who scour 0:08:28.165 --> 0:08:31.565 the murky underworld of wildlife crime in search of people 0:08:31.645 --> 0:08:37.125 who are well, perhaps a little too addicted. One of 0:08:37.165 --> 0:08:39.925 those investigators is Albert Gonzalez. 0:08:40.325 --> 0:08:43.005 I'm a special agent based in Opaso, Texas. 0:08:43.605 --> 0:08:46.565 By twenty fourteen, he'd been working as a special agent 0:08:46.605 --> 0:08:49.565 with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for nearly a decade. 0:08:50.565 --> 0:08:53.325 That September, Gonzales got a call from a Customs and 0:08:53.365 --> 0:08:56.805 Border Patrol agent in Denver. The agent had been surveilling 0:08:56.805 --> 0:08:59.605 a ring of plant fanatics in Russia and Eastern Europe. 0:09:00.045 --> 0:09:03.085 You know, cactus doesn't occur everywhere else. That's what makes 0:09:03.125 --> 0:09:06.925 it so sought after by the from Europe and that 0:09:07.045 --> 0:09:09.885 part of the world, because cactus doesn't exist there. 0:09:10.525 --> 0:09:13.325 These men, he said, had traveled many times to the 0:09:13.365 --> 0:09:17.525 southwestern deserts of the US, posting photos and GPS coordinates 0:09:17.525 --> 0:09:23.085 of rare cacti. This itself wasn't unusual. Many cactus hunters 0:09:23.165 --> 0:09:25.805 use this information to build their itineraries, a way to 0:09:25.805 --> 0:09:29.645 set travel plants. But the agent in Denver thought, this list, 0:09:30.405 --> 0:09:34.725 there's something fishy about this. The coordinates, he believed, were 0:09:34.845 --> 0:09:38.965 more than just a cactus nerd sightseeing guide. They were 0:09:39.245 --> 0:09:40.405 a hit list. 0:09:44.045 --> 0:09:46.645 Our ultimate goal is to protect our resources. Some of 0:09:46.685 --> 0:09:51.565 these species of cacti. There are so few left in 0:09:51.605 --> 0:09:56.605 the wild that any disturbance, any type of threat to 0:09:56.725 --> 0:10:00.565 them could make them go extinct. The thought process of well, 0:10:00.605 --> 0:10:03.605 it's just a plant, it'll grow back. In many cases, 0:10:03.605 --> 0:10:05.965 on some of these species, it won't. I'll never see 0:10:06.005 --> 0:10:06.405 it again. 0:10:07.725 --> 0:10:10.445 A few months later, a customs agent noticed that one 0:10:10.445 --> 0:10:14.085 of these collectors, a Slovak man named Igor Drob, was 0:10:14.125 --> 0:10:17.805 planning a trip to the American Southwest. He posted an 0:10:17.885 --> 0:10:22.125 advertisement online inviting other cactus lovers to join. Now that's 0:10:22.125 --> 0:10:25.485 when Special Agent Gonzales got the call. A group of 0:10:25.525 --> 0:10:29.405 five hobbyists Polish, Slovak, and Russian would be arriving at 0:10:29.525 --> 0:10:33.325 Lax soon. The FEDS would need to keep a close 0:10:33.365 --> 0:10:33.925 eye on them. 0:10:34.645 --> 0:10:38.005 We followed them through about six different states for a 0:10:38.045 --> 0:10:42.125 period about two weeks. Sometimes we would have to leap 0:10:42.165 --> 0:10:45.685 frog from one location to another. It was challenging to 0:10:45.765 --> 0:10:47.325 keep up with them. 0:10:47.645 --> 0:10:51.405 Everything that follows we know thanks to public court documents. 