South Africa

June 2002

In June 2002, Todd and two other US Department of Interior special agents traveled to South Africa to provide counter-poaching training. The training was held at Kruger National Park and the course was attended by 28 rangers and investigators from South African national parks (rangers and investigators), provincial parks (investigators) and the Endangered Species Protection Unit of the national police (investigators). The training included classroom instruction and scenarios. Since the training was held in the park, Todd had the opportunity to see the “Big Five” and many other animals. Following the training, Todd did a highly memorable ride along with national police officers in Johannesburg that included a high-speed chase and a subsequent visit to the main city jail. .

Spring 2005

In the spring of 2005, a South African national park investigator came to the US on a six-week exchange trip. On behalf of the US National Park Service, Todd served as the host, taking the South African investigator on cases, arranging for him to attend training and organizing travel to a number of national park sites in the western US. Highlights for the investigator were to meet federal prosecutors and a federal judge, to participate in serving a search warrant to recover endangered species animals taken from a US national park and to work on an undercover operation involving South African natural resources.