Badges, Bears, and Eagles

"This engrossing memoir by debut author Callan lets readers in on highlights of his 30-year career as a California wildlife officer" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Over his thirty-year career as a wildlife protection officer for the California Department of Fish and Game, Steve Callan and his longtime working partner, Dave Szody, conducted some of the most fascinating, complex, and highly successful wildlife investigations in California history. They also collected a wealth of true stories—action-packed, suspenseful, and often humorous.
In Badges, Bears, and Eagles, Steve provides a vivid first-person account of his "jaw-dropping, funny, tragic, enraging, exciting, and hopeful" adventures (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

The author and his colleagues outsmart game hogs, thwart fish thieves, and foil outlaws with names like "Squeaky." Steve is even stalked by African lions and mauled by a five-hundred-pound Bengal tiger. One of the most important cases of his career begins with a slain bald eagle dropped on the doorstep of the Fish and Game office, along with a note threatening the life of a fellow warden. A decade later, Steve and Dave conduct the investigation of their lives, uncovering a statewide criminal conspiracy to kill California black bears for their valuable gall bladders.

These and other fascinating stories make for a truly unique, "exceptionally well written" memoir of conservation that "is almost flawless, and reading this gem is pure effortless joy" (International Game Warden).