Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So today
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the very particular and particularly
Speaker 1: illegal hobby of egg collecting.
Speaker 2: And I'm assuming you don't mean the easter variety. No,
Speaker 2: that's pretty above board as far as I know. And
Speaker 2: we're not talking about stealing eggs from the grocery store either,
Speaker 2: that is also illegal.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about the shadowy world of wild egg thefts.
Speaker 1: In fact, in many places around the world, even possessing
Speaker 1: wild bird eggshells, especially if it's from an endangered species
Speaker 1: or threatened species, can get you in lots of trouble,
Speaker 1: like prison trouble.
Speaker 2: You know. It's a world of undercover cops, repelling down
Speaker 2: cliff faces, international criminality, and of course how to bring
Speaker 2: down an egg from a tree during enemy fire. You
Speaker 2: got to know this sort of stuff. But spoiler alert here,
Speaker 2: your dentist will not be thrilled.
Speaker 1: It is going to be fun, So let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 2: always I'm here with my good friend Mangesh Hot Ticket
Speaker 2: here and somewhere behind that big booth. He's djaying today Mango,
Speaker 2: He's djang a medley of bird songs. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you knew he had this mixtape on hand, did you?
Speaker 2: I saw he put like bird is the word on
Speaker 2: their free Bird, Blackbird, three Little Birds, when Doves Cry.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no shortage of songs.
Speaker 2: When you start to see his playlist, you're like, this
Speaker 2: actually all makes sense, and.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of bird songs.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of bird songs for sure, And
Speaker 2: I honestly hadn't thought about how many songs there were
Speaker 2: about birds until he made this for us. That's our
Speaker 2: super musical and thoughtful producer, Dylan Fake so Will.
Speaker 1: I'm obviously excited to talk about bird tufts with you,
Speaker 1: but I'm curious, like, are you a bird person? Like
Speaker 1: you've had pet rabbits, dogs, but do you like birds? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was actually just talking about this with somebody the
Speaker 2: other day because I feel like you get to a
Speaker 2: certain age and you're supposed to become a bird person.
Speaker 1: Like you've seen those you've seen.
Speaker 2: Those bird houses that like all of our parents have
Speaker 2: these days where you actually have a camera in there
Speaker 2: and you can watch the bird in there, and I.
Speaker 1: Think I'm just not quite to that age yet.
Speaker 2: I know that we'll be old when that officially it's
Speaker 2: around the corner soon where we'll be excited to watch
Speaker 2: birds on a camera, which is I don't know why
Speaker 2: that's different than watching them on TV, but I do
Speaker 2: think birds are very pretty. I don't like want to
Speaker 2: go out of my way and grab a pair of
Speaker 2: binoculars to go see them on trips or things. But
Speaker 2: I think it's cool that people are into it. How
Speaker 2: about you, Yeah, I think it's cool that people who
Speaker 2: are into it.
Speaker 1: I mean it's funny, right you see these majestic birds
Speaker 1: and like an eagle and the Pacific Northwest or something,
Speaker 1: and it's like gorgeous to see. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I was getting lunch the other day and I was
Speaker 1: outside and I was at this table and these super
Speaker 1: fat pigeons just started charging towards me, and I kept
Speaker 1: like trying to shake them off and make these like
Speaker 1: big motions to get them away, and they just kept
Speaker 1: running and I had to keep moving picnic tables. It
Speaker 1: was like embarrassing. They were so fat and they were fearless.
Speaker 2: Man, that sounds actually to usually I'm not afraid of birds,
Speaker 2: but that actually sounds pretty scary. But all right, well,
Speaker 2: where do you think we should start this episode today?
Speaker 1: Why don't we start with a bit of history, which
Speaker 1: is obviously where we love to start at. Collecting seems
Speaker 1: to have really come around in Victorian England. So we're
Speaker 1: talking mid to late nineteenth century here, and British explorers
Speaker 1: and scientists were traveling the world, oftentimes bringing back artifacts
Speaker 1: from their exploits, and this included things like birds eggs. Now,
Speaker 1: at the time, collecting was a way to study the
Speaker 1: natural world, and the collection and study of birds eggs
Speaker 1: is officially known as oology, and back at Victorian times,
Speaker 1: equology was respected and legal. There wasn't real concern about
Speaker 1: any ecological effects from this past time, especially because it
Speaker 1: was all being done in the name of science, and
Speaker 1: these guys were really dedicated. There is a story of
Speaker 1: one man, a guy named Charles ben Dyer, and he
Speaker 1: was a German immigrant who served in the US Army
Speaker 1: in the mid eighteen hundreds, and he was so committed
Speaker 1: to his egg collection that once he climbed a tree
Speaker 1: to grab a rare egg that he'd spotted. And this
Speaker 1: was during enemy fire. But then he got the egg
Speaker 1: and he had to get down the tree. Oh god,
Speaker 1: so what did he do? He puts the egg in
Speaker 1: his mouth. Would not have been my first thought, like
Speaker 1: I would have put it in a pocket or something,
Speaker 1: But apparently the trick worked. He came down the tree.
