$20 million. That was what the CIA invested in the 1960s to create the most unusual spy of the Cold War: an ordinary cat with a microphone implanted in its ear canal and a radio transmitter hidden at the base of its skull. The project was called Operation Acoustic Kitty, and it had one fundamental problem that no engineer could solve — the cat did whatever it wanted.
But that feline was not the only animal recruited by a world power. Since the 1960s, the U.S. Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to locate underwater mines and recover equipment lost on the ocean floor. And in Norwegian waters, Hvaldimir appeared a few years ago, a beluga with equipment that pointed directly to Russian military training — its name blends the Norwegian word for whale with the name Vladimir. Hvaldimir’s body was found in August 2024.
Carrier pigeons, sharks, squirrels: the list of animals with documented or suspected use in intelligence operations is longer than you imagine, which is why they could be using them right now in the conflict with Iran.🐬