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Whales, dolphins, cats or pigeons? Which animal is the best spy according to the secret service

2024-09-11 20:20:35Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Whales, dolphins, cats or pigeons? Which animal is the best spy according to the
In 2019, the whale Hvaldimir attracted worldwide attention when fishermen found it off the Norwegian coast

Dwayne Oxford – Al Jazeera

Hvaldimir, a beluga whale believed to have been used as a Russian spy, was found dead last weekend under suspicious circumstances, according to animal rights groups in Norway, near Russian waters while wearing a harness.

The beluga - named after the Norwegian word for whale "hval" and part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's name "dimir" - was pulled from the water by a crane and taken to a nearby port for examination by experts.

In 2019, the whale attracted worldwide attention when fishermen found it off the Norwegian coast. Hvaldimir wore a belt with a camera and the inscription "Oprema St. Petersburg". This has fueled suspicions in the West that the whale may be part of a Russian navy program that trains aquatic animals as spies - although others have argued that Hvaldimir may have been trained to help with therapy for disabled children.

Marine biologist Sebastian Strand, founder of the Norwegian non-profit organization Marine Mind, which advocates for the protection of oceans and marine life, has been following Hvaldimir for more than three years.

"Unfortunately, we found Hvaldimir floating in the sea. He died, but it was not immediately clear what the cause of death was," Strand told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

While the cause of the whale's death remains unclear, and – like the best secret agents – Hvaldimir never left hard evidence to confirm whether he was a spy, his story is just the latest in a long history of nations using animals as spies.

So who was Hvaldimir, what animals have been used for espionage before and which was the most successful?

Who was Hvaldimir?

Hvaldimir, a whale measuring 4.2 meters long and weighing 1,225 kilograms, was first spotted by fishermen in 2019 near the northern Norwegian island of Ingoya. He is believed to have been 14 or 15 years old when he died, which is less than half the average lifespan of a Beluga whale (about 30 years).

Before his death, the beluga was spotted in several Norwegian coastal towns, and over the years he was filmed interacting with a fisherman and even picking up a GoPro camera that had fallen on a kayaker.

Marine Mind is not the only non-profit marine organization that has been tracking this famous whale in recent years. As of 2019, OneWhale, another non-profit organization, has a team present in Norway that closely monitors Hvaldimir's activities, behavior and interactions with the public.

Regina Haug, the founder of OneWhale, suspects that Hvaldimir's death was not "natural".

In a series of video messages on Instagram, Haug said: “The misinformation being spread is that Hvaldimir had no physical damage or visible injuries at the time of his death. It is assumed that Hvaldimir died of natural causes, such as heart failure."

But, she said, there were "very visible holes in Hvaldimir's body, from which blood flowed".

Were other animals used as spies?

Yes, many of them. Before the advent of sophisticated listening devices and miniature spy cameras, some the size of a shirt button, the need to transmit classified information over long distances was a challenge.

Carrier pigeons have been used for centuries to send messages and notes, including during wars. During World War I, the German military used pigeons equipped with specially designed surveillance cameras.

The Allies later used pigeons for espionage during World War II. According to declassified documents, the CIA's Operation Tacana in the 1970s used pigeons equipped with miniature cameras in the Soviet Union to photograph sensitive locations.

Not only pigeons, cats, whales, dolphins, birds of other species, even dead animals served as secret operatives. For example, the CIA once trained ravens to place listening devices on windowsills.

Cloaked dolphins

During the Cold War, the Soviet Navy conducted various programs involving marine mammals, one of which involved dolphin training near Sevastopol. The US Navy is known for using dolphins as part of the Marine Mammal Program (MMP), which uses the animals for underwater surveillance and intelligence gathering.

In the 1960s, the CIA launched Project OXYGAS, in which dolphins were trained to attach explosive devices to enemy ships. Two wild-caught dolphins were used for the program.

In 2019, a declassified agency report from the program said that OXYGAS “is considered more than justifiable provided that the possibility of delivering a simulated weapons package at open sea distances to the propeller of a moored PT boat is demonstrated ( patrol torpedo)".

According to a British intelligence report last year, Russia created a program to train dolphins to detect and "confront" enemy divers at the Black Sea Fleet naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea. At the time, British military satellite images showed a significant increase in the number of floating mammal boxes in Sevastopol harbor from April to June 2023.

Cats in disguise

Dolphins are known to be among the smartest animals in the world. But cats are also considered smart.

In the 1960s, the CIA developed another project called Operation Acoustic Kitty. The goal was to attach microphones to the cats' acoustic ears to secretly record conversations going on around them – for example, near Soviet diplomats and agents.

The idea was clear: a cat, an ordinary pet, would not be suspicious either in public or indoors. Although the technology worked, cats are not easy to control. During field testing, they could not be controlled and directed to go to precise locations, resulting in the "spy cats" going wherever they wanted.

The program was eventually canceled in 1967 and cost about $20 million.

Dead mice

The CIA's experiments were not limited to cats. A common practice in espionage is "dead delivery" – where an agent leaves a message or document at a predetermined location for someone else to pick up.

During the Cold War, the CIA's Office of Technical Services suggested using dead mice to hide secret messages that could be intercepted by agents. The carcass of a dead rat would be treated with a preservative and the inside cleaned to hide notes, secret photos or film. The idea was that most people would find the body of a dead rat so repulsive that they would not go near it.

But field testing revealed a challenge the agency hadn't anticipated — dead mice can make people turn up their noses, but make cats lick their lips. The cats would receive the "delivery" dead before the target agent could reach them.

So the CIA tried soaking preserved rat carcasses in hot sauce and cayenne pepper to make them less palatable to cats. The strategy had mixed results. In the end, they decided on wormwood oil, which served as an effective deterrent.

The best spies

But while dead cats and mice may have their advantages, over the years spy agencies have turned – again and again – to an old cadre of agents: pigeons.

A very successful spy program run by British intelligence during the Second World War was the carrier pigeon scheme known as Operation Columba. Carrier pigeons carried information about German military activities and sensitive military positions.

Small messages written on rice paper were placed in canisters and tied to the bird's leg. Many of these secret messages would include Nazi troop movements, reports of new Nazi weapons, and planned rocket attacks.

According to Gordon Corera, author of "Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service," between 1941 and 1944, British intelligence released 16,000 pigeons over Nazi-occupied Europe, from Bordeaux, France, to Copenhagen, Denmark.

They sent almost 1,000 messages to London, using their superpower – the almost surreal ability to find their way home no matter where they stayed.

Birds in general have inspired spy technology. In August, China unveiled a military spy drone disguised as a bird.

But pigeons are also victims of their success as spies.

India's spies' obsession with pigeons

In May 2020, villagers in Indian-administered Kashmir captured what they suspected was a spy pigeon from Pakistan. The bird that was caught was found with a ring with a series of numbers on it. Locals handed the pigeon over to the local police, who began an investigation to decipher the number, suspecting it to be a code.

But in the end they decided the pigeon wasn't a spy – and let it go.

In October 2016, another pigeon was found with a message threatening the Indian Prime Minister. The pigeon was discovered in Pathankot in the northern Indian state of Punjab and taken into custody.

In May 2023, a pigeon found in Mumbai was detained for eight months on suspicion of being a Chinese spy. The alleged spy pigeon was found with rings attached to its legs and what appeared to be Chinese writing on the underside of its wings. Authorities eventually concluded he was a Taiwanese runner and released him in February.


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