Speaker 1: And this is a strange part of the story, and
Speaker 1: I don't entirely get the physics of this, but the
Speaker 1: egg actually got stuck in his mouth. Another guy actually
Speaker 1: had to take one of Ben Dyer's teeth out so
Speaker 1: he could remove the egg. Isn't that crazy? I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: it is crazy. But also how did his friend know
Speaker 1: that he had an an egg in his mouth and
Speaker 1: that that was I guess the best way to get
Speaker 1: it out? I have no idea. But also like, I
Speaker 1: don't think there are any hobbies that I'd willingly lose
Speaker 1: a tooth for, right, Like I used to collect pet
Speaker 1: dispensers and magazines, but I'm not trading a tooth for
Speaker 1: one of those. It feels ludicrous anyway, Bird collectors weren't
Speaker 1: just about taking risks and sacrificing teeth. They also happened
Speaker 1: to be meticulous, so they would take notes about where
Speaker 1: each egg clutch was found, the habitat, the environment, and
Speaker 1: they'd empty the egg of the embryo and catalog details
Speaker 1: like color and size. And these collections were good and
Speaker 1: important enough that a lot of them ended up in museums,
Speaker 1: specifically England's Natural History Museum at Tring. Have you ever
Speaker 1: been to Tring? I have not? No, where is it?
Speaker 1: I haven't either. Tring is located about thirty miles outside
Speaker 1: of London on the estate of one Lord Walter Rothschild
Speaker 1: now Lord Walter began collecting specimen when he was a
Speaker 1: young boy, and by the time he was ten he'd
Speaker 1: started his first museum. This was in the backyard garden shed,
Speaker 1: which sounds pretty cute, right, But by the time he
Speaker 1: turned twenty one, his parents realized this was not just
Speaker 1: some childhood phase and so naturally they built him his
Speaker 1: own museum, which is you know, I guess what happens
Speaker 1: to lords who grow up and have odd interests. But
Speaker 1: this museum ends up being called Walter's Zoological Museum, and
Speaker 1: eventually this became part of the country's Natural History Museum. Today,
Speaker 1: the Tring actually houses the largest zoological collection that was
Speaker 1: accumulated by one person, though it has to be noted
Speaker 1: that Walter, who was better known as Lord Rothschild, actually
Speaker 1: spent most of his time at the museum studying. All
Speaker 1: these new species that came in the collections mostly came
Speaker 1: from the four hundred people around the world he had
Speaker 1: traveling on his behalf. That's an impressive number of people.
Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing. And the Tring actually has the largest
Speaker 1: bird egg collection in the world, more than two million items.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that's really interesting is that
Speaker 1: the Tring collection in particular was crucial to helping scientists
Speaker 1: understand the damage that DDT had on birds.
Speaker 2: And if I'm not mistaken, DDT was the pesticide that
Speaker 2: made eggshells like really.
Speaker 1: Frail, right exactly. But you know, scientists didn't know that
Speaker 1: at first. They just saw that raptors like the bald
Speaker 1: eagle and peregrine falcon weren't reproducing, which is obviously a
Speaker 1: huge problem if a species is going to continue to exist.
Speaker 1: But because the collection that the Tring was so thorough
Speaker 1: and so detailed, scientists were actually able to compare all
Speaker 1: these contemporary eggs to the older eggs from this collection,
Speaker 1: and you know, it existed from well before the time
Speaker 1: of DDT, and they discovered that the contemporary eggshells were
Speaker 1: not only much thinner, but also weaker, and they were
Speaker 1: able to connect this change to the introduction of DDT
Speaker 1: into the environment. You know that this of course made
Speaker 1: its way up into the food chain, into bird's diets,
Speaker 1: and affected the composition of the female's eggs. In fact,
Speaker 1: the pesticide made the shell so brittle that they'd actually
Speaker 1: break under the weight of a parent bird just sitting
Speaker 1: on the egg during incubation. That is wild. But of
Speaker 1: course DDT has been banned since then. Yeah, and some
Speaker 1: egg collectors like to cite this example as a benefit
Speaker 1: of their work, like, thanks to them, there was this
Speaker 1: history to be studied and to be learned from. But
Speaker 1: today scientists are still allowed to apply for permits to
Speaker 1: collect eggs for research. But you know, the idea of
Speaker 1: this gentleman collector who's just out for his own pleasure,
Speaker 1: you know, that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, it's.
Speaker 2: Pretty frowned upon and is basically gone underground. Well, speaking
Speaker 2: of that, that's actually where I'm going to take the baton.
Speaker 2: But before we do that, why don't we take a
Speaker 2: quick break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
Speaker 1: egg collectors and this strange world of rare egg theft.
Speaker 1: So will you were just about to tell us about
Speaker 1: how egg collecting moves from this genteel hobby for naturalists
Speaker 1: to something a little darker. That's right.
