and you know that they're really ancient and they'vve been around for a lolog time. but, man, they're just-- they're hanging on, you know, by the skin of their teeth all the time. narrator: in the past few decades, ravens have become one of the issues affecting the tortoise. berry: this little tortoise is about 6 to 8 years old. and we see that it's got a big hole in its back. lovich: ravens tend to peck through the shehell of small tortoises and then eviscerate them. and we do know that the raven is an important predator on young tortoises in some parts of the desert. narrator: ravens have become a pest worldwide largely because they've learned to get what they need from people. man: batter up. that's one away. narrator: this softball game might seem like an unusual place to find raravensbubut these bibs aren'n't just casual sports fan. they've figured out an important equation: a ball game means people and people mean food. once the game is over, they'll move in to pick over whatever has been left behind. lovich: ravens are like coyotes and raccoons and some other

the back lolog in maryland stat police has grown 20 times larger in theast few years. 20 times larger. the backlog of drug investigative cas they handle will double again by 2019. it's all related to the opioid and pefentanyl epidemic. they need manpower and the more sophisticated the fentanyl becomes, the mle co the chemistry of the synthetics, the more difficult those investigations become and they only have so many people who are trained to do this. to hire more people for a forensic lab is one yoing. have to train them, too. these are chemists as much as they are inves digators. th't have the manpower and other states are feeling the same thing. y learned thurs morning maryland and virginia state police will get $2 million in emergency money from the u.s. justice department as the feds acknowledgment that they have a backlog problem. >> and delayed investigation means delays in getting dangerous stuffff the streets. >> and dangerous people. those investiganeons being d in forensic labs are done to elp prosecutors, states attorneys, police, to get drug traffickers off the streets.