All activities show up in notebooks, field logs, or whatever they use. If the details don't show up there then it's fraud.
This story reads like pure spin. Control samples are always known only by the sender. All samples are labeled so as to ID them, but not reveal details to the lab they are sent to for analysis. There's no point to hanging control samples out for someone else to find them and turn them in as real, unless it's done by an outside agency that documents their actions.
"The unauthorized samples sent to the lab were segregated from valid field samples, so the survey was not skewed, according to the Forest Service."
Pure spin! Control samples are never handled this way.
"The first the lab learned of the unauthorized samples was in September 2000. A Forest Service biologist on his last day on the job before retirement phoned the lab to say biologists were concerned about how the survey was going, and were sending in fur from captive lynx as a control sample. Workers at the lab called the Forest Service, which launched an investigation last February that was completed in June, and determined that the survey was not skewed. The biologists were counseled, but not disciplined. "
This tidbit smells. It sounds like the lab is covering up the fact that they can't distinguish red from green. No one ever tells a lab they are sending control samples like this and folks that send controls are never counseled.
Trap these fed f!ck biologists in some inhumane trap and skin them alive. Their Pelts will not be too warm, but the world will be a little less sick and evil.