Speaker 2: I think it feels like time to go a little
Speaker 2: darker here. So this comes from a twenty thirteen New
Speaker 2: Yorker article. This was by Julian Rubinsteinde. Toward egg collectors
Speaker 2: really starts to change in the nineteen twenties. So the
Speaker 2: Royal Society for the Protection for Birds or the RSPB,
Speaker 2: they warned that this gentleman collector form of ooology was
Speaker 2: threatening the survival of species, which of course made the
Speaker 2: egg collectors pretty mad. For example, your friend Lord Walter
Speaker 2: Rothschild teamed up with another collector, a guy by the
Speaker 2: name of Reverend FCR. Jordaane, and they started their own group,
Speaker 2: the British Euological Society, and it was renamed the Jordaane
Speaker 2: Society in nineteen forty after Jordayne died. Now its members
Speaker 2: were pretty exclusively men, no surprise, they're given the time
Speaker 2: and it claimed to be the only organization in England.
Speaker 1: Dedicated to egg collecting.
Speaker 2: Now, they took their work very seriously and even after
Speaker 2: it was illegal, it actually didn't really stop them.
Speaker 1: So when does egg collecting actually start to become illegal?
Speaker 2: Well, stealing wild bird eggs has been illegal in the
Speaker 2: UK since nineteen fifty four, and then in nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: one it was illegal to even possess a protected wild
Speaker 2: bird's egg. But as we know, just because there is
Speaker 2: a rule, that does mean that everybody follows it, and
Speaker 2: that adage seemed to especially apply to members of the
Speaker 2: Jordaane Society. The New Yorker goes on to say about
Speaker 2: the nineteen nineties, more than half of the society's members
Speaker 2: had convictions for egg collecting.
Speaker 1: Half of the members. Amazing, it really is.
Speaker 2: And there's this one story about a nineteen ninety four
Speaker 2: raid where British investigators found out about a meeting that
Speaker 2: the Jordaane Society was having at a hotel, so they
Speaker 2: went under cover. One of the investigators was a woman,
Speaker 2: and she hung out at the hotel bar and she'd
Speaker 2: start chatting up its members. And remember this a real
Speaker 2: boys club, so apparently just by showing some interest in
Speaker 2: their hobby. This agent got at least one collector to
Speaker 2: show her photos of birds, nests and other incriminating things.
Speaker 1: So I'm guessing this led to some convictions. Oh, it
Speaker 1: definitely did.
Speaker 2: It was enough evidence that the entire meeting was raided
Speaker 2: and thanks to the raid, police were able to seize
Speaker 2: eleven thousand eggs. Six Jordaane Society members were fined from
Speaker 2: this whole raid. It was pretty wild, but.
Speaker 1: I mean, if the Jordan's Society felt like they could
Speaker 1: hold meetings at hotels, right, they clearly were that afraid
Speaker 1: of the consequences.
Speaker 2: No, and the fines didn't seem to be all that effective.
Speaker 2: There's a story of this one collector named Colin Watson
Speaker 2: who throughout the nineteen eighties and nineties had been fined
Speaker 2: almost six thousand pounds, which obviously didn't stop him. He
Speaker 2: continued until the day of his death. Literally, he died
Speaker 2: after falling from a tree trying to get to a nest.
Speaker 2: I think these people were pretty focused on this whole
Speaker 2: legg collecting.
Speaker 1: Thing, I know, dying doing what he low.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the thing is people are still stealing and
Speaker 2: collecting eggs, even as recently as November of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: a collection of five thousand rare eggs was discovered and
Speaker 2: seized in rural England.
Speaker 1: So what about this Jordaane Society? Does this still live on?
Speaker 2: Well, it hasn't been a recognized charity since two thousand
Speaker 2: and one, and also happens to be the same year
Speaker 2: the UK changed the law. So now if you're caught
Speaker 2: with wild eggs it's more than a fine, you could
Speaker 2: potentially serve jail time, which is a much bigger deterrent.
Speaker 2: And it's also helped that investigative techniques have gotten more advanced,
Speaker 2: like using or veillance cameras near popular collecting routes in
Speaker 2: order to be able to track these license plates. And
Speaker 2: that's opposed to putting microphones in trees, which is what
Speaker 2: they used to do, just hoping to overhear illegal activity
Speaker 2: happening in these trees.
Speaker 1: That is ridiculous. You know what. One other way that
Speaker 1: I've read in the Guardian that people have been caught
Speaker 1: is quote disgruntled wives who have played second fiddle to
Speaker 1: their husband's obsession over bird eggs for decades.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are public informants too, like the New Yorker
Speaker 2: article I mentioned also tells the story of how authorities
Speaker 2: once caught this other collector. This was back in the
Speaker 2: early two thousands, and the collector's brother was in a pub.
Speaker 2: Someone there overheard him talking about bird eggs. This good
Speaker 2: samaritan then followed the brother out of the pub in
Speaker 2: order to take down his license plate number and then
Speaker 2: report what he'd heard to authorities.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine like overhearing someone talking about bird eggs
Speaker 1: and being like, oh, I should probably report this. That's
Speaker 1: kind of amazing. So let's switch tacks a little bit
Speaker 1: here and talk about who some of these collectors are.
Speaker 2: So I don't know about two bell I'm picturing like
Speaker 2: Indiana Jones, but more like Indiana Jones with binoculars and
Speaker 2: a field guide.
Speaker 1: What about you? I mean, I think they like to
Speaker 1: think themselves as like that suave and to be honest, like,
Speaker 1: there definitely are some real physical skills involved. So these
Speaker 1: guys are often excellent tree climbers. Often they climb up
Speaker 1: like one hundred foot tree trunks sometimes to get to
Speaker 1: these rareness. They're also insanely knowledgeable, like they know a
Speaker 1: ton about birds and their habitats. But egg collecting isn't
Speaker 1: really like a young man's game, right, Yeah. You don't
Speaker 1: see like kids into egg collecting in the same way
Speaker 1: that you see like older men. And most of these
Speaker 1: people had started taking eggs when they themselves were kids
Speaker 1: after World War Two. There's actually this documentary about this
Speaker 1: world called Poached, which is really interesting. It came out
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen and it follows some of these collectors now.
Speaker 1: According to director Timothy Wheeler, the impulse to collect does
Speaker 1: often start with a true childhood love of birds, but
Speaker 1: it moors from that pretty quickly into an almost addictive behavior.
Speaker 1: One British investigator said that when the police arrived to
Speaker 1: this collector's house and found thirty six hundred eggs, the
Speaker 1: guys started crying and said, quote, thank god you've come.
Speaker 1: I can't stop. Oh my gosh. These guys are also experts,
Speaker 1: and many argue that they aren't hurting the birds because
Speaker 1: they're often cracking breeding schedules, and when they do take
Speaker 1: the eggs, they take the entire clutch, and they claim
Speaker 1: that this means the bird will lay a whole new
Speaker 1: clutch that same season, which you know is sometimes true,
Speaker 1: but it's not always the case. For example, birds like
Speaker 1: golden eagles and ospreys, they really only lay once a season.
Speaker 2: Well, and I know from my reading for this episode
Speaker 2: that the extinction of the red back strike in the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties is actually attributed in part to collectors.
Speaker 1: That's right. And while egg thivery is certainly not the
Speaker 1: reason why bird species might go endangered, you know, none
Speaker 1: of this really helps. There are all sorts of other
Speaker 1: conditions that lead to the endangement of birds, from habitat,
Speaker 1: food lass, climate change, you know, overhunting, things like that.
Speaker 1: But as you can imagine, these bird collectors aren't really
Speaker 1: interested in common birds like you know, like the finch
Speaker 1: or the crow or the robin. They want rare bird eggs,
Speaker 1: especially if the only way to get them is to
Speaker 1: repel down a cliff or climb a really tall tree
Speaker 1: or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes the egg feel
Speaker 2: more like a treasure in that case, and a story
Speaker 2: or an adventure to be able to tell about exactly.
Speaker 1: And one of the most infamous thieves is a guy
Speaker 1: the press is dubbed Pablo Excobar, and in many ways
Speaker 1: he fits the profile of these Jordaanan Society members, especially
Speaker 1: that adventure adrenaline junkie sort of profile we've talked about.
Speaker 1: I love this all right, So you got to tell
Speaker 1: me more about Pablo. So his name is actually Jeffrey Lendrum,
Speaker 1: and he's a really interesting character. He grew up in
Speaker 1: what is now Zimbabwe, and he spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time outdoors with his dad, who was also really into birds. Now,
Speaker 1: by the time he was eight, little Jeffrey was known
Speaker 1: for his ability to climb trees and rocks and cliff faces,
Speaker 1: you know, all the spots where birds' nests are conveniently located. Now,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey and his dad were renowned enough that they were
Speaker 1: asked to volunteer on surveys and observation studies for different
Speaker 1: birds in the area. So they legitimately knew birds and
Speaker 1: I guess, more importantly, how to find these And according
Speaker 1: to an article in Outside magazine, Jeffrey and his dad
Speaker 1: would do some pretty skilled and dangerous things to find
Speaker 1: these birds, Like they would actually throw claws into trees
Speaker 1: as climbing aids. Like it sounds pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, Like, how does this zimbabwe boy scout end
Speaker 2: up growing up to be on Autubn's Most Wanted list well.
Speaker 1: Over time, it became clear that Jeffrey and his dad
Speaker 1: were doing more than just studying the birds. Other volunteers
Speaker 1: started to notice some small lies and inconsistencies that they tell,
Speaker 1: especially when talking about fledglings they claimed to have observed.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty three, when Jeffrey was twenty one, police
Speaker 1: raided their house and found more than eight hundred eggs
Speaker 1: as well as these live peregrine falcon eggs, and there
Speaker 1: were also allegations that Jeffrey was selling these live eggs
Speaker 1: on the black market, but none of that was ever proven.
Speaker 1: He's still eight hundred that's a lot of eggs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and both father and son were found guilty of theft
Speaker 1: and fraud. They were fined, they were given probation, but
Speaker 1: you know, as we've learned, it's not a huge deterrent
Speaker 1: for these sort of committed thieves, and so Jeffrey spent
Speaker 1: the next couple decades going to super remote places around
Speaker 1: the world stealing eggs. We know that he took at
Speaker 1: least two trips to northern Quebec to take ger falcon eggs,
Speaker 1: which build nests and depressions in Arctic cliff faces. There's
Speaker 1: also a terrific book about Jeffrey by the writer Joshua Hammer.
