6 animals used by intelligence agencies as spies

1. pigeons

Pigeons around the world for millennia usedSignal Corps Pigeons/JSTOR to send messages. We arrive at the right place with a feathered bird in a cage, find out what we need, write on a piece of paper, tie it to the ward's leg and release it. The bird, out of habit, flies home and delivers the record. Such is the pigeon SMS.

But in the 20th century, when came up withSpy Pigeons Circle the World | WIRED fairly compact cameras, another mission was assigned to pigeons - spy onEyes in the Sky: A Short History of Bird Spies / Audubon behind other states from the air.

We take a camera that automatically takes pictures at a certain frequency, hang it on a flyer and launch a bird near military facilities. Then, when the pigeon returns to its native nest, we pull off the device from it and see that it managed to find something interesting.

Such projects developed1. Pigeon Camera / International Spy Museum
2. Pigeons: The Secret Cold War Spies / Forces.net

Germans in 1917-1918 and Americans in the 70s. The last whole department of the CIA was created for pigeons - the Takana project. Details of the results of the work are still classified.

Now, however, the need for spy pigeons has disappeared, because convenient drones have appeared. You can’t tell a pigeon where to fly and what to shoot - its intelligence, frankly, is not the most impressive.

2. cats

In the early 60s, the CIA came up with a great idea - to turn a cat into a living walking microphone, capable of recording other people's conversations. In the end, the cat is such a cutie, who would suspect a spy in the furry? So appeared projectThe CIA Experimented On Animals in the 1960s Too. Just Ask ‘Acoustic Kitty’ / Smithsonian Magazine "Acoustic Kitty".

In a living body cats inserted batteries to power listening devices. The development of batteries was another task, because the beast will not carry away a really capacious battery. So the recording time was quite limited. The microphone was installed in the ear canal, the transmitter was implanted in the base of the skull.

The wire serving as an antenna was woven directly into the hair of the tail. This is logical, because cats tend to keep him upright.

In general, in an unfortunate animal shovedThe CIA Experimented On Animals in the 1960s Too. Just Ask ‘Acoustic Kitty’ / Smithsonian Magazine equipment for 20 million US taxpayer dollars. In intelligence, they rubbed their hands, imagining how many secrets their furry agent could steal.

But all plans fell through when Acoustic Kitty was hit by a taxi during a field test. As a result, in 1967 the project turned offThe CIA Experimented On Animals in the 1960s Too. Just Ask ‘Acoustic Kitty’ / Smithsonian Magazine.

3. crows

Another version of bird reconnaissance. crows where cleverer pigeons and vultures, and they train easier.

CIA Dolphin Trainer Robert Bailey toldThe CIA's Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren't Even Human | history | Smithsonian Magazinethat, in addition to marine mammals, he also taught birds. More specifically, ravens. These feathered scouts quickly understood what was needed from them.

The operation of a spy raven is simple: you fly up to the window, drop a miniature transmitter there, and fly away.

However, they were also capable of more complex things. For example, birds perfectly lifted heavy objects for their weight - for example, packages and folders with documents. They were also smart enough to learn how to open drawers.

4. Ticks

Bailey, by the way was engagedThe CIA's Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren't Even Human | history | Smithsonian Magazine and another project, "The use of arthropods as personnel detectors." It was developed in 1968 at the Army's Limited Warfare Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland.

Simply put, blood-sucking insects and arthropods were supposed to reveal the location of enemy soldiers, focusing on heat and smell.

Parasites can trap substances emitted by the human body, even in total darkness. It was assumed that for the US Army they would create special enemy detectors in which mosquitoes would sit, ticks and lice.

And when an enemy approaches a detachment of some "fur seals", the insects in the detectors become worried and thus report an ambush. And by directionThe CIA's Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren't Even Human | history | Smithsonian Magazine by their jumps it will even be possible to tell in which direction the opponents are. It is not joke. Fleas were also involved in the experiments, but their help was refused because they moved too chaotically.

True, in the end, they decided not to develop ambush detectors with bloodsuckers, because they developed cheap and compact night vision devices. But the idea itself was original.

5. Dolphins

Making spies and saboteurs out of marine mammals was an old dream both in the USA and in the USSR.

Since the 1960s, the United States Navy has trained dolphins look for enemy swimmers, underwater mines and various lost items in the sea. In addition, California sea lions, which are valued for their good eyesight, also participated in this program.

Projects to create marine scouts are still alive: knownLicense to krill: why the US navy trains whales, dolphins and sea lions / The Guardianthat, as of 2015, there were 70 bottlenose dolphins and 30 eared seals at the San Diego Naval facility.

Dolphins are smart, obedient and easy to train. They are trained in the same way as sapper dogs.

The Union trained its own bottlenose dolphins and even taught them how to detect mines on submarines, although it is not known how successfully: the data is classified. Also on animals fastenedAttack of the Killer Dolphins (Maybe) | WIRED harpoons against enemy divers for dolphins to ram opponents. A kind of huge carbon dioxide syringes that can literally make a person explode.

And in 2019 off the coast of Norway capturedWhale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts / The Guardian captured a Russian beluga with a collar to which a GoPro camera was attached with the inscription Equipment St. Petersburg ("Equipment of St. Petersburg"). Apparently, the animal was trained by the Russian Navy.

The Norwegians sent a request to the embassy and found out that the beluga belonged to the Murmansk Marine Research Institute of Biology. They trained her to help Russian divers. As a result, the animal was dubbed Hvaldimir and left in Norway.

6. The bats

Animals can be useful not only for reconnaissance, but also for sabotage. Well, at least in theory. In 1942, a Pennsylvania dentist named Little Adams I arrivedOld, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II - The Atlantic to the White House and proposed an enchanting plan.

We take a million bats, train them, tie small explosive devices to them, and bats with a squeak of “To fight! For democracy! fly where they need to go. And there is no need to develop nuclear weapons.

It sounds crazy, but Eleanor Roosevelt, who was friends with Adams, got interested in the idea. She persuaded the military to try.

In March 1943, the US Army began testsOld, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II - The Atlantic X-ray project, spending more than $2 million to train about 6,000 bats. IEDs were attached to the Brazilian fold-lips chosen for the mission and sent to bomb a model village specially built for the occasion at the Dugway training ground.

That's just mice flew apartOld, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II - The Atlantic who went where: some fell to the ground, the second exploded in the air. But some success has been achieved. The surviving folded lips successfully blew up the model of the village. And with it - a hangar at the Marine Corps Air Base in El Centro, not far from the training ground. And automobileOf Spies & Stratagems - Stanley P. Lovell General William Donovan parked nearby. He called the project a farce and ordered the development to be curtailed.