the officers disclosed their jobs to the couple, even encouraging the couple to Google the officers, said Andrew Halverson, a spokesman for the wildlife department’s law enforcement division. The couple joked that they could not find any information online about the officers, and continued talking, Mr. Halverson said. [...] The passengers also showed the officers the skull of an endangered sea turtle they were smuggling in a carry-on bag during the flight.

The day after the flight, officers arrived to execute a search warrant at the couple’s home in Chico, Calif., and found Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Price processing a deer they had hunted illegally that day, the agency said. Deer season was over, and the couple had no deer tags, which California requires in addition to an annual hunting license to hunt big game species.

Officers also found mountain lion claws, taxidermied animals including a ringtail cat and a barn owl, an illegally hunted spike buck and several illegally hunted deer with tagging violations, the agency said. Ringtail cats are a protected species in California, and mounted raptors like the barn owl are illegal to possess without state and federal permits.