Speaker 1: It's called The Falcon Thief and a lot of this
Speaker 1: research comes from that. So Hammer actually spoke to a
Speaker 1: former friend of Lendrum's who accompanied him on these Canadian trips,
Speaker 1: and this friend said that Lendrum would hire a pilot
Speaker 1: and rent a helicopter to get to these nests.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And if anyone asked, their alibi was that they were
Speaker 1: filmmakers with National Geographic. Basically, the pilot would hover next
Speaker 1: to the cliffs and then Lendrom would actually lower himself
Speaker 1: down from the helicopter on a rope mission impossible style
Speaker 1: to these nests. That is incredible. Yeah, And this friend
Speaker 1: said that over the course of a week they went
Speaker 1: to nineteen geerfalcon nests and stole about twelve eggs. Now, Lendrum,
Speaker 1: who is continually denied they stole these eggs, then wrapped
Speaker 1: the eggs and socks and put them in his carry
Speaker 1: on for the flight to London and then finally Dubai,
Speaker 1: where they were likely sold on the black market. But
Speaker 1: the next trip, the guys weren't that lucky. This time,
Speaker 1: the pilot they hired didn't buy their filmmaker story and
Speaker 1: instead he tipped off the authorities and Lendrom and friend
Speaker 1: were arrested when eggs and incubators were found in their
Speaker 1: hotel room. They were fined just about seven thousand dollars
Speaker 1: and then they were set on their way.
Speaker 2: I mean again, though, when you talk about these fines,
Speaker 2: it still doesn't seem like that much of a fine.
Speaker 1: It's not that much of a disincentive because eight years
Speaker 1: later he was arrested again, and talk about wild This
Speaker 1: is a crazy story. So in May twenty ten, Lenderham
Speaker 1: was in the Emirates Executive Loune in the Birmingham, England
Speaker 1: Airport and he had a ticket book to South Africa
Speaker 1: with importantly a fourteen hour layover in Dubai. Now he's
Speaker 1: in the lounge, he asked to use the shower and
Speaker 1: will I don't know about what you normally take the shower,
Speaker 1: but Lendrom decided to bring with him a bag and
Speaker 1: two small suitcases. I mean, I can't say that's typically
Speaker 1: in my shower padding no mine either, And it was
Speaker 1: unusual enough that it attracted the attention of one of
Speaker 1: the cleaners, who then also noticed that Lendrom spent a
Speaker 1: long time in the shower. So when Lendrom left the room,
Speaker 1: the cleaner, who was a former mall security guard, went
Speaker 1: to check it. And he enters the shower, but instead
Speaker 1: of finding I don't know, a suitcase full of bubbabout
Speaker 1: salts and a loofa, the shower was completely dry, and
Speaker 1: the towels were dry too, and they were folded, I
Speaker 1: mean a little suspicious there, So he knew something was off.
Speaker 1: He looks under the towels to see if there's anything there.
Speaker 1: He looks in the garbage can and there's nothing. But
Speaker 1: then he looks in this baby changing area where there
Speaker 1: was another plastic garbage bin for diapers, and inside the
Speaker 1: bin there there was an egg cardon with one single
Speaker 1: egg in it, dyed bright red.
Speaker 2: And it kind of reminds me of those old CIA
Speaker 2: spy transmitters that were like hitting in doggy dew and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. Like, I bet he really thought hiding
Speaker 2: an egg in the diaper garbage was, you know, pretty
Speaker 2: full proof because who's going to look in there?
Speaker 1: Yeah, But but the lounge attendant's hunch was right, like
Speaker 1: something was clearly up. And what does a red egg
Speaker 1: even mean, so in any case, he calls authorities, and
Speaker 1: the authorities search Lenderm's luggage, where they find insulated bags,
Speaker 1: some camera equipment, a walkie talkie, a bunch of cash,
Speaker 1: a thermometer, and two more egg cartons. One of these
Speaker 1: cartons is empty and the other one has quail eggs
Speaker 1: along with proof of purchase from a supermarket. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of this sounds so bizarre, Mango. And then it
Speaker 1: gets a little weirder because when the officers actually search
Speaker 1: Lendrom himself, they find fourteen small, multicolored eggs wrapped in
Speaker 1: wool socks and taped to his abdomen. So he's basically
Speaker 1: caught in the act here. Yeah, so here's a completely
Speaker 1: hypothetical situation I'm making up out of nowhere. You're illegally
Speaker 1: smuggling live eggs into another country by strapping them to
Speaker 1: your body to keep them warm. But then the police
Speaker 1: find them, what do you tell them by way of explanation?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: In this case, I feel like I'd probably just try
Speaker 2: to run, because he's pretty obvious what's going on.
