I only speculated/generalized because that situation has happened, thousands of times, just not with the interesting backstory.

Landowner discovers he has an endangered species, reports it, gets rewarded by having his property restricted, endangered species moves on (or dies), and restrictions remain indefinitely.

Or landowner doesn't report it, "disappears" the animals, and uses it or sells it while it still has value.

Sounds like in this case, it somehow managed to be a bit of both of those.