0:10:53.485 --> 0:10:58.125 At Immigration, the five men are questioned. They show officials 0:10:58.125 --> 0:11:01.485 they're a itinerary three weeks of camping with Stops and 0:11:01.565 --> 0:11:07.925 Joshua Tree, White Sands, Arches, Brice and Monument. Immigration waves 0:11:07.965 --> 0:11:12.205 them through, but not before an agent makes note of 0:11:12.245 --> 0:11:15.765 a paper they're carrying showing the GPS coordinates and the 0:11:15.805 --> 0:11:23.365 scientific names of cacti. One of the passports belongs to 0:11:23.365 --> 0:11:28.085 a Russian named Yevguina Safronov. In twenty eleven, he visited 0:11:28.085 --> 0:11:30.965 the US and made a similar road trip, posting a 0:11:31.005 --> 0:11:35.405 travel blog of his favorite plants. At Lax, the men 0:11:35.445 --> 0:11:40.605 rent a white Chevy Tahoe. Gonzalez notes the plate number 0:11:41.085 --> 0:11:45.525 seven ff X two three four and quickly alerts the 0:11:45.605 --> 0:11:56.445 National Park Service. Four days later, two agents find the 0:11:56.525 --> 0:12:01.005 vehicle outside of Benson, Arizona, parked on a dusty, desolate 0:12:01.045 --> 0:12:07.365 stretch of road. Years earlier, Igor Drob had visited this 0:12:07.565 --> 0:12:12.005 exact spot on a check website. He had recorded finding 0:12:12.165 --> 0:12:16.885 Mammillaria hedarei and faro cactus was Lendsieye. The little Nipple 0:12:17.005 --> 0:12:25.605 and candy Barrel cactus, respectively. The two special agents, dressed 0:12:25.685 --> 0:12:28.325 under cover, pull off to the side of the road. 0:12:29.605 --> 0:12:31.885 One steps out of the vehicle, and, pretending to be 0:12:31.925 --> 0:12:36.365 a fellow cactus hunter, approaches the men. The tourists don't 0:12:36.405 --> 0:12:40.285 seem bothered, squatting their faces pointed to the dirt. They're 0:12:40.325 --> 0:12:44.685 just too busy snapping photographs. One of the men is 0:12:44.725 --> 0:12:46.965 friendly enough to approach the agent and say that they're 0:12:47.405 --> 0:12:52.165 quote looking for flowering cacti. The agent smiles and nods. 0:12:52.925 --> 0:12:56.725 She's small talks discussing cacti and snakes before ambling back 0:12:56.765 --> 0:13:00.165 to her truck. She and her partner wait until the 0:13:00.165 --> 0:13:09.165 men motor off, a plume of dust rising behind them. 0:13:09.365 --> 0:13:12.965 When the area clears, the special agent steps out and 0:13:13.045 --> 0:13:16.965 begins scouring the landscape, looking for any signs of wrongdoing. 0:13:18.165 --> 0:13:21.485 In a place like Bens in Arizona, temperatures easily reach 0:13:21.565 --> 0:13:25.485 ninety degrees fahrenheit in May. In that heat, the exterior 0:13:25.485 --> 0:13:28.925 of a cactus will look mat and dry. But when 0:13:28.965 --> 0:13:32.365 the agents approach where the tourists had been tramping, they 0:13:32.365 --> 0:13:36.165 find a cactus, but it's shimmering under the desert sun. 0:13:37.485 --> 0:13:43.125 The cactus pads appear bright and moist, clear signs that 0:13:43.245 --> 0:13:45.845 somebody had sliced off a piece. 0:13:47.005 --> 0:13:50.845 Some plants, if they're damage like that, they die. 0:13:52.205 --> 0:13:54.765 The agents return to their truck and begin writing down 0:13:54.845 --> 0:14:00.645 case notes. The tourists had stolen a seed pod. This 0:14:00.725 --> 0:14:03.205 patch of desert is no longer just a great place 0:14:03.205 --> 0:14:17.845 for sight seeing. It's a I'm seeing. In the hyper 0:14:17.885 --> 0:14:21.165 obsessed world of cactus hunters, it's not unusual to use 0:14:21.205 --> 0:14:25.485 GPS coordinates to track down rare plants. The trouble, Steffan 0:14:25.525 --> 0:14:28.765 Burger tells us is when that information is exploited. 0:14:30.565 --> 0:14:32.725 When I went to Mexico, I was given some really 0:14:33.285 --> 0:14:36.045 known localities for certain types of plants, and it was 0:14:36.125 --> 0:14:40.885 just starkly obvious that plants had been taken from the habitat. 0:14:40.965 --> 0:14:44.325 I mean, you can see the holes in the ground 0:14:44.325 --> 0:14:47.205 for the habitats that I've been to many many times. 