March 18, 2025 • 34 mins
From climbing a tree under gunfire to dangling out of helicopters, people have gone to incredible lengths to steal wild bird eggs—risking arrest, fines, and even jail time. Why? And more importantly, who's doing this? Will and Mango discover some of the craziest stories in egg theft history, including a British club that ran a-fowl of the law by hiding 11,000 illegal eggs and the man known as Pablo Egg-scobar, a naturalist who spent decades supplying the rare egg black market. Plus: A peek inside the high-stakes world of Middle East falconry.
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius—tag us if you see any cool (LEGAL) eggs!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So today
we're going to talk about the very particular and particularly
illegal hobby of egg collecting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And I'm assuming you don't mean the easter variety. No,
that's pretty above board as far as I know. And
we're not talking about stealing eggs from the grocery store either,
that is also illegal.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Today we're talking about the shadowy world of wild egg thefts.
In fact, in many places around the world, even possessing
wild bird eggshells, especially if it's from an endangered species
or threatened species, can get you in lots of trouble,
like prison trouble.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know. It's a world of undercover cops, repelling down
cliff faces, international criminality, and of course how to bring
down an egg from a tree during enemy fire. You
got to know this sort of stuff. But spoiler alert here,
your dentist will not be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is going to be fun, So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm here with my good friend Mangesh Hot Ticket
here and somewhere behind that big booth. He's djaying today Mango,
He's djang a medley of bird songs. I don't know
if you knew he had this mixtape on hand, did you?
I saw he put like bird is the word on
their free Bird, Blackbird, three Little Birds, when Doves Cry.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You know, there's no shortage of songs.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
When you start to see his playlist, you're like, this
actually all makes sense, and.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
There are a lot of bird songs.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
There are a lot of bird songs for sure, And
I honestly hadn't thought about how many songs there were
about birds until he made this for us. That's our
super musical and thoughtful producer, Dylan Fake so Will.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm obviously excited to talk about bird tufts with you,
but I'm curious, like, are you a bird person? Like
you've had pet rabbits, dogs, but do you like birds? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I was actually just talking about this with somebody the
other day because I feel like you get to a
certain age and you're supposed to become a bird person.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Like you've seen those you've seen.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Those bird houses that like all of our parents have
these days where you actually have a camera in there
and you can watch the bird in there, and I.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Think I'm just not quite to that age yet.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I know that we'll be old when that officially it's
around the corner soon where we'll be excited to watch
birds on a camera, which is I don't know why
that's different than watching them on TV, but I do
think birds are very pretty. I don't like want to
go out of my way and grab a pair of
binoculars to go see them on trips or things. But
I think it's cool that people are into it. How
about you, Yeah, I think it's cool that people who
(02:51):
are into it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I mean it's funny, right you see these majestic birds
and like an eagle and the Pacific Northwest or something,
and it's like gorgeous to see. And then you know,
I was getting lunch the other day and I was
outside and I was at this table and these super
fat pigeons just started charging towards me, and I kept
(03:12):
like trying to shake them off and make these like
big motions to get them away, and they just kept
running and I had to keep moving picnic tables. It
was like embarrassing. They were so fat and they were fearless.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Man, that sounds actually to usually I'm not afraid of birds,
but that actually sounds pretty scary. But all right, well,
where do you think we should start this episode today?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Why don't we start with a bit of history, which
is obviously where we love to start at. Collecting seems
to have really come around in Victorian England. So we're
talking mid to late nineteenth century here, and British explorers
and scientists were traveling the world, oftentimes bringing back artifacts
from their exploits, and this included things like birds eggs. Now,
at the time, collecting was a way to study the
(03:53):
natural world, and the collection and study of birds eggs
is officially known as oology, and back at Victorian times,
equology was respected and legal. There wasn't real concern about
any ecological effects from this past time, especially because it
was all being done in the name of science, and
these guys were really dedicated. There is a story of
one man, a guy named Charles ben Dyer, and he
(04:15):
was a German immigrant who served in the US Army
in the mid eighteen hundreds, and he was so committed
to his egg collection that once he climbed a tree
to grab a rare egg that he'd spotted. And this
was during enemy fire. But then he got the egg
and he had to get down the tree. Oh god,
so what did he do? He puts the egg in
his mouth. Would not have been my first thought, like
(04:39):
I would have put it in a pocket or something,
But apparently the trick worked. He came down the tree.
And this is a strange part of the story, and
I don't entirely get the physics of this, but the
egg actually got stuck in his mouth. Another guy actually
had to take one of Ben Dyer's teeth out so
he could remove the egg. Isn't that crazy? I mean, yes,
it is crazy. But also how did his friend know
(04:59):
that he had an an egg in his mouth and
that that was I guess the best way to get
it out? I have no idea. But also like, I
don't think there are any hobbies that I'd willingly lose
a tooth for, right, Like I used to collect pet
dispensers and magazines, but I'm not trading a tooth for
one of those. It feels ludicrous anyway, Bird collectors weren't
just about taking risks and sacrificing teeth. They also happened
(05:22):
to be meticulous, so they would take notes about where
each egg clutch was found, the habitat, the environment, and
they'd empty the egg of the embryo and catalog details
like color and size. And these collections were good and
important enough that a lot of them ended up in museums,
specifically England's Natural History Museum at Tring. Have you ever
been to Tring? I have not? No, where is it?
(05:43):
I haven't either. Tring is located about thirty miles outside
of London on the estate of one Lord Walter Rothschild
now Lord Walter began collecting specimen when he was a
young boy, and by the time he was ten he'd
started his first museum. This was in the backyard garden shed,
which sounds pretty cute, right, But by the time he
(06:03):
turned twenty one, his parents realized this was not just
some childhood phase and so naturally they built him his
own museum, which is you know, I guess what happens
to lords who grow up and have odd interests. But
this museum ends up being called Walter's Zoological Museum, and
eventually this became part of the country's Natural History Museum. Today,
(06:24):
the Tring actually houses the largest zoological collection that was
accumulated by one person, though it has to be noted
that Walter, who was better known as Lord Rothschild, actually
spent most of his time at the museum studying. All
these new species that came in the collections mostly came
from the four hundred people around the world he had
traveling on his behalf. That's an impressive number of people.
(06:45):
That's pretty amazing. And the Tring actually has the largest
bird egg collection in the world, more than two million items.
And one of the things that's really interesting is that
the Tring collection in particular was crucial to helping scientists
understand the damage that DDT had on birds.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And if I'm not mistaken, DDT was the pesticide that
made eggshells like really.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Frail, right exactly. But you know, scientists didn't know that
at first. They just saw that raptors like the bald
eagle and peregrine falcon weren't reproducing, which is obviously a
huge problem if a species is going to continue to exist.
But because the collection that the Tring was so thorough
and so detailed, scientists were actually able to compare all
these contemporary eggs to the older eggs from this collection,
(07:26):
and you know, it existed from well before the time
of DDT, and they discovered that the contemporary eggshells were
not only much thinner, but also weaker, and they were
able to connect this change to the introduction of DDT
into the environment. You know that this of course made
its way up into the food chain, into bird's diets,
and affected the composition of the female's eggs. In fact,
(07:46):
the pesticide made the shell so brittle that they'd actually
break under the weight of a parent bird just sitting
on the egg during incubation. That is wild. But of
course DDT has been banned since then. Yeah, and some
egg collectors like to cite this example as a benefit
of their work, like, thanks to them, there was this
history to be studied and to be learned from. But
today scientists are still allowed to apply for permits to
(08:08):
collect eggs for research. But you know, the idea of
this gentleman collector who's just out for his own pleasure,
you know, that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Pretty frowned upon and is basically gone underground. Well, speaking
of that, that's actually where I'm going to take the baton.
But before we do that, why don't we take a
quick break.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
egg collectors and this strange world of rare egg theft.
