Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Wildlife CSI

AMBI 1 truck sound SNEAKS up during first track.

Out in the dusty brown foothills of southern Monterey County, state Fish and Game warden Todd Tognazzini stops his truck to pick out wildlife hiding in plain sight.

AMBI 1 truck sound stops near end of previous track, door slams

AMBI 2

There?s a fawn right here, see the little guy right here in the trees? [mom?s probably close by somewhere?]

The newborn deer is about 20 paces from the road.

AMBI 3 Deer call

Tognazzini makes a deer call, and the young fawn stops in its tracks.

AMBI 3

Deer call

In the perfect position, Tognazzini says, to be blown away with a rifle.

ACT 1

It?s not something that?s a lot in the news? but there?s still a substantial amount of poaching that goes on.

On this remote road, Tognazzini says 1 in 5 trucks traveling through here will actually stop, pull out a weapon, and take a shot at that deer. And that?s the tip of the poaching that goes on in California, he says. Deer, abalone, wild pigs, black bears, sturgeon, elk - the list goes on and on.

ACT 2

Last week we had low tide activity, we had a case of three people taking 2,000 over the legal limit of an animal called a limpet.

Apparently, the limpet, a type of snail that lives in tidepools, is a delicacy in the Portuguese culture. In the past decade or two, immigrants have added a new wrinkle to poaching, - for instance, sturgeon poaching is on the rise, because Russian immigrants can get thousands of dollars for each large fish that carries sturgeon eggs, a prized form of caviar. Chinese poachers will kill a bear just to take its gall bladder, which is used in traditional Chinese medicine and also worth thousands on the black market. That?s a lot to cover. From King City to San Luis Obispo, Tognazzini is one of five game wardens patrolling about 10,000 square miles of territory.

ACT 3

Our biggest issue has been, in my career, the lack of game wardens. We have fewer game wardens today than when I started.

After decades of budget cuts, California now has less than 200 wardens throughout the state. It?s the worst per-capita ratio of wardens-to-population in the U.S. So, with limited resources and more territory to cover, California officials are trying a few high-tech ways to save some man-hours while saving wildlife.

AMBI 4 squeeeeeaky door

AMBI 5

The first section of our lab here is our necropsy room, we have a couple of large tables where we can spread out animals if we have to do necropsies or autopsies on them?

Whenever game wardens have poaching suspects, the evidence is sent here?. To a forensics lab near Sacramento, where wildlife forensics specialist Jeff Rodzen conducts DNA analysis to link wild animals to the people who have killed them.

AMBI 6 ke-CHUNK of freezer door opening

ACT 4

This is one of our walk in freezers, we have one bag (good crinkling) all the evidence in one bag with the officers name on it, (ke-CHUNK)

(Me) Are those bobcat feet back there?

I believe that?s probably a mountain lion back in there in the back of the freezer.

This is the first lab in the U.S., Rodzen says, to use DNA analysis to track down wildlife poachers.

ACT 5

Fish and game would not make a lot of the cases they do without our lab. Money wise and effort wise, DNA by far has the biggest bang for the buck.

AMBI 7 Hum rises to large hum

In another room, Rodzen is running polymerase chain reaction testing to match blood and hair samples from a poached animal to meat found in a suspect's possession. He says the DNA analysis done here ends up helping game wardens in another way. When poachers know that DNA evidence will go against them, they admit guilt, Rodzen says, and that saves the state time and money.

ACT 6

It?s largely what we call the CSI effect, When you have the forensic evidence to back up what you?re claiming, you kind of have science on your side.

AMBI 8 truck rumbling, squawkbox noise

Back in southern Monterey County, game warden Tognazzini is on a midnight stakeout. The moon's almost full....it's called a poacher?s moon, and he?s running the dirt roads here without headlights.

AMBI 9 truck stops

He stops and pulls out a pair of night-vision binoculars.

AMBI 10

With this much moonlight, usually you can go with the infrared setting?.you can see quite well, see like daytime?

This night is unusual... because he didn't catch anyone. Most stakeouts, Tognazzini says, result in anywhere from one to three arrests. Not bad for a resource-strapped department. He says the technology makes the difference -- from night-vision equipment to robotic deer decoys to DNA matching, one thing is common: Wardens are always looking for the newest way.... to stay one step ahead of poachers. For Quest, I?m David Gorn, KQED Radio News.

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