0:14:47.725 --> 0:14:51.125 You can see changes, you can see plants just basically disappear, 0:14:51.165 --> 0:14:53.285 and you're pretty much, yeah, you're just seeing holes in 0:14:53.325 --> 0:14:55.645 the ground with the remains of root systems kind of 0:14:55.685 --> 0:14:57.245 hanging out of the earth. 0:14:57.765 --> 0:15:00.405 For a cactus hunter, Lake Burger, who may spend lots 0:15:00.405 --> 0:15:02.765 of time and money traveling to see just one type 0:15:02.765 --> 0:15:07.165 of plant. This is frustrating. He recalls one time searching 0:15:07.165 --> 0:15:09.445 for a rare cactus in Mexico. 0:15:09.365 --> 0:15:12.405 When it was discovered it was highly poached. That was 0:15:12.485 --> 0:15:16.325 just flocks of people going there taking the plants, and yeah, 0:15:16.365 --> 0:15:18.245 it was more or less wiped out. It's very, very 0:15:18.245 --> 0:15:20.725 difficult to go there and find any plants. 0:15:20.405 --> 0:15:21.045 At all there. 0:15:21.805 --> 0:15:25.565 But despite the setback, he was still hungry to see it. 0:15:26.365 --> 0:15:27.165 I got put. 0:15:27.125 --> 0:15:30.965 In contact with someone, and the guy who gave me 0:15:31.005 --> 0:15:33.085 the information was like, he knows where there's another planet. 0:15:33.085 --> 0:15:35.685 It's not near the top locality, but you know, I 0:15:35.765 --> 0:15:39.925 must warn you that he is a poacher. And I 0:15:39.965 --> 0:15:42.605 was like, okay, well, look I really want to see 0:15:42.605 --> 0:15:45.245 this plan. And so he ended up going to this 0:15:45.365 --> 0:15:48.605 really kind of sketchy part of Tamil Leipis, which was, 0:15:49.245 --> 0:15:51.925 you know, it's got a reputation for me, just full 0:15:51.965 --> 0:15:55.165 on Cartel Marcota territory in Mexico, and we were just 0:15:55.165 --> 0:16:03.285 in the middle of nowhere, and this guy met us 0:16:03.285 --> 0:16:05.525 on the side of the highway on his motorbike and 0:16:05.565 --> 0:16:10.845 he was the poacher. He basically walked us through this 0:16:10.965 --> 0:16:15.245 kind of sclerophytic scrub land. I mean, we must have 0:16:15.325 --> 0:16:20.125 seen over twenty plants in about forty minutes or so 0:16:20.245 --> 0:16:21.365 walking around. 0:16:26.285 --> 0:16:29.805 It dawned on Burger that when it comes to cactus hunting, 0:16:30.405 --> 0:16:35.205 poachers are often a step ahead of hobbyists and scientists. 0:16:35.325 --> 0:16:37.805 I just couldn't believe it that we were actually seeing 0:16:37.925 --> 0:16:41.605 so many of this species and habitat because it's just such, 0:16:42.125 --> 0:16:45.325 you know, scarce information about it. It's so highly endangered. 0:16:46.125 --> 0:16:49.925 And I started asking him questions about how the poaching 0:16:49.965 --> 0:16:52.085 things work, you know, because I noticed there were some 0:16:52.165 --> 0:16:53.925 holes in some of the places that we went to, 0:16:53.965 --> 0:16:55.925 and he's, oh, they were the biggest ones, like the 0:16:55.965 --> 0:16:59.565 biggest ones. He had taken and sold them and he made, 0:17:00.125 --> 0:17:02.725 you know, for him a lot of money in Mexico, 0:17:03.005 --> 0:17:04.845 you know. And he was just like, Yeah, I couldn't 0:17:04.845 --> 0:17:07.165 believe ho much mine I made out of just something 0:17:07.165 --> 0:17:08.285 that grows in my backyard. 0:17:08.405 --> 0:17:17.085 Essentially, that's how so many of us see plants, at 0:17:17.125 --> 0:17:20.205 least when you're plant blind, just as some thing growing 0:17:20.205 --> 0:17:24.645 out in the backyard. And frankly, that kind of attitude 0:17:24.685 --> 0:17:28.325 makes rare plants easier to exploit, especially when you're in 0:17:28.365 --> 0:17:29.565 a rough patch yourself. 