So will you were just about to tell us about
how egg collecting moves from this genteel hobby for naturalists
to something a little darker. That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I think it feels like time to go a little
darker here. So this comes from a twenty thirteen New
Yorker article. This was by Julian Rubinsteinde. Toward egg collectors
really starts to change in the nineteen twenties. So the
Royal Society for the Protection for Birds or the RSPB,
they warned that this gentleman collector form of ooology was
threatening the survival of species, which of course made the
(09:14):
egg collectors pretty mad. For example, your friend Lord Walter
Rothschild teamed up with another collector, a guy by the
name of Reverend FCR. Jordaane, and they started their own group,
the British Euological Society, and it was renamed the Jordaane
Society in nineteen forty after Jordayne died. Now its members
were pretty exclusively men, no surprise, they're given the time
(09:34):
and it claimed to be the only organization in England.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Dedicated to egg collecting.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Now, they took their work very seriously and even after
it was illegal, it actually didn't really stop them.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So when does egg collecting actually start to become illegal?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well, stealing wild bird eggs has been illegal in the
UK since nineteen fifty four, and then in nineteen eighty
one it was illegal to even possess a protected wild
bird's egg. But as we know, just because there is
a rule, that does mean that everybody follows it, and
that adage seemed to especially apply to members of the
Jordaane Society. The New Yorker goes on to say about
the nineteen nineties, more than half of the society's members
(10:10):
had convictions for egg collecting.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Half of the members. Amazing, it really is.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And there's this one story about a nineteen ninety four
raid where British investigators found out about a meeting that
the Jordaane Society was having at a hotel, so they
went under cover. One of the investigators was a woman,
and she hung out at the hotel bar and she'd
start chatting up its members. And remember this a real
boys club, so apparently just by showing some interest in
their hobby. This agent got at least one collector to
(10:37):
show her photos of birds, nests and other incriminating things.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So I'm guessing this led to some convictions. Oh, it
definitely did.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was enough evidence that the entire meeting was raided
and thanks to the raid, police were able to seize
eleven thousand eggs. Six Jordaane Society members were fined from
this whole raid. It was pretty wild, but.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean, if the Jordan's Society felt like they could
hold meetings at hotels, right, they clearly were that afraid
of the consequences.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
No, and the fines didn't seem to be all that effective.
There's a story of this one collector named Colin Watson
who throughout the nineteen eighties and nineties had been fined
almost six thousand pounds, which obviously didn't stop him. He
continued until the day of his death. Literally, he died
after falling from a tree trying to get to a nest.
I think these people were pretty focused on this whole
legg collecting.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Thing, I know, dying doing what he low.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, And the thing is people are still stealing and
collecting eggs, even as recently as November of twenty twenty four,
a collection of five thousand rare eggs was discovered and
seized in rural England.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So what about this Jordaane Society? Does this still live on?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Well, it hasn't been a recognized charity since two thousand
and one, and also happens to be the same year
the UK changed the law. So now if you're caught
with wild eggs it's more than a fine, you could
potentially serve jail time, which is a much bigger deterrent.
And it's also helped that investigative techniques have gotten more advanced,
like using or veillance cameras near popular collecting routes in
order to be able to track these license plates. And
(12:04):
that's opposed to putting microphones in trees, which is what
they used to do, just hoping to overhear illegal activity
happening in these trees.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
That is ridiculous. You know what. One other way that
I've read in the Guardian that people have been caught
is quote disgruntled wives who have played second fiddle to
their husband's obsession over bird eggs for decades.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, there are public informants too, like the New Yorker
article I mentioned also tells the story of how authorities
once caught this other collector. This was back in the
early two thousands, and the collector's brother was in a pub.
Someone there overheard him talking about bird eggs. This good
samaritan then followed the brother out of the pub in
order to take down his license plate number and then
report what he'd heard to authorities.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I can't imagine like overhearing someone talking about bird eggs
and being like, oh, I should probably report this. That's
kind of amazing. So let's switch tacks a little bit
here and talk about who some of these collectors are.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So I don't know about two bell I'm picturing like
Indiana Jones, but more like Indiana Jones with binoculars and
a field guide.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
What about you? I mean, I think they like to
think themselves as like that suave and to be honest, like,
there definitely are some real physical skills involved. So these
guys are often excellent tree climbers. Often they climb up
like one hundred foot tree trunks sometimes to get to
these rareness. They're also insanely knowledgeable, like they know a
ton about birds and their habitats. But egg collecting isn't
(13:26):
really like a young man's game, right, Yeah. You don't
see like kids into egg collecting in the same way
that you see like older men. And most of these
people had started taking eggs when they themselves were kids
after World War Two. There's actually this documentary about this
world called Poached, which is really interesting. It came out
in twenty fifteen and it follows some of these collectors now.
According to director Timothy Wheeler, the impulse to collect does
(13:47):
often start with a true childhood love of birds, but
it moors from that pretty quickly into an almost addictive behavior.
One British investigator said that when the police arrived to
this collector's house and found thirty six hundred eggs, the
guys started crying and said, quote, thank god you've come.
I can't stop. Oh my gosh. These guys are also experts,
and many argue that they aren't hurting the birds because
(14:09):
they're often cracking breeding schedules, and when they do take
the eggs, they take the entire clutch, and they claim
that this means the bird will lay a whole new
clutch that same season, which you know is sometimes true,
but it's not always the case. For example, birds like
golden eagles and ospreys, they really only lay once a season.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, and I know from my reading for this episode
that the extinction of the red back strike in the
nineteen eighties is actually attributed in part to collectors.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's right. And while egg thivery is certainly not the
reason why bird species might go endangered, you know, none
of this really helps. There are all sorts of other
conditions that lead to the endangement of birds, from habitat,
food lass, climate change, you know, overhunting, things like that.
But as you can imagine, these bird collectors aren't really
interested in common birds like you know, like the finch
(14:55):
or the crow or the robin. They want rare bird eggs,
especially if the only way to get them is to
repel down a cliff or climb a really tall tree
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes the egg feel
more like a treasure in that case, and a story
or an adventure to be able to tell about exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And one of the most infamous thieves is a guy
the press is dubbed Pablo Excobar, and in many ways
he fits the profile of these Jordaanan Society members, especially
that adventure adrenaline junkie sort of profile we've talked about.
I love this all right, So you got to tell
me more about Pablo. So his name is actually Jeffrey Lendrum,
and he's a really interesting character. He grew up in
(15:33):
what is now Zimbabwe, and he spent a lot of
time outdoors with his dad, who was also really into birds. Now,
by the time he was eight, little Jeffrey was known
for his ability to climb trees and rocks and cliff faces,
you know, all the spots where birds' nests are conveniently located. Now,
Jeffrey and his dad were renowned enough that they were
asked to volunteer on surveys and observation studies for different
(15:55):
birds in the area. So they legitimately knew birds and
I guess, more importantly, how to find these And according
to an article in Outside magazine, Jeffrey and his dad
would do some pretty skilled and dangerous things to find
these birds, Like they would actually throw claws into trees
as climbing aids. Like it sounds pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I'm curious, Like, how does this zimbabwe boy scout end
up growing up to be on Autubn's Most Wanted list well.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Over time, it became clear that Jeffrey and his dad
were doing more than just studying the birds. Other volunteers
started to notice some small lies and inconsistencies that they tell,
especially when talking about fledglings they claimed to have observed.
In nineteen eighty three, when Jeffrey was twenty one, police
raided their house and found more than eight hundred eggs
as well as these live peregrine falcon eggs, and there
(16:40):
were also allegations that Jeffrey was selling these live eggs
on the black market, but none of that was ever proven.
He's still eight hundred that's a lot of eggs. Yeah,
and both father and son were found guilty of theft
and fraud. They were fined, they were given probation, but
you know, as we've learned, it's not a huge deterrent
for these sort of committed thieves, and so Jeffrey spent
(17:01):
the next couple decades going to super remote places around
the world stealing eggs. We know that he took at
least two trips to northern Quebec to take ger falcon eggs,
which build nests and depressions in Arctic cliff faces. There's
also a terrific book about Jeffrey by the writer Joshua Hammer.
It's called The Falcon Thief and a lot of this
research comes from that. So Hammer actually spoke to a
(17:23):
former friend of Lendrum's who accompanied him on these Canadian trips,
and this friend said that Lendrum would hire a pilot
and rent a helicopter to get to these nests.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And if anyone asked, their alibi was that they were
filmmakers with National Geographic. Basically, the pilot would hover next
to the cliffs and then Lendrom would actually lower himself
down from the helicopter on a rope mission impossible style
to these nests. That is incredible. Yeah, And this friend
said that over the course of a week they went
to nineteen geerfalcon nests and stole about twelve eggs. Now, Lendrum,
(17:55):
who is continually denied they stole these eggs, then wrapped
the eggs and socks and put them in his carry
on for the flight to London and then finally Dubai,
where they were likely sold on the black market. But
the next trip, the guys weren't that lucky. This time,
the pilot they hired didn't buy their filmmaker story and
instead he tipped off the authorities and Lendrom and friend
were arrested when eggs and incubators were found in their
(18:17):
hotel room. They were fined just about seven thousand dollars
and then they were set on their way.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I mean again, though, when you talk about these fines,
it still doesn't seem like that much of a fine.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's not that much of a disincentive because eight years
later he was arrested again, and talk about wild This
is a crazy story. So in May twenty ten, Lenderham
was in the Emirates Executive Loune in the Birmingham, England
Airport and he had a ticket book to South Africa
with importantly a fourteen hour layover in Dubai. Now he's
(18:47):
in the lounge, he asked to use the shower and
will I don't know about what you normally take the shower,
but Lendrom decided to bring with him a bag and
two small suitcases. I mean, I can't say that's typically
in my shower padding no mine either, And it was
unusual enough that it attracted the attention of one of
the cleaners, who then also noticed that Lendrom spent a
(19:08):
long time in the shower. So when Lendrom left the room,
the cleaner, who was a former mall security guard, went
to check it. And he enters the shower, but instead
of finding I don't know, a suitcase full of bubbabout
salts and a loofa, the shower was completely dry, and
the towels were dry too, and they were folded, I
mean a little suspicious there, So he knew something was off.
(19:30):
He looks under the towels to see if there's anything there.
He looks in the garbage can and there's nothing. But
then he looks in this baby changing area where there
was another plastic garbage bin for diapers, and inside the
bin there there was an egg cardon with one single
egg in it, dyed bright red.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And it kind of reminds me of those old CIA
spy transmitters that were like hitting in doggy dew and
stuff like that. Like, I bet he really thought hiding
an egg in the diaper garbage was, you know, pretty
full proof because who's going to look in there?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, But but the lounge attendant's hunch was right, like
something was clearly up. And what does a red egg
even mean, so in any case, he calls authorities, and
the authorities search Lenderm's luggage, where they find insulated bags,
some camera equipment, a walkie talkie, a bunch of cash,
a thermometer, and two more egg cartons. One of these
cartons is empty and the other one has quail eggs
(20:20):
along with proof of purchase from a supermarket. I mean,
all of this sounds so bizarre, Mango. And then it
gets a little weirder because when the officers actually search
Lendrom himself, they find fourteen small, multicolored eggs wrapped in
wool socks and taped to his abdomen. So he's basically
caught in the act here. Yeah, so here's a completely
hypothetical situation I'm making up out of nowhere. You're illegally
(20:42):
smuggling live eggs into another country by strapping them to
your body to keep them warm. But then the police
find them, what do you tell them by way of explanation?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
In this case, I feel like I'd probably just try
to run, because he's pretty obvious what's going on.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I mean, that seems like the better option, but him
and said tells the authorities they were duck eggs, and
he was bringing them to his father in Zimbabwe. And
why weren't these colorful eggs and a carton. Well, Lenderham
had a bad back, and with the long flight ahead,
his physical therapist had told him that strapping something fragile
against his stomach would causes muscles to tense up and
strengthen his lower back.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I don't know, I'm kind of buying that's a really
creative story.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It feels elaborate enough that it must be trued right
At this point, though, airport authorities they don't know a
lot about wild bird eggs, but they do know lender
is lying through his teeth, so they call him the
big Guns. And in this case, the Big Guns means
Britain's National Wildlife Crime Unit. Oh and while they're waiting
for the crime unit to arrive, airport authorities keep the
(21:42):
eggs warm by storing them on their computer markers.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I mean, there's actually something kind of heartwarming about the
image of a bunch of cops trying to keep these
eggs alive.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I mean, the amazing thing is that it actually worked.
Like twelve of the eggs, which weren't ducks but peregrine
falcon eggs hashed a couple of weeks later, and actually
eleven of those birds were able to fledge in the wild,
so it's kind of a happy ending. Oh what happened
to Lendrom? Well? After more interviews, Lendrom finally admits, okay,
he might have been taking the peregrine falcon eggs from
(22:12):
a cliff in Whales with the intent of hatching and
breeding them in South Africa, but when he thought the
eggs had died, he didn't want them to go to waste,
so that's why he wrapped them around his body to
keep him intact for the family's egg collection. Yeah collection,
We already know they'd gotten in trouble for Yeah, and
I assume you neglected to mention that he'd been arrested
for this crime in the previous place. But you know, also,
(22:32):
the peregrine falcon is the highest level of protected bird
species in the UK, so this isn't especially bad. Look anyway,
he has all this expensive contraband that he's taped to himself,
and this actually isn't the only evidence. Authorities also find
in his car in the parking lot that there's an
incubator of ropes carabineers and GPS devices, which is clear
(22:53):
evidence he knew what he was doing. He would repel
down the cliff faces to the nest, stealed eggs, put
them insulated bags, and then climb back up. So obviously
he's not a novice.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I mean, it feels dumb to keep all that stuff
so close by, right, Like he clearly didn't think he
was going to get caught.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Definitely not. But one of the other things the authorities
found was actual video footage from his exploits in Quebec,
from when he was hanging from the helicopter. Like Lenderham
tried to deny all this for a while, but there
was enough evidence that he was arrested, found guilty, and
that he spent eighteen months in prison. But my question
is was the cleaner everthing actually he was. The reward
for his eagle eye was a limited edition print of
(23:31):
an avoset, which is a type of bird eye, and
he was presented it by the country's environmental minister.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And this was a print I guess, I mean, I
guess it's a beautiful art print, but I don't think
he was unhappy about it.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
But amazingly, our bird smugglers. Story doesn't end there. We
actually have more on Pablo Xcabar right after this break.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all
about the highly secretive world of rare egg smuggling. All right,
So Mega, when we left off, you were telling us
how Jeffrey Lenderm was serving time in England after being
caught stealing wild peregrine falcon eggs. So does all that
time behind bars curb his bird obsession?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I mean, will you know that the man is addicted?
In twenty fifteen, he goes down to Patagonia where he
climbs inside volcanoes and repels down cliff faces looking for
raptor nests, which is incredible, and he's caught at the
sau Polo airport with four rare, white chested peregrine falcon eggs.
(24:46):
He's tried, he's found guilty, and he's sendenced to four
and a half years in prison. But plot twist, he
never serves any time. While he's out on bail a
waiting appeal, he high tails it to Argentina, where he
books a flight to South Africa, where of course he's
a citizen.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And was his scouting put to use, Like was he
wondering jungles and evading patrols to get to Argentina or what.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
That's actually the story he kind of paints for himself.
But his Brazilian lawyer said Lenderham just took a bus.
But since then, his most recent arrest was in London
in twenty eighteen. He was coming from South Africa with
nineteen eggs from endangered birds of prey strapped to his body,
two of which had already hatched. I mean, a.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Squawking baby bird has to be harder to conceal than
a nice quiet egg.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So does he end up serving time for this? Yeah,
he got sentenced to three years in prison, and.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So at this point he's been arrested, he spent time
in jail. He's a fugitive in Brazil. I mean, he
must be on watch list all over the world. He's
got to be making bank for all this risk if
he's doing this right.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
It seems likely though the writer Joshua Hammer mentioned that
at least when he visited Lendroham in South Africa in
twenty seventeen, he really didn't seem to have any of
the trappings of wealth. But there's definitely money in the business.
For example, it was estimated he could have made around
one hundred thousand pounds for that eighteen hall that got
them arrested.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, one of the things I'm always curious about
is is, honestly less who's taking the risk to sell
these things? Because they're making a lot of money, they
made this decision to do this stuff, But I'm always
wondering who's buying this stuff, Like who in this case,
who's buying these eggs.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Authorities can't say with one hundred percent certainty, but it
seems very likely that the eggs were for ultra wealthy
buyers in the Middle East, which you know, as we
alluded to before, is notable not only because of the
money there, but especially because of the long history of falconry.
Like falconry in the Middle East goes back thousands and
thousands of years to the Bedouins, and deserts, as you
can imagine, are really hard places to find food. So
(26:38):
the Bedouins would capture these migrating wild falcons, they'd train
them to help hunt for things like rabbits and other prey,
and that's how they'd feed themselves.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, you know, it's actually looking at falcons this week,
and it's amazing how good they are at hunting. Like
a falcon sees eight times better than a human, and
it has such a strong beak that it can actually
sever the neck of the animal that it's hunting. And
maybe most important, it is super fast. So on average,
surfalcons fly between fifty and sixty eight miles an hour
(27:06):
and up to one hundred and thirty eight miles an
hour when they're diving. Meanwhile, a peregrine falcon can reach
speeds of up to two hundred and forty miles an
hour while diving. I would have never guessed anywhere near that.
It makes it actually the fastest animal on earth. So
of course, if you're like a falcon meal, you really
don't stand a chance.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
No, you really don't.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So falcon hunts are now officially banned across many Middle
Eastern countries, but obviously there's still this very venerated tradition
of training falcons. So in the early two thousands falcon
racing started up, where you know, it's about strength and
speed but not actually hunting. There are very lucrative falcon
races from the UAE to Saudi Arabia where the purse
could be millions and millions of dollars. Falcons, like jur
(27:48):
falcons and peregrins, they're some of the most sought after
birds for these competitions, and there are falcon breeding programs
in places like the UK and the US and western
Europe where they're allowed to export to the Middle East.
So today female jur falcons might cost between fifty thousand
and one hundred and fifty thousand pounds each, and in
twenty thirteen, a pure white jur falcon was sold to
(28:11):
a buyer and Katar for two hundred and ten thousand pounds,
which of course is quite a status symbol.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
That's pretty incredible. And obviously having a winning falcon is
kind of like having a winning thorough bread, right like
it's a huge status symbol like you mentioned. And of
course that's really where Lendrom comes in, because there's a belief,
right or wrong, that wild falcons are stronger and faster
than the falcon's bread and captivity and because you know,
many governments on the Arabian Peninsula have been the capture
(28:38):
of wild falcons. There's this entire underground market and network
where wild falcon fledglings or chicks might go for three
hundred thousand pounds or even more money. And wild eggs
are a little easier to pass off and get through
customs than a massive bird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I mean the thing is, even if you're a shake
and you have hundreds and hundreds of falcons, there's going
to eventually be in breedings. The wild eggs are also
useful and expanding that gene pool.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So back to London for a second. Lenderm does deny
that he was contributing to this black market. When he
was stopped by customs officials in twenty eighteen, he told
them he was just rescuing the eggs to save them
from the habitat destruction in South Africa, and he claimed
he was playing to take the eggs. Who are birds
of Prey center in England at Lendrom. Such a stand
up guy, but I'm curious where is he now? I
(29:26):
hope his back is better. As far as we could tell,
he hasn't been arrested again, but he is trying to
make himself harder to track. It turns out that in
twenty seventeen he'd officially changed his name to John Smith,
and that dude never gives up. You do have to
give him that, right. I have a feeling this isn't
the last we've heard of Pablo Xcabar. And on that note,
I think it's not for a fact off.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
All right, Sondram was stealing new eggs, but I actually
want to talk about old eggs for a second. In
twenty fifteen, an intact eggshell from the long extinct elephant
bird was put up for auction at Sotheby's. Now, the
elephant bird when it was around, it weighed more than
one thousand pounds. You see where they got the name
elephant bird.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
It's kind of heavy.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So the eggshell is one hundred and fifty times bigger
than a chicken, one hundred and fifty times bigger than
a chicken's egg. Though it didn't end up selling, the
asking price was between thirty thousand and fifty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
That's amazing, And I have no idea how big one
hundred and fifty times a chinz egg is. I'm picturing
like a house, so personally, I'm saving my pennies for
a great auk egg, which is another extinct bird. Now.
Victorian collectors were especially obsessed with ox in their eggs.
There are thought to be only about seventy five eggshells
(30:42):
left around the world, and twenty twenty three an egg
was auctioned for one hundred thousand pounds. Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
All right, Well, a handful of years ago archaeologist in
England came across this basket with four eggs still inside it. Now,
three of the eggs disintegrated when they were excavating them,
but they were able to successfully keep one fully intact.
And they took that egg and they sent it to
a lab and it's thought to be a chicken egg
that's at least seventeen hundred years old. Now, even more
exciting than that, it still has liquid yolk. How wild
(31:12):
is that? That is insane and possibly delicious.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
I don't think some ango. We think eggs are expensive now,
but after the California gold Rush started in the late
eighteen forties, eggs were so scarce out west that a
single chicken egg might go for a dollar in the
city or three dollars in the mining camps, which is
the equivalent of thirty dollars or ninety dollars today per egg.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That's pretty expensive, But actually it relates to my fact
here and it's about an all American classic known as
the Hangtown Fry. Now. The story goes that one day
in nineteen forty nine, a prospector ran into a saloon
in nearby Hangtown, California. He had just struck it rich,
and so to celebrate, he told the cook that he
wanted quote, the finest and most expensive meal that he
(31:54):
could possibly make him, which at the time was a
combination of eggs, bacon, and oysters. As far as I
can tell, the Buttercup Diner is the only restaurant in
current day Hangtown that still serves this. They modernized it
slightly by adding cheese on top, but the dish comes
with a warning. It says eat at your own risk
and just as a copyat to that. In twenty eighteen,
(32:15):
the La Times wrote a piece about the Hangtown Fry
where they interviewed the owner of the Buttercup, who called
it quote disgusting. He said, only tourists and people nursing
hangovers ever order it.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Do you know what it tastes like?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I found a review from this guy online who says
it was on his bucket list to try, and he said, quote,
it's reminiscent of a plate of liver with scrambled eggs
but chalky and oyster fishy tasting yuck yum. Maybe anyway,
that was the review, but for whatever it's worth, he
also did add that the more he ate of it,
the quote easier it was to eat.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I don't really understand that thing. Well. I think for
surfacing the world's most luxurious and most disgusting egg dish,
I think you have to win this one. But that
is it for today's Part Time Genius. We'll be back
with brand new episodes very soon. If you like the show,
remember we're on Instagram at part Time Genius. Be sure
to drop us a line because we love hearing from you. Also,
(33:11):
this week, we have to give a big shout out
to our writer and researcher Marissa Brown, who dug into
the weighty topic of egg thefts for us. Thank you, Marissa,
and from Dylan Gabe, Mary, Will and myself, thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(33:38):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Pearson and me Mongish Heatikler and research by our good
pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
by the Wonderful Dylan Fagan, with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
(34:01):
Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shory. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So today
we're going to talk about the very particular and particularly
illegal hobby of egg collecting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And I'm assuming you don't mean the easter variety. No,
that's pretty above board as far as I know. And
we're not talking about stealing eggs from the grocery store either,
that is also illegal.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Today we're talking about the shadowy world of wild egg thefts.
In fact, in many places around the world, even possessing
wild bird eggshells, especially if it's from an endangered species
or threatened species, can get you in lots of trouble,
like prison trouble.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know. It's a world of undercover cops, repelling down
cliff faces, international criminality, and of course how to bring
down an egg from a tree during enemy fire. You
got to know this sort of stuff. But spoiler alert here,
your dentist will not be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is going to be fun, So let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm here with my good friend Mangesh Hot Ticket
here and somewhere behind that big booth. He's djaying today Mango,
He's djang a medley of bird songs. I don't know
if you knew he had this mixtape on hand, did you?
I saw he put like bird is the word on
their free Bird, Blackbird, three Little Birds, when Doves Cry.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You know, there's no shortage of songs.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
When you start to see his playlist, you're like, this
actually all makes sense, and.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
There are a lot of bird songs.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
There are a lot of bird songs for sure, And
I honestly hadn't thought about how many songs there were
about birds until he made this for us. That's our
super musical and thoughtful producer, Dylan Fake so Will.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm obviously excited to talk about bird tufts with you,
but I'm curious, like, are you a bird person? Like
you've had pet rabbits, dogs, but do you like birds? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I was actually just talking about this with somebody the
other day because I feel like you get to a
certain age and you're supposed to become a bird person.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Like you've seen those you've seen.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Those bird houses that like all of our parents have
these days where you actually have a camera in there
and you can watch the bird in there, and I.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Think I'm just not quite to that age yet.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I know that we'll be old when that officially it's
around the corner soon where we'll be excited to watch
birds on a camera, which is I don't know why
that's different than watching them on TV, but I do
think birds are very pretty. I don't like want to
go out of my way and grab a pair of
binoculars to go see them on trips or things. But
I think it's cool that people are into it. How
about you, Yeah, I think it's cool that people who
(02:51):
are into it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I mean it's funny, right you see these majestic birds
and like an eagle and the Pacific Northwest or something,
and it's like gorgeous to see. And then you know,
I was getting lunch the other day and I was
outside and I was at this table and these super
fat pigeons just started charging towards me, and I kept
(03:12):
like trying to shake them off and make these like
big motions to get them away, and they just kept
running and I had to keep moving picnic tables. It
was like embarrassing. They were so fat and they were fearless.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Man, that sounds actually to usually I'm not afraid of birds,
but that actually sounds pretty scary. But all right, well,
where do you think we should start this episode today?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Why don't we start with a bit of history, which
is obviously where we love to start at. Collecting seems
to have really come around in Victorian England. So we're
talking mid to late nineteenth century here, and British explorers
and scientists were traveling the world, oftentimes bringing back artifacts
from their exploits, and this included things like birds eggs. Now,
at the time, collecting was a way to study the
(03:53):
natural world, and the collection and study of birds eggs
is officially known as oology, and back at Victorian times,
equology was respected and legal. There wasn't real concern about
any ecological effects from this past time, especially because it
was all being done in the name of science, and
these guys were really dedicated. There is a story of
one man, a guy named Charles ben Dyer, and he
(04:15):
was a German immigrant who served in the US Army
in the mid eighteen hundreds, and he was so committed
to his egg collection that once he climbed a tree
to grab a rare egg that he'd spotted. And this
was during enemy fire. But then he got the egg
and he had to get down the tree. Oh god,
so what did he do? He puts the egg in
his mouth. Would not have been my first thought, like
(04:39):
I would have put it in a pocket or something,
But apparently the trick worked. He came down the tree.
And this is a strange part of the story, and
I don't entirely get the physics of this, but the
egg actually got stuck in his mouth. Another guy actually
had to take one of Ben Dyer's teeth out so
he could remove the egg. Isn't that crazy? I mean, yes,
it is crazy. But also how did his friend know
(04:59):
that he had an an egg in his mouth and
that that was I guess the best way to get
it out? I have no idea. But also like, I
don't think there are any hobbies that I'd willingly lose
a tooth for, right, Like I used to collect pet
dispensers and magazines, but I'm not trading a tooth for
one of those. It feels ludicrous anyway, Bird collectors weren't
just about taking risks and sacrificing teeth. They also happened
(05:22):
to be meticulous, so they would take notes about where
each egg clutch was found, the habitat, the environment, and
they'd empty the egg of the embryo and catalog details
like color and size. And these collections were good and
important enough that a lot of them ended up in museums,
specifically England's Natural History Museum at Tring. Have you ever
been to Tring? I have not? No, where is it?
(05:43):
I haven't either. Tring is located about thirty miles outside
of London on the estate of one Lord Walter Rothschild
now Lord Walter began collecting specimen when he was a
young boy, and by the time he was ten he'd
started his first museum. This was in the backyard garden shed,
which sounds pretty cute, right, But by the time he
(06:03):
turned twenty one, his parents realized this was not just
some childhood phase and so naturally they built him his
own museum, which is you know, I guess what happens
to lords who grow up and have odd interests. But
this museum ends up being called Walter's Zoological Museum, and
eventually this became part of the country's Natural History Museum. Today,
(06:24):
the Tring actually houses the largest zoological collection that was
accumulated by one person, though it has to be noted
that Walter, who was better known as Lord Rothschild, actually
spent most of his time at the museum studying. All
these new species that came in the collections mostly came
from the four hundred people around the world he had
traveling on his behalf. That's an impressive number of people.
(06:45):
That's pretty amazing. And the Tring actually has the largest
bird egg collection in the world, more than two million items.
And one of the things that's really interesting is that
the Tring collection in particular was crucial to helping scientists
understand the damage that DDT had on birds.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And if I'm not mistaken, DDT was the pesticide that
made eggshells like really.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Frail, right exactly. But you know, scientists didn't know that
at first. They just saw that raptors like the bald
eagle and peregrine falcon weren't reproducing, which is obviously a
huge problem if a species is going to continue to exist.
But because the collection that the Tring was so thorough
and so detailed, scientists were actually able to compare all
these contemporary eggs to the older eggs from this collection,
(07:26):
and you know, it existed from well before the time
of DDT, and they discovered that the contemporary eggshells were
not only much thinner, but also weaker, and they were
able to connect this change to the introduction of DDT
into the environment. You know that this of course made
its way up into the food chain, into bird's diets,
and affected the composition of the female's eggs. In fact,
(07:46):
the pesticide made the shell so brittle that they'd actually
break under the weight of a parent bird just sitting
on the egg during incubation. That is wild. But of
course DDT has been banned since then. Yeah, and some
egg collectors like to cite this example as a benefit
of their work, like, thanks to them, there was this
history to be studied and to be learned from. But
today scientists are still allowed to apply for permits to
(08:08):
collect eggs for research. But you know, the idea of
this gentleman collector who's just out for his own pleasure,
you know, that doesn't happen anymore. In fact, it's.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Pretty frowned upon and is basically gone underground. Well, speaking
of that, that's actually where I'm going to take the baton.
But before we do that, why don't we take a
quick break.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about
egg collectors and this strange world of rare egg theft.
