Are Fluffy and Fido watching you? Is that creepy crawly in the crevice just a bug… or a “bug”?
Animals rarely draw attention - darting underfoot or accessing restricted areas. