Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’

Profile of America’s Top Undercover Reptile Cop

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Ken McCloud has retired from the US Fish & Wildlife Service but he’s far from out of the game. He is profiled here by John Moir in the Washington Post. Ken and his wife Rose, also of USFWS, are the secret dynamic duo behind some of the country’s great wildlife cases and have saved more species than most of us will ever see (a few in their own bathtub). Ken was the reptile brains behind Operation Chameleon, which took down Anson Wong among others…  He raised up the Komodo Dragon that nearly bit off the Phil Bronstein’s foot (Sharon Stone’s ex).  He was also a great friend, reptile adviser, and confident to SA Chip Bepler in his Strictly Reptiles investigation.

BC on The Diane Rehm Show

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

I’ll be discussing The Kingpinmy story in this month’s issue of National Geographic–on National Public Radio’s the Diane Rehm Show together with Special Agent George Morrison, the federal agent who sent Anson Wong to prison.    Please join us

FM 88.5 WAMU  Listen here.

 

USFWS Wildlife Inspector In-Service

Monday, June 29th, 2009

I really enjoyed my June 8 appearance at the National Conservation Training Center for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.  It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with the men and women on the front lines for wildlife.  

It’s worth noting that in one modest conference room I was able to speak with roughly half of the entire U.S. wildlife inspector force policing our ports and borders, from Alaska to Florida.  While researching The Lizard King I asked how many USFWS special agents we had in the U.S., and how many wildlife inspectors.  The first time I heard the answer I thought I was being given the figures for Florida or New York instead of for the whole country.  Answers: 138 USFWS special agents in the field (updated Jan. 12, 2010) and 121 inspectors to cover all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and overseas postings.