So will you were just about to tell us about
how egg collecting moves from this genteel hobby for naturalists
to something a little darker. That's right.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I think it feels like time to go a little
darker here. So this comes from a twenty thirteen New
Yorker article. This was by Julian Rubinsteinde. Toward egg collectors
really starts to change in the nineteen twenties. So the
Royal Society for the Protection for Birds or the RSPB,
they warned that this gentleman collector form of ooology was
threatening the survival of species, which of course made the
(09:14):
egg collectors pretty mad. For example, your friend Lord Walter
Rothschild teamed up with another collector, a guy by the
name of Reverend FCR. Jordaane, and they started their own group,
the British Euological Society, and it was renamed the Jordaane
Society in nineteen forty after Jordayne died. Now its members
were pretty exclusively men, no surprise, they're given the time
(09:34):
and it claimed to be the only organization in England.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Dedicated to egg collecting.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Now, they took their work very seriously and even after
it was illegal, it actually didn't really stop them.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So when does egg collecting actually start to become illegal?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Well, stealing wild bird eggs has been illegal in the
UK since nineteen fifty four, and then in nineteen eighty
one it was illegal to even possess a protected wild
bird's egg. But as we know, just because there is
a rule, that does mean that everybody follows it, and
that adage seemed to especially apply to members of the
Jordaane Society. The New Yorker goes on to say about
the nineteen nineties, more than half of the society's members
(10:10):
had convictions for egg collecting.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Half of the members. Amazing, it really is.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And there's this one story about a nineteen ninety four
raid where British investigators found out about a meeting that
the Jordaane Society was having at a hotel, so they
went under cover. One of the investigators was a woman,
and she hung out at the hotel bar and she'd
start chatting up its members. And remember this a real
boys club, so apparently just by showing some interest in
their hobby. This agent got at least one collector to
(10:37):
show her photos of birds, nests and other incriminating things.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So I'm guessing this led to some convictions. Oh, it
definitely did.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was enough evidence that the entire meeting was raided
and thanks to the raid, police were able to seize
eleven thousand eggs. Six Jordaane Society members were fined from
this whole raid. It was pretty wild, but.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean, if the Jordan's Society felt like they could
hold meetings at hotels, right, they clearly were that afraid
of the consequences.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
No, and the fines didn't seem to be all that effective.
There's a story of this one collector named Colin Watson
who throughout the nineteen eighties and nineties had been fined
almost six thousand pounds, which obviously didn't stop him. He
continued until the day of his death. Literally, he died
after falling from a tree trying to get to a nest.
I think these people were pretty focused on this whole
legg collecting.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Thing, I know, dying doing what he low.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah, And the thing is people are still stealing and
collecting eggs, even as recently as November of twenty twenty four,
a collection of five thousand rare eggs was discovered and
seized in rural England.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
So what about this Jordaane Society? Does this still live on?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Well, it hasn't been a recognized charity since two thousand
and one, and also happens to be the same year
the UK changed the law. So now if you're caught
with wild eggs it's more than a fine, you could
potentially serve jail time, which is a much bigger deterrent.
And it's also helped that investigative techniques have gotten more advanced,
like using or veillance cameras near popular collecting routes in
order to be able to track these license plates. And
(12:04):
that's opposed to putting microphones in trees, which is what
they used to do, just hoping to overhear illegal activity
happening in these trees.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
That is ridiculous. You know what. One other way that
I've read in the Guardian that people have been caught
is quote disgruntled wives who have played second fiddle to
their husband's obsession over bird eggs for decades.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, there are public informants too, like the New Yorker
article I mentioned also tells the story of how authorities
once caught this other collector. This was back in the
early two thousands, and the collector's brother was in a pub.
Someone there overheard him talking about bird eggs. This good
samaritan then followed the brother out of the pub in
order to take down his license plate number and then
report what he'd heard to authorities.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I can't imagine like overhearing someone talking about bird eggs
and being like, oh, I should probably report this. That's
kind of amazing. So let's switch tacks a little bit
here and talk about who some of these collectors are.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So I don't know about two bell I'm picturing like
Indiana Jones, but more like Indiana Jones with binoculars and
a field guide.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
What about you? I mean, I think they like to
think themselves as like that suave and to be honest, like,
there definitely are some real physical skills involved. So these
guys are often excellent tree climbers. Often they climb up
like one hundred foot tree trunks sometimes to get to
these rareness. They're also insanely knowledgeable, like they know a
ton about birds and their habitats. But egg collecting isn't
(13:26):
really like a young man's game, right, Yeah. You don't
see like kids into egg collecting in the same way
that you see like older men. And most of these
people had started taking eggs when they themselves were kids
after World War Two. There's actually this documentary about this
world called Poached, which is really interesting. It came out
in twenty fifteen and it follows some of these collectors now.
According to director Timothy Wheeler, the impulse to collect does
(13:47):
often start with a true childhood love of birds, but
it moors from that pretty quickly into an almost addictive behavior.
One British investigator said that when the police arrived to
this collector's house and found thirty six hundred eggs, the
guys started crying and said, quote, thank god you've come.
I can't stop. Oh my gosh. These guys are also experts,
and many argue that they aren't hurting the birds because
(14:09):
they're often cracking breeding schedules, and when they do take
the eggs, they take the entire clutch, and they claim
that this means the bird will lay a whole new
clutch that same season, which you know is sometimes true,
but it's not always the case. For example, birds like
golden eagles and ospreys, they really only lay once a season.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, and I know from my reading for this episode
that the extinction of the red back strike in the
nineteen eighties is actually attributed in part to collectors.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's right. And while egg thivery is certainly not the
reason why bird species might go endangered, you know, none
of this really helps. There are all sorts of other
conditions that lead to the endangement of birds, from habitat,
food lass, climate change, you know, overhunting, things like that.
But as you can imagine, these bird collectors aren't really
interested in common birds like you know, like the finch
(14:55):
or the crow or the robin. They want rare bird eggs,
especially if the only way to get them is to
repel down a cliff or climb a really tall tree
or something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes the egg feel
more like a treasure in that case, and a story
or an adventure to be able to tell about exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And one of the most infamous thieves is a guy
the press is dubbed Pablo Excobar, and in many ways
he fits the profile of these Jordaanan Society members, especially
that adventure adrenaline junkie sort of profile we've talked about.
I love this all right, So you got to tell
me more about Pablo. So his name is actually Jeffrey Lendrum,
and he's a really interesting character. He grew up in
(15:33):
what is now Zimbabwe, and he spent a lot of
time outdoors with his dad, who was also really into birds. Now,
by the time he was eight, little Jeffrey was known
for his ability to climb trees and rocks and cliff faces,
you know, all the spots where birds' nests are conveniently located. Now,
Jeffrey and his dad were renowned enough that they were
asked to volunteer on surveys and observation studies for different
(15:55):
birds in the area. So they legitimately knew birds and
I guess, more importantly, how to find these And according
to an article in Outside magazine, Jeffrey and his dad
would do some pretty skilled and dangerous things to find
these birds, Like they would actually throw claws into trees
as climbing aids. Like it sounds pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I'm curious, Like, how does this zimbabwe boy scout end
up growing up to be on Autubn's Most Wanted list well.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Over time, it became clear that Jeffrey and his dad
were doing more than just studying the birds. Other volunteers
started to notice some small lies and inconsistencies that they tell,
especially when talking about fledglings they claimed to have observed.
In nineteen eighty three, when Jeffrey was twenty one, police
raided their house and found more than eight hundred eggs
as well as these live peregrine falcon eggs, and there
(16:40):
were also allegations that Jeffrey was selling these live eggs
on the black market, but none of that was ever proven.
He's still eight hundred that's a lot of eggs. Yeah,
and both father and son were found guilty of theft
and fraud. They were fined, they were given probation, but
you know, as we've learned, it's not a huge deterrent
for these sort of committed thieves, and so Jeffrey spent
(17:01):
the next couple decades going to super remote places around
the world stealing eggs. We know that he took at
least two trips to northern Quebec to take ger falcon eggs,
which build nests and depressions in Arctic cliff faces. There's
also a terrific book about Jeffrey by the writer Joshua Hammer.