Speaker 1: I mean, that seems like the better option, but him
Speaker 1: and said tells the authorities they were duck eggs, and
Speaker 1: he was bringing them to his father in Zimbabwe. And
Speaker 1: why weren't these colorful eggs and a carton. Well, Lenderham
Speaker 1: had a bad back, and with the long flight ahead,
Speaker 1: his physical therapist had told him that strapping something fragile
Speaker 1: against his stomach would causes muscles to tense up and
Speaker 1: strengthen his lower back.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm kind of buying that's a really
Speaker 2: creative story.
Speaker 1: It feels elaborate enough that it must be trued right
Speaker 1: At this point, though, airport authorities they don't know a
Speaker 1: lot about wild bird eggs, but they do know lender
Speaker 1: is lying through his teeth, so they call him the
Speaker 1: big Guns. And in this case, the Big Guns means
Speaker 1: Britain's National Wildlife Crime Unit. Oh and while they're waiting
Speaker 1: for the crime unit to arrive, airport authorities keep the
Speaker 1: eggs warm by storing them on their computer markers.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's actually something kind of heartwarming about the
Speaker 2: image of a bunch of cops trying to keep these
Speaker 2: eggs alive.
Speaker 1: I mean, the amazing thing is that it actually worked.
Speaker 1: Like twelve of the eggs, which weren't ducks but peregrine
Speaker 1: falcon eggs hashed a couple of weeks later, and actually
Speaker 1: eleven of those birds were able to fledge in the wild,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of a happy ending. Oh what happened
Speaker 1: to Lendrom? Well? After more interviews, Lendrom finally admits, okay,
Speaker 1: he might have been taking the peregrine falcon eggs from
Speaker 1: a cliff in Whales with the intent of hatching and
Speaker 1: breeding them in South Africa, but when he thought the
Speaker 1: eggs had died, he didn't want them to go to waste,
Speaker 1: so that's why he wrapped them around his body to
Speaker 1: keep him intact for the family's egg collection. Yeah collection,
Speaker 1: We already know they'd gotten in trouble for Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I assume you neglected to mention that he'd been arrested
Speaker 1: for this crime in the previous place. But you know, also,
Speaker 1: the peregrine falcon is the highest level of protected bird
Speaker 1: species in the UK, so this isn't especially bad. Look anyway,
Speaker 1: he has all this expensive contraband that he's taped to himself,
Speaker 1: and this actually isn't the only evidence. Authorities also find
Speaker 1: in his car in the parking lot that there's an
Speaker 1: incubator of ropes carabineers and GPS devices, which is clear
Speaker 1: evidence he knew what he was doing. He would repel
Speaker 1: down the cliff faces to the nest, stealed eggs, put
Speaker 1: them insulated bags, and then climb back up. So obviously
Speaker 1: he's not a novice.
Speaker 2: I mean, it feels dumb to keep all that stuff
Speaker 2: so close by, right, Like he clearly didn't think he
Speaker 2: was going to get caught.
Speaker 1: Definitely not. But one of the other things the authorities
Speaker 1: found was actual video footage from his exploits in Quebec,
Speaker 1: from when he was hanging from the helicopter. Like Lenderham
Speaker 1: tried to deny all this for a while, but there
Speaker 1: was enough evidence that he was arrested, found guilty, and
Speaker 1: that he spent eighteen months in prison. But my question
Speaker 1: is was the cleaner everthing actually he was. The reward
Speaker 1: for his eagle eye was a limited edition print of
Speaker 1: an avoset, which is a type of bird eye, and
Speaker 1: he was presented it by the country's environmental minister.
Speaker 2: And this was a print I guess, I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess it's a beautiful art print, but I don't think
Speaker 2: he was unhappy about it.
Speaker 1: But amazingly, our bird smugglers. Story doesn't end there. We
Speaker 1: actually have more on Pablo Xcabar right after this break.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all
Speaker 2: about the highly secretive world of rare egg smuggling. All right,
Speaker 2: So Mega, when we left off, you were telling us
Speaker 2: how Jeffrey Lenderm was serving time in England after being
Speaker 2: caught stealing wild peregrine falcon eggs. So does all that
Speaker 2: time behind bars curb his bird obsession?
Speaker 1: I mean, will you know that the man is addicted?
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, he goes down to Patagonia where he
Speaker 1: climbs inside volcanoes and repels down cliff faces looking for
Speaker 1: raptor nests, which is incredible, and he's caught at the
Speaker 1: sau Polo airport with four rare, white chested peregrine falcon eggs.
Speaker 1: He's tried, he's found guilty, and he's sendenced to four
Speaker 1: and a half years in prison. But plot twist, he
Speaker 1: never serves any time. While he's out on bail a
Speaker 1: waiting appeal, he high tails it to Argentina, where he
Speaker 1: books a flight to South Africa, where of course he's
Speaker 1: a citizen.
Speaker 2: And was his scouting put to use, Like was he
Speaker 2: wondering jungles and evading patrols to get to Argentina or what.
Speaker 1: That's actually the story he kind of paints for himself.
Speaker 1: But his Brazilian lawyer said Lenderham just took a bus.
Speaker 1: But since then, his most recent arrest was in London
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen. He was coming from South Africa with
Speaker 1: nineteen eggs from endangered birds of prey strapped to his body,
Speaker 1: two of which had already hatched. I mean, a.