0:17:30.565 --> 0:17:33.285 He grows in such a poor part of Mexico on 0:17:33.365 --> 0:17:36.725 somewhere that's been just oh, you know, extorted by the 0:17:36.805 --> 0:17:39.925 nacos and stuff. And he saw the numbers declining after 0:17:39.965 --> 0:17:42.005 he was taking them, when he's like, oh, he expected 0:17:42.005 --> 0:17:45.205 the next year for that to be an abundant supply 0:17:45.325 --> 0:17:47.405 of cacti a game, but it's just not like that, 0:17:47.525 --> 0:17:52.645 because you know, they take decades to reproduce, and especially 0:17:52.645 --> 0:17:54.325 to grow and produce new plants. 0:17:54.845 --> 0:17:57.805 Berger realized that this poacher was just a poor guy 0:17:57.885 --> 0:18:00.965 trying to make ends meet, which was kind of hard 0:18:01.005 --> 0:18:03.405 to come to terms with because as a cactus lover 0:18:03.565 --> 0:18:06.445 and a cactus hunter, not that takes the wind out 0:18:06.485 --> 0:18:10.965 of your sails, like seeing the environment you love torn apart. 0:18:11.325 --> 0:18:14.325 It's great to see a lot of plants in localities 0:18:14.365 --> 0:18:16.125 and things like that, but if you see any kind 0:18:16.125 --> 0:18:20.805 of harm or destruction, it just kind of taints the 0:18:20.845 --> 0:18:24.005 whole experience. So, you know, that's what got me interested 0:18:24.045 --> 0:18:27.165 in conservation in the beginning, because I could just see 0:18:27.565 --> 0:18:34.565 the evidence there of the plants being exploited. Essentially, I mean, 0:18:34.565 --> 0:18:37.125 there's animals and insects that rely on that plant for 0:18:37.165 --> 0:18:39.365 a food source, for example. So they're part of a 0:18:39.405 --> 0:18:40.245 food chain. 0:18:40.605 --> 0:18:40.805 You know. 0:18:40.845 --> 0:18:43.085 The pollen in a flower is right at the very 0:18:43.165 --> 0:18:47.445 very base of the food chain that supports us as humans, 0:18:47.485 --> 0:18:50.685 you know, and it comes from a plant flower most 0:18:50.685 --> 0:18:54.925 of the time. So they're parts of ecosystems, and taking 0:18:55.005 --> 0:18:57.845 them out of habitat is throwing all of that, of course, 0:18:57.885 --> 0:19:00.565 and reducing the amount of biodiversity out there. 0:19:01.525 --> 0:19:06.085 Coaching takes a toll. Cactive provide food and for at 0:19:06.165 --> 0:19:10.085 least twenty five species of wild animal, including deer and coyote. 0:19:10.925 --> 0:19:14.685 They're necessary for the survival of multiple pollinators, and they 0:19:14.685 --> 0:19:18.125 are a major habitat for ants, the food source for 0:19:18.325 --> 0:19:22.645 so many desert dwellers. Every plant that is ripped from 0:19:22.645 --> 0:19:26.245 the land hurts the survival of every species that relies 0:19:26.285 --> 0:19:30.005 on it. And these plants they don't grow back quickly. 0:19:33.285 --> 0:19:36.565 You may remember doctor Barberaketch from our first episode. 0:19:37.085 --> 0:19:42.525 When you do this, you basically affect the number of 0:19:42.765 --> 0:19:46.285 seedlings and new plants that are going to get into 0:19:46.325 --> 0:19:52.565 your population. These plants grow very slowly. Some plants, for example, 0:19:52.645 --> 0:19:55.845 like the sawara, they don't start producing flour until they're 0:19:55.885 --> 0:19:58.405 thirteen years old. 0:19:57.685 --> 0:20:01.685 And some species only grow in hyperlocal areas. 0:20:01.885 --> 0:20:05.645 As in many other cases of people getting obsessed with 0:20:05.725 --> 0:20:10.165 things is the rarity of them. These plants, like cactus, 0:20:10.325 --> 0:20:12.965 more than seventy percent of Mexican species are found in 0:20:13.005 --> 0:20:16.085 Mexico and nowhere else in the world, and they tend 0:20:16.085 --> 0:20:20.885 to occur in very small areas and sometimes also in 0:20:20.965 --> 0:20:21.965 very small numbers. 0:20:23.005 --> 0:20:27.765 With such small numbers, sometimes one poacher can wipe out 0:20:27.805 --> 0:20:33.125 an entire genus in one afternoon, and that's prompted scientists 0:20:33.125 --> 0:20:36.725 to become tight lipped with new discoveries, to act kind 0:20:36.765 --> 0:20:40.565 of like a botanical illuminati, guarding the secrets of the 0:20:40.605 --> 0:20:50.725 most vulnerable species. Here's an example. It's nineteen fifty two 0:20:50.805 --> 0:20:53.605 and a botanist named doctor Norman Bog is visiting the 0:20:53.645 --> 0:20:57.525 Crosby Hotel in Siouda Drecuna, a Mexican city across the 0:20:57.525 --> 0:21:01.805 border from Del Rio, Texas. There at the hotel, doctor 0:21:01.845 --> 0:21:04.885 Bog spies a tiny cactus growing in a coffee can. 0:21:07.165 --> 0:21:11.565 It's a pigmy sized specimen nested in pebbles. It resembles 0:21:11.605 --> 0:21:15.125 a cloud of brilliant white stars, a corona of Fuschia 0:21:15.205 --> 0:21:19.805 flowers with a Yoki centers. Doctor Bok's never seen a 0:21:19.845 --> 0:21:23.525 cactus like this before, so he asks the hotel's owner 0:21:23.565 --> 0:21:27.005 how she got it. She shrugs and tells a story 0:21:27.045 --> 0:21:29.445 of a mining prospector some guy who had found it 0:21:29.485 --> 0:21:33.365 while traping through the deserts of Coah Wheela. For a 0:21:33.405 --> 0:21:39.285 cactus expert, this was not useful information. Coaheela is the 0:21:39.365 --> 0:21:42.845 third largest state in Mexico. It's deserts are some of 0:21:42.845 --> 0:21:47.045 the most inhospitable parts of the country. But Bok thanks 0:21:47.085 --> 0:21:50.205 the proprietor, takes a few photos and vows to look 0:21:50.245 --> 0:21:53.925 for this new cactus. Little does he know he just 0:21:53.965 --> 0:21:58.725 committed to finding the holy Grail, because for the next 0:21:58.765 --> 0:22:04.765 four decades, botanists search and search and search. Two of 0:22:04.805 --> 0:22:08.525 the most dominant cactus hunters alive claim it holds quote 0:22:08.845 --> 0:22:13.005 undisputed first place in the Great North American cactus Hunt, 0:22:14.085 --> 0:22:18.605 but the desert is unkind. During one mission, more than 0:22:18.685 --> 0:22:22.085 fifty people fanned the sand together in search of the plant. 0:22:22.845 --> 0:22:23.365 No luck. 0:22:24.365 --> 0:22:29.565 For forty four years, the little cactus eludes discovery, and 0:22:29.645 --> 0:22:33.525 like any treasure hunt, failure causes most people to give up, 0:22:34.525 --> 0:22:37.845 but for a select few, the dead ends just fuel 0:22:37.925 --> 0:22:43.045 their desire to find it. Two men hell bent on 0:22:43.125 --> 0:22:46.765 tracking the plant down are botanist Jonis Luti and George Hinton. 0:22:47.845 --> 0:22:51.125 In nineteen ninety six, they started exploring the cattle farms 0:22:51.125 --> 0:22:54.565 near the Sierra del Carmen, close to the US border. There, 0:22:54.605 --> 0:22:58.405 among yucca and agave and lowing cows, they stumble upon 0:22:58.965 --> 0:23:02.965 the sasquatch of cacti and they make an agreement with 0:23:02.965 --> 0:23:07.125 one another they will keep the plants location a secret. 0:23:09.045 --> 0:23:12.205 When a plant gets discovered, the describing author has to 0:23:12.245 --> 0:23:16.405 put down a type, locality, and this can be really general. 0:23:16.405 --> 0:23:18.685 It can be as general as a certain state or 0:23:18.765 --> 0:23:22.045 province from a country. You'll find that there's a lot 0:23:22.085 --> 0:23:24.685 of cacta that have been described by somebody, but they 0:23:24.725 --> 0:23:26.765 haven't populations haven't been found since. 