Nature's Secret Service

Lt. George Wilson spent 36 years working as a law enforcement officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and recently retired as the lieutenant overseeing the FWC's statewide investigations unit. Since his retirement, George has been consulting with a private organization known as Exulans (www.exulans.net) that provides training and investigative support to emerging countries through a contract with Wil...

Meet Captain Dan Brinson, previously with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police. Dan was an important influence on Ed, as well as a role model and mentor. Sit in on Ed's wide-ranging conversation with Dan about everything from officer discretion to the role wildlife officers can sometimes play in protecting the public from unseen safety threats. In Ed's opinion, Dan is one of the most intelligent and most ethical wi...

Join Ed for his conversation with Bryan Christy as they talk about the world of the reptile trade and reptile trafficking. Christy is the author of The Lizard King, a book that chronicles the origins and history of a reptile supply company known as Strictly Reptiles and its controversial owners Ray and Mike Van Nostrand. Bryan and Ed will talk about the late Charles "Chip" Bepler, a US Fish and Wildlife Service special agent who sp...

Birds get tangled up in the world of wildlife crime and wildlife trafficking all the time. Eagles and hawks are killed and persecuted for their parts and because they are predators. Parrots are smuggled north from Latin America. Songbirds are smuggled around the world from Southeast Asia, risking us all to exposure of deadly strains of bird flu. Even migratory birds native to the US fall victim to the illegal exotic pet trade. Join...

Lieutenant Kathy Ponting is a legend among game wardens of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (formerly the California Department of Fish and Game). A second-generation warden, Kathy rose to the rank of lieutenant and oversaw the elite Special Operations Unit. Unlike uniformed wardens assigned to patrol work, the wardens in SOU were plain clothes investigators and worked as a cohesive unit on long-term or highly complex...

Plant crimes resurface this week but, this time, in the form of American ginseng! A native plant found throughout the Appalachian Mountains, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and under heavy pressure from unscrupulous commercial collectors. Join Ed and former special agent Tom Chisdock as they discuss the threats to the species, the illegal trade, and Tom's great work exposing a ginseng trafficker who also sold opi...

This is your rare opportunity to hear from a real life confidential informant who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It's exceedingly rare to get an inside seat to the world of "CI's" but confidential informant "Pete Paxton" breaks the silence to give you a brief look behind the curtain. Recruited as an informant by Special Agent Newcomer, Paxton worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a number of years and went o...

Join Ed in a conversation with Nkateko Mzimba and Collet Ngobeni, two rangers from the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit based at the Olifants West Nature Reserve in South Africa. The Black Mambas patrol a 25,000 acre reserve inside the greater Kruger ecosystem that is home to elephants, rhinos, lions, buffalo, and all of the species native to the Southern African bush. Listen as the rangers describe their duties and some of their ad...

Join Ed for a wide-ranging conversation with Craig Spencer, founder of Trans-Frontier Africa and the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit in South Africa. This week, we talk about rhino poaching, the rhino horn trade, elephant poaching, the all female anti-poaching unit known as the Black Mambas, and the challenges that go with securing a large, open nature reserve that adjoins Kruger National Park on one side and local communities on t...