Speaker 2: Squawking baby bird has to be harder to conceal than
Speaker 2: a nice quiet egg.
Speaker 1: So does he end up serving time for this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: he got sentenced to three years in prison, and.
Speaker 2: So at this point he's been arrested, he spent time
Speaker 2: in jail. He's a fugitive in Brazil. I mean, he
Speaker 2: must be on watch list all over the world. He's
Speaker 2: got to be making bank for all this risk if
Speaker 2: he's doing this right.
Speaker 1: It seems likely though the writer Joshua Hammer mentioned that
Speaker 1: at least when he visited Lendroham in South Africa in
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, he really didn't seem to have any of
Speaker 1: the trappings of wealth. But there's definitely money in the business.
Speaker 1: For example, it was estimated he could have made around
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand pounds for that eighteen hall that got
Speaker 1: them arrested.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the things I'm always curious about
Speaker 2: is is, honestly less who's taking the risk to sell
Speaker 2: these things? Because they're making a lot of money, they
Speaker 2: made this decision to do this stuff, But I'm always
Speaker 2: wondering who's buying this stuff, Like who in this case,
Speaker 2: who's buying these eggs.
Speaker 1: Authorities can't say with one hundred percent certainty, but it
Speaker 1: seems very likely that the eggs were for ultra wealthy
Speaker 1: buyers in the Middle East, which you know, as we
Speaker 1: alluded to before, is notable not only because of the
Speaker 1: money there, but especially because of the long history of falconry.
Speaker 1: Like falconry in the Middle East goes back thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands of years to the Bedouins, and deserts, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, are really hard places to find food. So
Speaker 1: the Bedouins would capture these migrating wild falcons, they'd train
Speaker 1: them to help hunt for things like rabbits and other prey,
Speaker 1: and that's how they'd feed themselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's actually looking at falcons this week,
Speaker 2: and it's amazing how good they are at hunting. Like
Speaker 2: a falcon sees eight times better than a human, and
Speaker 2: it has such a strong beak that it can actually
Speaker 2: sever the neck of the animal that it's hunting. And
Speaker 2: maybe most important, it is super fast. So on average,
Speaker 2: surfalcons fly between fifty and sixty eight miles an hour
Speaker 2: and up to one hundred and thirty eight miles an
Speaker 2: hour when they're diving. Meanwhile, a peregrine falcon can reach
Speaker 2: speeds of up to two hundred and forty miles an
Speaker 2: hour while diving. I would have never guessed anywhere near that.
Speaker 2: It makes it actually the fastest animal on earth. So
Speaker 2: of course, if you're like a falcon meal, you really
Speaker 2: don't stand a chance.
Speaker 1: No, you really don't.
Speaker 2: So falcon hunts are now officially banned across many Middle
Speaker 2: Eastern countries, but obviously there's still this very venerated tradition
Speaker 2: of training falcons. So in the early two thousands falcon
Speaker 2: racing started up, where you know, it's about strength and
Speaker 2: speed but not actually hunting. There are very lucrative falcon
Speaker 2: races from the UAE to Saudi Arabia where the purse
Speaker 2: could be millions and millions of dollars. Falcons, like jur
Speaker 2: falcons and peregrins, they're some of the most sought after
Speaker 2: birds for these competitions, and there are falcon breeding programs
Speaker 2: in places like the UK and the US and western
Speaker 2: Europe where they're allowed to export to the Middle East.
Speaker 2: So today female jur falcons might cost between fifty thousand
Speaker 2: and one hundred and fifty thousand pounds each, and in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, a pure white jur falcon was sold to
Speaker 2: a buyer and Katar for two hundred and ten thousand pounds,
Speaker 2: which of course is quite a status symbol.
Speaker 1: That's pretty incredible. And obviously having a winning falcon is
Speaker 1: kind of like having a winning thorough bread, right like
Speaker 1: it's a huge status symbol like you mentioned. And of
Speaker 1: course that's really where Lendrom comes in, because there's a belief,
Speaker 1: right or wrong, that wild falcons are stronger and faster
Speaker 1: than the falcon's bread and captivity and because you know,
Speaker 1: many governments on the Arabian Peninsula have been the capture
Speaker 1: of wild falcons. There's this entire underground market and network
Speaker 1: where wild falcon fledglings or chicks might go for three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand pounds or even more money. And wild eggs
Speaker 1: are a little easier to pass off and get through
Speaker 1: customs than a massive bird. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the thing is, even if you're a shake
Speaker 2: and you have hundreds and hundreds of falcons, there's going
Speaker 2: to eventually be in breedings. The wild eggs are also
Speaker 2: useful and expanding that gene pool.
