WEBVTT - Why Do People Risk It All to Steal Rare Eggs? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:14.360 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So today 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.000 we're going to talk about the very particular and particularly 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.640 illegal hobby of egg collecting. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.560 And I'm assuming you don't mean the easter variety. No, 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.200 that's pretty above board as far as I know. And 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.000 we're not talking about stealing eggs from the grocery store either, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:30.560 that is also illegal. 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.280 Today we're talking about the shadowy world of wild egg thefts. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.920 In fact, in many places around the world, even possessing 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.839 wild bird eggshells, especially if it's from an endangered species 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.479 or threatened species, can get you in lots of trouble, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:44.880 like prison trouble. 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.240 You know. It's a world of undercover cops, repelling down 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.200 cliff faces, international criminality, and of course how to bring 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.360 down an egg from a tree during enemy fire. You 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.000 got to know this sort of stuff. But spoiler alert here, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.040 your dentist will not be thrilled. 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.560 It is going to be fun, So let's dive in. 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.680 Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.800 always I'm here with my good friend Mangesh Hot Ticket 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.280 here and somewhere behind that big booth. He's djaying today Mango, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:34.440 He's djang a medley of bird songs. I don't know 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.240 if you knew he had this mixtape on hand, did you? 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.959 I saw he put like bird is the word on 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.760 their free Bird, Blackbird, three Little Birds, when Doves Cry. 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:45.160 You know, there's no shortage of songs. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:46.920 When you start to see his playlist, you're like, this 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:48.440 actually all makes sense, and. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:49.840 There are a lot of bird songs. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.640 There are a lot of bird songs for sure, And 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.320 I honestly hadn't thought about how many songs there were 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.960 about birds until he made this for us. That's our 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:01.160 super musical and thoughtful producer, Dylan Fake so Will. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.520 I'm obviously excited to talk about bird tufts with you, 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.800 but I'm curious, like, are you a bird person? Like 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.600 you've had pet rabbits, dogs, but do you like birds? Yeah? 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.520 I was actually just talking about this with somebody the 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.000 other day because I feel like you get to a 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.840 certain age and you're supposed to become a bird person. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.919 Like you've seen those you've seen. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.880 Those bird houses that like all of our parents have 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:25.079 these days where you actually have a camera in there 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.799 and you can watch the bird in there, and I. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.119 Think I'm just not quite to that age yet. 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.280 I know that we'll be old when that officially it's 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.760 around the corner soon where we'll be excited to watch 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:37.799 birds on a camera, which is I don't know why 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.360 that's different than watching them on TV, but I do 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.840 think birds are very pretty. I don't like want to 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:44.840 go out of my way and grab a pair of 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:47.360 binoculars to go see them on trips or things. But 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.040 I think it's cool that people are into it. How 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.440 about you, Yeah, I think it's cool that people who 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:51.880 are into it. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.200 I mean it's funny, right you see these majestic birds 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:58.000 and like an eagle and the Pacific Northwest or something, 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.760 and it's like gorgeous to see. And then you know, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.240 I was getting lunch the other day and I was 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.959 outside and I was at this table and these super 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.080 fat pigeons just started charging towards me, and I kept 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.200 like trying to shake them off and make these like 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.960 big motions to get them away, and they just kept 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:19.080 running and I had to keep moving picnic tables. It 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.440 was like embarrassing. They were so fat and they were fearless. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.480 Man, that sounds actually to usually I'm not afraid of birds, 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.840 but that actually sounds pretty scary. But all right, well, 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.959 where do you think we should start this episode today? 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.280 Why don't we start with a bit of history, which 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.200 is obviously where we love to start at. Collecting seems 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.360 to have really come around in Victorian England. So we're 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.800 talking mid to late nineteenth century here, and British explorers 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.240 and scientists were traveling the world, oftentimes bringing back artifacts 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:51.400 from their exploits, and this included things like birds eggs. Now, 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:53.560 at the time, collecting was a way to study the 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.400 natural world, and the collection and study of birds eggs 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.960 is officially known as oology, and back at Victorian times, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.000 equology was respected and legal. There wasn't real concern about 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.480 any ecological effects from this past time, especially because it 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.320 was all being done in the name of science, and 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.480 these guys were really dedicated. There is a story of 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.520 one man, a guy named Charles ben Dyer, and he 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:17.760 was a German immigrant who served in the US Army 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.560 in the mid eighteen hundreds, and he was so committed 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.440 to his egg collection that once he climbed a tree 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.960 to grab a rare egg that he'd spotted. And this 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.000 was during enemy fire. But then he got the egg 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:31.800 and he had to get down the tree. Oh god, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.080 so what did he do? He puts the egg in 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:39.000 his mouth. Would not have been my first thought, like 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:40.440 I would have put it in a pocket or something, 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.880 But apparently the trick worked. He came down the tree. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:45.640 And this is a strange part of the story, and 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.000 I don't entirely get the physics of this, but the 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.599 egg actually got stuck in his mouth. Another guy actually 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:53.920 had to take one of Ben Dyer's teeth out so 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.720 he could remove the egg. Isn't that crazy? I mean, yes, 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.440 it is crazy. But also how did his friend know 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.039 that he had an an egg in his mouth and 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.560 that that was I guess the best way to get 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:07.520 it out? I have no idea. But also like, I 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.840 don't think there are any hobbies that I'd willingly lose 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.280 a tooth for, right, Like I used to collect pet 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.279 dispensers and magazines, but I'm not trading a tooth for 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.120 one of those. It feels ludicrous anyway, Bird collectors weren't 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.120 just about taking risks and sacrificing teeth. They also happened 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.440 to be meticulous, so they would take notes about where 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.640 each egg clutch was found, the habitat, the environment, and 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.600 they'd empty the egg of the embryo and catalog details 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.680 like color and size. And these collections were good and 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.440 important enough that a lot of them ended up in museums, 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.000 specifically England's Natural History Museum at Tring. Have you ever 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:43.560 been to Tring? I have not? No, where is it? 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.799 I haven't either. Tring is located about thirty miles outside 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.440 of London on the estate of one Lord Walter Rothschild 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.800 now Lord Walter began collecting specimen when he was a 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:56.840 young boy, and by the time he was ten he'd 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.440 started his first museum. This was in the backyard garden shed, 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.760 which sounds pretty cute, right, But by the time he 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.760 turned twenty one, his parents realized this was not just 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.200 some childhood phase and so naturally they built him his 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.200 own museum, which is you know, I guess what happens 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.240 to lords who grow up and have odd interests. But 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.800 this museum ends up being called Walter's Zoological Museum, and 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.560 eventually this became part of the country's Natural History Museum. Today, 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.800 the Tring actually houses the largest zoological collection that was 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.960 accumulated by one person, though it has to be noted 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.440 that Walter, who was better known as Lord Rothschild, actually 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.680 spent most of his time at the museum studying. All 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.599 these new species that came in the collections mostly came 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.160 from the four hundred people around the world he had 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.440 traveling on his behalf. That's an impressive number of people. 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.160 That's pretty amazing. And the Tring actually has the largest 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.279 bird egg collection in the world, more than two million items. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.840 And one of the things that's really interesting is that 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.320 the Tring collection in particular was crucial to helping scientists 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.960 understand the damage that DDT had on birds. 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.200 And if I'm not mistaken, DDT was the pesticide that 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:04.680 made eggshells like really. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.680 Frail, right exactly. But you know, scientists didn't know that 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.160 at first. They just saw that raptors like the bald 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.200 eagle and peregrine falcon weren't reproducing, which is obviously a 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.720 huge problem if a species is going to continue to exist. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.760 But because the collection that the Tring was so thorough 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.960 and so detailed, scientists were actually able to compare all 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.960 these contemporary eggs to the older eggs from this collection, 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.240 and you know, it existed from well before the time 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.280 of DDT, and they discovered that the contemporary eggshells were 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.800 not only much thinner, but also weaker, and they were 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.160 able to connect this change to the introduction of DDT 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.560 into the environment. You know that this of course made 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.840 its way up into the food chain, into bird's diets, 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.640 and affected the composition of the female's eggs. In fact, 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.880 the pesticide made the shell so brittle that they'd actually 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.520 break under the weight of a parent bird just sitting 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.440 on the egg during incubation. That is wild. But of 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.480 course DDT has been banned since then. Yeah, and some 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.000 egg collectors like to cite this example as a benefit 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.080 of their work, like, thanks to them, there was this 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.480 history to be studied and to be learned from. But 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.560 today scientists are still allowed to apply for permits to 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.240 collect eggs for research. But you know, the idea of 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.120 this gentleman collector who's just out for his own pleasure, 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.040 you know, that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, it's. 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:21.200 Pretty frowned upon and is basically gone underground. Well, speaking 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.240 of that, that's actually where I'm going to take the baton. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:24.840 But before we do that, why don't we take a 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.640 quick break. 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.160 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.480 egg collectors and this strange world of rare egg theft. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.559 So will you were just about to tell us about 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.040 how egg collecting moves from this genteel hobby for naturalists 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:51.880 to something a little darker. That's right. 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.560 I think it feels like time to go a little 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.000 darker here. So this comes from a twenty thirteen New 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.200 Yorker article. This was by Julian Rubinsteinde. Toward egg collectors 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.120 really starts to change in the nineteen twenties. So the 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.560 Royal Society for the Protection for Birds or the RSPB, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.040 they warned that this gentleman collector form of ooology was 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.240 threatening the survival of species, which of course made the 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.559 egg collectors pretty mad. For example, your friend Lord Walter 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.280 Rothschild teamed up with another collector, a guy by the 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.240 name of Reverend FCR. Jordaane, and they started their own group, 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.400 the British Euological Society, and it was renamed the Jordaane 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.199 Society in nineteen forty after Jordayne died. Now its members 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.360 were pretty exclusively men, no surprise, they're given the time 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.680 and it claimed to be the only organization in England. 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:38.840 Dedicated to egg collecting. 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.040 Now, they took their work very seriously and even after 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.240 it was illegal, it actually didn't really stop them. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.160 So when does egg collecting actually start to become illegal? 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:50.000 Well, stealing wild bird eggs has been illegal in the 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.160 UK since nineteen fifty four, and then in nineteen eighty 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.080 one it was illegal to even possess a protected wild 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.160 bird's egg. But as we know, just because there is 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.000 a rule, that does mean that everybody follows it, and 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.599 that adage seemed to especially apply to members of the 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.440 Jordaane Society. The New Yorker goes on to say about 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.400 the nineteen nineties, more than half of the society's members 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.280 had convictions for egg collecting. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.880 Half of the members. Amazing, it really is. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.720 And there's this one story about a nineteen ninety four 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.360 raid where British investigators found out about a meeting that 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.280 the Jordaane Society was having at a hotel, so they 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:26.240 went under cover. One of the investigators was a woman, 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.560 and she hung out at the hotel bar and she'd 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.320 start chatting up its members. And remember this a real 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.240 boys club, so apparently just by showing some interest in 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.200 their hobby. This agent got at least one collector to 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.400 show her photos of birds, nests and other incriminating things. 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.280 So I'm guessing this led to some convictions. Oh, it 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:44.920 definitely did. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.880 It was enough evidence that the entire meeting was raided 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.439 and thanks to the raid, police were able to seize 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:56.000 eleven thousand eggs. Six Jordaane Society members were fined from 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.000 this whole raid. It was pretty wild, but. 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.160 I mean, if the Jordan's Society felt like they could 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.680 hold meetings at hotels, right, they clearly were that afraid 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:05.600 of the consequences. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.680 No, and the fines didn't seem to be all that effective. 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.160 There's a story of this one collector named Colin Watson 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.040 who throughout the nineteen eighties and nineties had been fined 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.560 almost six thousand pounds, which obviously didn't stop him. He 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.720 continued until the day of his death. Literally, he died 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.520 after falling from a tree trying to get to a nest. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.679 I think these people were pretty focused on this whole 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:26.719 legg collecting. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.079 Thing, I know, dying doing what he low. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.120 Yeah, And the thing is people are still stealing and 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.280 collecting eggs, even as recently as November of twenty twenty four, 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.480 a collection of five thousand rare eggs was discovered and 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:38.680 seized in rural England. 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.320 So what about this Jordaane Society? Does this still live on? 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.560 Well, it hasn't been a recognized charity since two thousand 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:47.600 and one, and also happens to be the same year 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.600 the UK changed the law. So now if you're caught 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.800 with wild eggs it's more than a fine, you could 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.760 potentially serve jail time, which is a much bigger deterrent. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.320 And it's also helped that investigative techniques have gotten more advanced, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.200 like using or veillance cameras near popular collecting routes in 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.360 order to be able to track these license plates. And 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.440 that's opposed to putting microphones in trees, which is what 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.360 they used to do, just hoping to overhear illegal activity 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:11.600 happening in these trees. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.480 That is ridiculous. You know what. One other way that 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.040 I've read in the Guardian that people have been caught 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.400 is quote disgruntled wives who have played second fiddle to 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.520 their husband's obsession over bird eggs for decades. 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.520 Yeah, there are public informants too, like the New Yorker 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.160 article I mentioned also tells the story of how authorities 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.680 once caught this other collector. This was back in the 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.000 early two thousands, and the collector's brother was in a pub. 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.360 Someone there overheard him talking about bird eggs. This good 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.840 samaritan then followed the brother out of the pub in 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.439 order to take down his license plate number and then 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.040 report what he'd heard to authorities. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.800 I can't imagine like overhearing someone talking about bird eggs 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.160 and being like, oh, I should probably report this. That's 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.760 kind of amazing. So let's switch tacks a little bit 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:57.920 here and talk about who some of these collectors are. 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.160 So I don't know about two bell I'm picturing like 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.640 Indiana Jones, but more like Indiana Jones with binoculars and 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:04.360 a field guide. 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.080 What about you? I mean, I think they like to 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.680 think themselves as like that suave and to be honest, like, 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.520 there definitely are some real physical skills involved. So these 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.720 guys are often excellent tree climbers. Often they climb up 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:18.840 like one hundred foot tree trunks sometimes to get to 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.720 these rareness. They're also insanely knowledgeable, like they know a 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:26.040 ton about birds and their habitats. But egg collecting isn't 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.400 really like a young man's game, right, Yeah. You don't 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.679 see like kids into egg collecting in the same way 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.440 that you see like older men. And most of these 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:34.880 people had started taking eggs when they themselves were kids 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.120 after World War Two. There's actually this documentary about this 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.959 world called Poached, which is really interesting. It came out 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.160 in twenty fifteen and it follows some of these collectors now. 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.480 According to director Timothy Wheeler, the impulse to collect does 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.920 often start with a true childhood love of birds, but 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.040 it moors from that pretty quickly into an almost addictive behavior. 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.880 One British investigator said that when the police arrived to 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.640 this collector's house and found thirty six hundred eggs, the 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.800 guys started crying and said, quote, thank god you've come. 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:07.080 I can't stop. Oh my gosh. These guys are also experts, 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.760 and many argue that they aren't hurting the birds because 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.199 they're often cracking breeding schedules, and when they do take 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.040 the eggs, they take the entire clutch, and they claim 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:17.959 that this means the bird will lay a whole new 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.120 clutch that same season, which you know is sometimes true, 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.200 but it's not always the case. For example, birds like 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.240 golden eagles and ospreys, they really only lay once a season. 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:29.840 Well, and I know from my reading for this episode 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.080 that the extinction of the red back strike in the 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.240 nineteen eighties is actually attributed in part to collectors. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.560 That's right. And while egg thivery is certainly not the 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.840 reason why bird species might go endangered, you know, none 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.720 of this really helps. There are all sorts of other 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.239 conditions that lead to the endangement of birds, from habitat, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.520 food lass, climate change, you know, overhunting, things like that. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.800 But as you can imagine, these bird collectors aren't really 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.400 interested in common birds like you know, like the finch 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.440 or the crow or the robin. They want rare bird eggs, 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.560 especially if the only way to get them is to 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.120 repel down a cliff or climb a really tall tree 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:04.240 or something like that. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:05.760 Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes the egg feel 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.520 more like a treasure in that case, and a story 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.720 or an adventure to be able to tell about exactly. 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.160 And one of the most infamous thieves is a guy 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:17.760 the press is dubbed Pablo Excobar, and in many ways 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.880 he fits the profile of these Jordaanan Society members, especially 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.640 that adventure adrenaline junkie sort of profile we've talked about. 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:25.960 I love this all right, So you got to tell 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:30.280 me more about Pablo. So his name is actually Jeffrey Lendrum, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.080 and he's a really interesting character. He grew up in 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.800 what is now Zimbabwe, and he spent a lot of 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.320 time outdoors with his dad, who was also really into birds. Now, 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.720 by the time he was eight, little Jeffrey was known 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.920 for his ability to climb trees and rocks and cliff faces, 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.000 you know, all the spots where birds' nests are conveniently located. Now, 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.480 Jeffrey and his dad were renowned enough that they were 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.080 asked to volunteer on surveys and observation studies for different 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.800 birds in the area. So they legitimately knew birds and 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.960 I guess, more importantly, how to find these And according 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:03.240 to an article in Outside magazine, Jeffrey and his dad 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.120 would do some pretty skilled and dangerous things to find 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.440 these birds, Like they would actually throw claws into trees 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.520 as climbing aids. Like it sounds pretty amazing. 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.280 I'm curious, Like, how does this zimbabwe boy scout end 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.640 up growing up to be on Autubn's Most Wanted list well. 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.840 Over time, it became clear that Jeffrey and his dad 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.000 were doing more than just studying the birds. Other volunteers 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.600 started to notice some small lies and inconsistencies that they tell, 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.600 especially when talking about fledglings they claimed to have observed. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.960 In nineteen eighty three, when Jeffrey was twenty one, police 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.800 raided their house and found more than eight hundred eggs 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.600 as well as these live peregrine falcon eggs, and there 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.520 were also allegations that Jeffrey was selling these live eggs 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.120 on the black market, but none of that was ever proven. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.200 He's still eight hundred that's a lot of eggs. Yeah, 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.240 and both father and son were found guilty of theft 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.640 and fraud. They were fined, they were given probation, but 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.800 you know, as we've learned, it's not a huge deterrent 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.400 for these sort of committed thieves, and so Jeffrey spent 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:03.880 the next couple decades going to super remote places around 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.679 the world stealing eggs. We know that he took at 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.040 least two trips to northern Quebec to take ger falcon eggs, 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.120 which build nests and depressions in Arctic cliff faces. There's 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.240 also a terrific book about Jeffrey by the writer Joshua Hammer. 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.560 It's called The Falcon Thief and a lot of this 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.199 research comes from that. So Hammer actually spoke to a 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.399 former friend of Lendrum's who accompanied him on these Canadian trips, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.720 and this friend said that Lendrum would hire a pilot 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.920 and rent a helicopter to get to these nests. 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:32.320 Wow. 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.320 And if anyone asked, their alibi was that they were 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:39.280 filmmakers with National Geographic. Basically, the pilot would hover next 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.040 to the cliffs and then Lendrom would actually lower himself 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.520 down from the helicopter on a rope mission impossible style 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.040 to these nests. That is incredible. Yeah, And this friend 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:50.639 said that over the course of a week they went 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:55.520 to nineteen geerfalcon nests and stole about twelve eggs. Now, Lendrum, 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.560 who is continually denied they stole these eggs, then wrapped 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.840 the eggs and socks and put them in his carry 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.360 on for the flight to London and then finally Dubai, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.919 where they were likely sold on the black market. But 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.240 the next trip, the guys weren't that lucky. This time, 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:12.120 the pilot they hired didn't buy their filmmaker story and 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.680 instead he tipped off the authorities and Lendrom and friend 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.400 were arrested when eggs and incubators were found in their 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.840 hotel room. They were fined just about seven thousand dollars 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:21.960 and then they were set on their way. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.920 I mean again, though, when you talk about these fines, 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.000 it still doesn't seem like that much of a fine. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.760 It's not that much of a disincentive because eight years 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.560 later he was arrested again, and talk about wild This 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.520 is a crazy story. So in May twenty ten, Lenderham 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.200 was in the Emirates Executive Loune in the Birmingham, England 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.400 Airport and he had a ticket book to South Africa 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.360 with importantly a fourteen hour layover in Dubai. Now he's 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:49.480 in the lounge, he asked to use the shower and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.760 will I don't know about what you normally take the shower, 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.439 but Lendrom decided to bring with him a bag and 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.440 two small suitcases. I mean, I can't say that's typically 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.199 in my shower padding no mine either, And it was 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:05.080 unusual enough that it attracted the attention of one of 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.119 the cleaners, who then also noticed that Lendrom spent a 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.480 long time in the shower. So when Lendrom left the room, 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.240 the cleaner, who was a former mall security guard, went 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.840 to check it. And he enters the shower, but instead 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.240 of finding I don't know, a suitcase full of bubbabout 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.159 salts and a loofa, the shower was completely dry, and 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.919 the towels were dry too, and they were folded, I 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.480 mean a little suspicious there, So he knew something was off. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.120 He looks under the towels to see if there's anything there. 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.040 He looks in the garbage can and there's nothing. But 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.200 then he looks in this baby changing area where there 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.080 was another plastic garbage bin for diapers, and inside the 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.760 bin there there was an egg cardon with one single 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:47.840 egg in it, dyed bright red. 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:49.879