It's called The Falcon Thief and a lot of this
research comes from that. So Hammer actually spoke to a
(17:23):
former friend of Lendrum's who accompanied him on these Canadian trips,
and this friend said that Lendrum would hire a pilot
and rent a helicopter to get to these nests.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And if anyone asked, their alibi was that they were
filmmakers with National Geographic. Basically, the pilot would hover next
to the cliffs and then Lendrom would actually lower himself
down from the helicopter on a rope mission impossible style
to these nests. That is incredible. Yeah, And this friend
said that over the course of a week they went
to nineteen geerfalcon nests and stole about twelve eggs. Now, Lendrum,
(17:55):
who is continually denied they stole these eggs, then wrapped
the eggs and socks and put them in his carry
on for the flight to London and then finally Dubai,
where they were likely sold on the black market. But
the next trip, the guys weren't that lucky. This time,
the pilot they hired didn't buy their filmmaker story and
instead he tipped off the authorities and Lendrom and friend
were arrested when eggs and incubators were found in their
(18:17):
hotel room. They were fined just about seven thousand dollars
and then they were set on their way.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I mean again, though, when you talk about these fines,
it still doesn't seem like that much of a fine.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It's not that much of a disincentive because eight years
later he was arrested again, and talk about wild This
is a crazy story. So in May twenty ten, Lenderham
was in the Emirates Executive Loune in the Birmingham, England
Airport and he had a ticket book to South Africa
with importantly a fourteen hour layover in Dubai. Now he's
(18:47):
in the lounge, he asked to use the shower and
will I don't know about what you normally take the shower,
but Lendrom decided to bring with him a bag and
two small suitcases. I mean, I can't say that's typically
in my shower padding no mine either, And it was
unusual enough that it attracted the attention of one of
the cleaners, who then also noticed that Lendrom spent a
(19:08):
long time in the shower. So when Lendrom left the room,
the cleaner, who was a former mall security guard, went
to check it. And he enters the shower, but instead
of finding I don't know, a suitcase full of bubbabout
salts and a loofa, the shower was completely dry, and
the towels were dry too, and they were folded, I
mean a little suspicious there, So he knew something was off.
(19:30):
He looks under the towels to see if there's anything there.
He looks in the garbage can and there's nothing. But
then he looks in this baby changing area where there
was another plastic garbage bin for diapers, and inside the
bin there there was an egg cardon with one single
egg in it, dyed bright red.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And it kind of reminds me of those old CIA
spy transmitters that were like hitting in doggy dew and
stuff like that. Like, I bet he really thought hiding
an egg in the diaper garbage was, you know, pretty
full proof because who's going to look in there?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, But but the lounge attendant's hunch was right, like
something was clearly up. And what does a red egg
even mean, so in any case, he calls authorities, and
the authorities search Lenderm's luggage, where they find insulated bags,
some camera equipment, a walkie talkie, a bunch of cash,
a thermometer, and two more egg cartons. One of these
cartons is empty and the other one has quail eggs
(20:20):
along with proof of purchase from a supermarket. I mean,
all of this sounds so bizarre, Mango. And then it
gets a little weirder because when the officers actually search
Lendrom himself, they find fourteen small, multicolored eggs wrapped in
wool socks and taped to his abdomen. So he's basically
caught in the act here. Yeah, so here's a completely
hypothetical situation I'm making up out of nowhere. You're illegally
(20:42):
smuggling live eggs into another country by strapping them to
your body to keep them warm. But then the police
find them, what do you tell them by way of explanation?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
In this case, I feel like I'd probably just try
to run, because he's pretty obvious what's going on.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I mean, that seems like the better option, but him
and said tells the authorities they were duck eggs, and
he was bringing them to his father in Zimbabwe. And
why weren't these colorful eggs and a carton. Well, Lenderham
had a bad back, and with the long flight ahead,
his physical therapist had told him that strapping something fragile
against his stomach would causes muscles to tense up and
strengthen his lower back.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I don't know, I'm kind of buying that's a really
creative story.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It feels elaborate enough that it must be trued right
At this point, though, airport authorities they don't know a
lot about wild bird eggs, but they do know lender
is lying through his teeth, so they call him the
big Guns. And in this case, the Big Guns means
Britain's National Wildlife Crime Unit. Oh and while they're waiting
for the crime unit to arrive, airport authorities keep the
(21:42):
eggs warm by storing them on their computer markers.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
I mean, there's actually something kind of heartwarming about the
image of a bunch of cops trying to keep these
eggs alive.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I mean, the amazing thing is that it actually worked.
Like twelve of the eggs, which weren't ducks but peregrine
falcon eggs hashed a couple of weeks later, and actually
eleven of those birds were able to fledge in the wild,
so it's kind of a happy ending. Oh what happened
to Lendrom? Well? After more interviews, Lendrom finally admits, okay,
he might have been taking the peregrine falcon eggs from
(22:12):
a cliff in Whales with the intent of hatching and
breeding them in South Africa, but when he thought the
eggs had died, he didn't want them to go to waste,
so that's why he wrapped them around his body to
keep him intact for the family's egg collection. Yeah collection,
We already know they'd gotten in trouble for Yeah, and
I assume you neglected to mention that he'd been arrested
for this crime in the previous place. But you know, also,
(22:32):
the peregrine falcon is the highest level of protected bird
species in the UK, so this isn't especially bad. Look anyway,
he has all this expensive contraband that he's taped to himself,
and this actually isn't the only evidence. Authorities also find
in his car in the parking lot that there's an
incubator of ropes carabineers and GPS devices, which is clear
(22:53):
evidence he knew what he was doing. He would repel
down the cliff faces to the nest, stealed eggs, put
them insulated bags, and then climb back up. So obviously
he's not a novice.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I mean, it feels dumb to keep all that stuff
so close by, right, Like he clearly didn't think he
was going to get caught.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Definitely not. But one of the other things the authorities
found was actual video footage from his exploits in Quebec,
from when he was hanging from the helicopter. Like Lenderham
tried to deny all this for a while, but there
was enough evidence that he was arrested, found guilty, and
that he spent eighteen months in prison. But my question
is was the cleaner everthing actually he was. The reward
for his eagle eye was a limited edition print of
(23:31):
an avoset, which is a type of bird eye, and
he was presented it by the country's environmental minister.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And this was a print I guess, I mean, I
guess it's a beautiful art print, but I don't think
he was unhappy about it.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
But amazingly, our bird smugglers. Story doesn't end there. We
actually have more on Pablo Xcabar right after this break.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking all
about the highly secretive world of rare egg smuggling. All right,
So Mega, when we left off, you were telling us
how Jeffrey Lenderm was serving time in England after being
caught stealing wild peregrine falcon eggs. So does all that
time behind bars curb his bird obsession?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I mean, will you know that the man is addicted?
In twenty fifteen, he goes down to Patagonia where he
climbs inside volcanoes and repels down cliff faces looking for
raptor nests, which is incredible, and he's caught at the
sau Polo airport with four rare, white chested peregrine falcon eggs.
(24:46):
He's tried, he's found guilty, and he's sendenced to four
and a half years in prison. But plot twist, he
never serves any time. While he's out on bail a
waiting appeal, he high tails it to Argentina, where he
books a flight to South Africa, where of course he's
a citizen.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
And was his scouting put to use, Like was he
wondering jungles and evading patrols to get to Argentina or what.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
That's actually the story he kind of paints for himself.
But his Brazilian lawyer said Lenderham just took a bus.