0:23:27.085 --> 0:23:30.765 As Paul Haxey rates in The Cactus Explorer, the discovery 0:23:30.765 --> 0:23:34.285 and subsequent secrecy surrounding its habitat had earned it a 0:23:34.365 --> 0:23:36.885 near mythical status for cactus explorers. 0:23:36.885 --> 0:23:41.605 In Mexico, plants and plant distributions especially is such a 0:23:41.645 --> 0:23:44.165 double edged sword. On the one hand, we want to 0:23:44.205 --> 0:23:46.685 know where these plants are so we can monitor them 0:23:46.725 --> 0:23:50.165 and introduce them into cultivation in ethical way, so people 0:23:50.205 --> 0:23:52.445 can have them. But you know, then there's other people 0:23:52.445 --> 0:23:57.165 who will exploit that information because these plants, as probably 0:23:57.205 --> 0:24:01.165 many people know, have become highly valuable, especially plants that 0:24:01.165 --> 0:24:04.245 are not common in cultivation or take a long time 0:24:04.325 --> 0:24:07.365 to reach mature. Do you like someone can take one 0:24:07.405 --> 0:24:11.445 hundred years to reach adacent size and it has really 0:24:11.605 --> 0:24:17.005 attractive characteristics that you can't replicate in cultivation. So having 0:24:17.005 --> 0:24:20.925 the information in the wrong hands can lead to exploitation 0:24:21.365 --> 0:24:23.085 of these species. 0:24:22.805 --> 0:24:27.885 And some secrets are doomed to be revealed rather than 0:24:27.965 --> 0:24:31.285 quell the search. The discovery of the plant called Luti's 0:24:31.325 --> 0:24:35.605 pin pushing cactus or Mammalaria lutii fan, the desires of 0:24:35.685 --> 0:24:41.045 obsessives cactus hunter's legal and illegal alike became more desperate 0:24:41.125 --> 0:24:44.525 to see the plant. Today, it's become easier to find 0:24:44.565 --> 0:24:49.325 Mammalaria luti in the market. Two legally cloned specimens spawned 0:24:49.365 --> 0:24:52.365 a cottage industry, with the little guys selling for around 0:24:52.365 --> 0:24:57.045 twenty bucks apiece, But in nature the plant remains rare. 0:24:58.365 --> 0:25:02.405 The only thing protecting the wild population from extinction is 0:25:02.445 --> 0:25:08.245 its very elusiveness. It would take only one irresponsible cactus 0:25:08.325 --> 0:25:12.125 hunter somebody willing to leak the GPS coordinates of the 0:25:12.125 --> 0:25:16.525 plant's location to risk this rare cactus falling into the 0:25:16.565 --> 0:25:20.965 hands of the wrong people, people like yev Guinea sophrona. 0:25:32.325 --> 0:25:34.885 About five hundred and sixty miles from the first crime 0:25:34.885 --> 0:25:38.765 scene in Benson, Arizona, the white Chevy Tahoe turns up again, 0:25:39.525 --> 0:25:42.725 this time at Big Bend National Park in South Texas. 0:25:43.965 --> 0:25:48.285 The area lays claim to some stunning vistas, towering rock cliffs, 0:25:48.485 --> 0:25:52.885 muddy dykes, the meandering Rio Grande. For ye have Guinea 0:25:52.885 --> 0:25:57.565 sifrona of Big Bend is familiar territory. Years earlier, he 0:25:57.605 --> 0:26:00.205 had visited the national park and had posted more than 0:26:00.285 --> 0:26:04.925 fifty photos online of the sites, but mostly photos of cacti. 0:26:06.525 --> 0:26:10.965 Little does he know a federal agent is tailing. Here's 0:26:11.045 --> 0:26:13.245 Special Agent Albert Gonzalez again. 0:26:14.285 --> 0:26:17.685 It was challenging because in many areas that we were 0:26:17.925 --> 0:26:21.805 attempting to watch them, it was just them. A wide 0:26:21.805 --> 0:26:25.245 open field and it was just them, so we had 0:26:25.285 --> 0:26:28.845 to be cognisant of that. We kept our distance. It 0:26:28.925 --> 0:26:30.925