Speaker 1: So back to London for a second. Lenderm does deny
Speaker 1: that he was contributing to this black market. When he
Speaker 1: was stopped by customs officials in twenty eighteen, he told
Speaker 1: them he was just rescuing the eggs to save them
Speaker 1: from the habitat destruction in South Africa, and he claimed
Speaker 1: he was playing to take the eggs. Who are birds
Speaker 1: of Prey center in England at Lendrom. Such a stand
Speaker 1: up guy, but I'm curious where is he now? I
Speaker 1: hope his back is better. As far as we could tell,
Speaker 1: he hasn't been arrested again, but he is trying to
Speaker 1: make himself harder to track. It turns out that in
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen he'd officially changed his name to John Smith,
Speaker 1: and that dude never gives up. You do have to
Speaker 1: give him that, right. I have a feeling this isn't
Speaker 1: the last we've heard of Pablo Xcabar. And on that note,
Speaker 1: I think it's not for a fact off.
Speaker 2: All right, Sondram was stealing new eggs, but I actually
Speaker 2: want to talk about old eggs for a second. In
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, an intact eggshell from the long extinct elephant
Speaker 2: bird was put up for auction at Sotheby's. Now, the
Speaker 2: elephant bird when it was around, it weighed more than
Speaker 2: one thousand pounds. You see where they got the name
Speaker 2: elephant bird.
Speaker 1: It's kind of heavy.
Speaker 2: So the eggshell is one hundred and fifty times bigger
Speaker 2: than a chicken, one hundred and fifty times bigger than
Speaker 2: a chicken's egg. Though it didn't end up selling, the
Speaker 2: asking price was between thirty thousand and fifty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, And I have no idea how big one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty times a chinz egg is. I'm picturing
Speaker 1: like a house, so personally, I'm saving my pennies for
Speaker 1: a great auk egg, which is another extinct bird. Now.
Speaker 1: Victorian collectors were especially obsessed with ox in their eggs.
Speaker 1: There are thought to be only about seventy five eggshells
Speaker 1: left around the world, and twenty twenty three an egg
Speaker 1: was auctioned for one hundred thousand pounds. Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, a handful of years ago archaeologist in
Speaker 2: England came across this basket with four eggs still inside it. Now,
Speaker 2: three of the eggs disintegrated when they were excavating them,
Speaker 2: but they were able to successfully keep one fully intact.
Speaker 2: And they took that egg and they sent it to
Speaker 2: a lab and it's thought to be a chicken egg
Speaker 2: that's at least seventeen hundred years old. Now, even more
Speaker 2: exciting than that, it still has liquid yolk. How wild
Speaker 2: is that? That is insane and possibly delicious.
Speaker 1: I don't think some ango. We think eggs are expensive now,
Speaker 1: but after the California gold Rush started in the late
Speaker 1: eighteen forties, eggs were so scarce out west that a
Speaker 1: single chicken egg might go for a dollar in the
Speaker 1: city or three dollars in the mining camps, which is
Speaker 1: the equivalent of thirty dollars or ninety dollars today per egg.
Speaker 2: That's pretty expensive, But actually it relates to my fact
Speaker 2: here and it's about an all American classic known as
Speaker 2: the Hangtown Fry. Now. The story goes that one day
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty nine, a prospector ran into a saloon
Speaker 2: in nearby Hangtown, California. He had just struck it rich,
Speaker 2: and so to celebrate, he told the cook that he
Speaker 2: wanted quote, the finest and most expensive meal that he
Speaker 2: could possibly make him, which at the time was a
Speaker 2: combination of eggs, bacon, and oysters. As far as I
Speaker 2: can tell, the Buttercup Diner is the only restaurant in
Speaker 2: current day Hangtown that still serves this. They modernized it
Speaker 2: slightly by adding cheese on top, but the dish comes
Speaker 2: with a warning. It says eat at your own risk
Speaker 2: and just as a copyat to that. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: the La Times wrote a piece about the Hangtown Fry
Speaker 2: where they interviewed the owner of the Buttercup, who called
Speaker 2: it quote disgusting. He said, only tourists and people nursing
Speaker 2: hangovers ever order it.
Speaker 1: Do you know what it tastes like?
Speaker 2: I found a review from this guy online who says
Speaker 2: it was on his bucket list to try, and he said, quote,
Speaker 2: it's reminiscent of a plate of liver with scrambled eggs
Speaker 2: but chalky and oyster fishy tasting yuck yum. Maybe anyway,
Speaker 2: that was the review, but for whatever it's worth, he
Speaker 2: also did add that the more he ate of it,
Speaker 2: the quote easier it was to eat.
Speaker 1: I don't really understand that thing. Well. I think for
Speaker 1: surfacing the world's most luxurious and most disgusting egg dish,
Speaker 1: I think you have to win this one. But that
Speaker 1: is it for today's Part Time Genius. We'll be back
Speaker 1: with brand new episodes very soon. If you like the show,
Speaker 1: remember we're on Instagram at part Time Genius. Be sure
Speaker 1: to drop us a line because we love hearing from you. Also,
Speaker 1: this week, we have to give a big shout out
Speaker 1: to our writer and researcher Marissa Brown, who dug into
Speaker 1: the weighty topic of egg thefts for us. Thank you, Marissa,
Speaker 1: and from Dylan Gabe, Mary, Will and myself, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
Speaker 1: of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and me Mongish Heatikler and research by our good
Speaker 1: pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
Speaker 1: by the Wonderful Dylan Fagan, with support from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel
Speaker 1: and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Speaker 1: Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shory. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.