But since then, his most recent arrest was in London
in twenty eighteen. He was coming from South Africa with
nineteen eggs from endangered birds of prey strapped to his body,
two of which had already hatched. I mean, a.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Squawking baby bird has to be harder to conceal than
a nice quiet egg.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So does he end up serving time for this? Yeah,
he got sentenced to three years in prison, and.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
So at this point he's been arrested, he spent time
in jail. He's a fugitive in Brazil. I mean, he
must be on watch list all over the world. He's
got to be making bank for all this risk if
he's doing this right.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
It seems likely though the writer Joshua Hammer mentioned that
at least when he visited Lendroham in South Africa in
twenty seventeen, he really didn't seem to have any of
the trappings of wealth. But there's definitely money in the business.
For example, it was estimated he could have made around
one hundred thousand pounds for that eighteen hall that got
them arrested.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, one of the things I'm always curious about
is is, honestly less who's taking the risk to sell
these things? Because they're making a lot of money, they
made this decision to do this stuff, But I'm always
wondering who's buying this stuff, Like who in this case,
who's buying these eggs.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Authorities can't say with one hundred percent certainty, but it
seems very likely that the eggs were for ultra wealthy
buyers in the Middle East, which you know, as we
alluded to before, is notable not only because of the
money there, but especially because of the long history of falconry.
Like falconry in the Middle East goes back thousands and
thousands of years to the Bedouins, and deserts, as you
can imagine, are really hard places to find food. So
(26:38):
the Bedouins would capture these migrating wild falcons, they'd train
them to help hunt for things like rabbits and other prey,
and that's how they'd feed themselves.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah, you know, it's actually looking at falcons this week,
and it's amazing how good they are at hunting. Like
a falcon sees eight times better than a human, and
it has such a strong beak that it can actually
sever the neck of the animal that it's hunting. And
maybe most important, it is super fast. So on average,
surfalcons fly between fifty and sixty eight miles an hour
(27:06):
and up to one hundred and thirty eight miles an
hour when they're diving. Meanwhile, a peregrine falcon can reach
speeds of up to two hundred and forty miles an
hour while diving. I would have never guessed anywhere near that.
It makes it actually the fastest animal on earth. So
of course, if you're like a falcon meal, you really
don't stand a chance.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
No, you really don't.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So falcon hunts are now officially banned across many Middle
Eastern countries, but obviously there's still this very venerated tradition
of training falcons. So in the early two thousands falcon
racing started up, where you know, it's about strength and
speed but not actually hunting. There are very lucrative falcon
races from the UAE to Saudi Arabia where the purse
could be millions and millions of dollars. Falcons, like jur
(27:48):
falcons and peregrins, they're some of the most sought after
birds for these competitions, and there are falcon breeding programs
in places like the UK and the US and western
Europe where they're allowed to export to the Middle East.
So today female jur falcons might cost between fifty thousand
and one hundred and fifty thousand pounds each, and in
twenty thirteen, a pure white jur falcon was sold to
(28:11):
a buyer and Katar for two hundred and ten thousand pounds,
which of course is quite a status symbol.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
That's pretty incredible. And obviously having a winning falcon is
kind of like having a winning thorough bread, right like
it's a huge status symbol like you mentioned. And of
course that's really where Lendrom comes in, because there's a belief,
right or wrong, that wild falcons are stronger and faster
than the falcon's bread and captivity and because you know,
many governments on the Arabian Peninsula have been the capture
(28:38):
of wild falcons. There's this entire underground market and network
where wild falcon fledglings or chicks might go for three
hundred thousand pounds or even more money. And wild eggs
are a little easier to pass off and get through
customs than a massive bird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
I mean the thing is, even if you're a shake
and you have hundreds and hundreds of falcons, there's going
to eventually be in breedings. The wild eggs are also
useful and expanding that gene pool.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So back to London for a second. Lenderm does deny
that he was contributing to this black market. When he
was stopped by customs officials in twenty eighteen, he told
them he was just rescuing the eggs to save them
from the habitat destruction in South Africa, and he claimed
he was playing to take the eggs. Who are birds
of Prey center in England at Lendrom. Such a stand
up guy, but I'm curious where is he now? I
(29:26):
hope his back is better. As far as we could tell,
he hasn't been arrested again, but he is trying to
make himself harder to track. It turns out that in
twenty seventeen he'd officially changed his name to John Smith,
and that dude never gives up. You do have to
give him that, right. I have a feeling this isn't
the last we've heard of Pablo Xcabar. And on that note,
I think it's not for a fact off.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
All right, Sondram was stealing new eggs, but I actually
want to talk about old eggs for a second. In
twenty fifteen, an intact eggshell from the long extinct elephant
bird was put up for auction at Sotheby's. Now, the
elephant bird when it was around, it weighed more than
one thousand pounds. You see where they got the name
elephant bird.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
It's kind of heavy.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So the eggshell is one hundred and fifty times bigger
than a chicken, one hundred and fifty times bigger than
a chicken's egg. Though it didn't end up selling, the
asking price was between thirty thousand and fifty thousand pounds.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
That's amazing, And I have no idea how big one
hundred and fifty times a chinz egg is. I'm picturing
like a house, so personally, I'm saving my pennies for
a great auk egg, which is another extinct bird. Now.
Victorian collectors were especially obsessed with ox in their eggs.
There are thought to be only about seventy five eggshells
(30:42):
left around the world, and twenty twenty three an egg
was auctioned for one hundred thousand pounds. Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
All right, Well, a handful of years ago archaeologist in
England came across this basket with four eggs still inside it. Now,
three of the eggs disintegrated when they were excavating them,
but they were able to successfully keep one fully intact.
And they took that egg and they sent it to
a lab and it's thought to be a chicken egg
that's at least seventeen hundred years old. Now, even more
exciting than that, it still has liquid yolk. How wild
(31:12):
is that? That is insane and possibly delicious.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
I don't think some ango. We think eggs are expensive now,
but after the California gold Rush started in the late
eighteen forties, eggs were so scarce out west that a
single chicken egg might go for a dollar in the
city or three dollars in the mining camps, which is
the equivalent of thirty dollars or ninety dollars today per egg.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That's pretty expensive, But actually it relates to my fact
here and it's about an all American classic known as
the Hangtown Fry. Now. The story goes that one day
in nineteen forty nine, a prospector ran into a saloon
in nearby Hangtown, California. He had just struck it rich,
and so to celebrate, he told the cook that he
wanted quote, the finest and most expensive meal that he
(31:54):
could possibly make him, which at the time was a
combination of eggs, bacon, and oysters. As far as I
can tell, the Buttercup Diner is the only restaurant in
current day Hangtown that still serves this. They modernized it
slightly by adding cheese on top, but the dish comes
with a warning. It says eat at your own risk
and just as a copyat to that. In twenty eighteen,
(32:15):
the La Times wrote a piece about the Hangtown Fry
where they interviewed the owner of the Buttercup, who called
it quote disgusting. He said, only tourists and people nursing
hangovers ever order it.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Do you know what it tastes like?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I found a review from this guy online who says
it was on his bucket list to try, and he said, quote,
it's reminiscent of a plate of liver with scrambled eggs
but chalky and oyster fishy tasting yuck yum. Maybe anyway,
that was the review, but for whatever it's worth, he
also did add that the more he ate of it,
the quote easier it was to eat.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I don't really understand that thing. Well. I think for
surfacing the world's most luxurious and most disgusting egg dish,
I think you have to win this one. But that
is it for today's Part Time Genius. We'll be back
with brand new episodes very soon. If you like the show,
remember we're on Instagram at part Time Genius. Be sure
to drop us a line because we love hearing from you. Also,
(33:11):
this week, we have to give a big shout out
to our writer and researcher Marissa Brown, who dug into
the weighty topic of egg thefts for us. Thank you, Marissa,
and from Dylan Gabe, Mary, Will and myself, thank you
so much for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
(33:38):
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Pearson and me Mongish Heatikler and research by our good
pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
by the Wonderful Dylan Fagan, with support from Tyler Klang.
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
(34:01):
Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shory. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
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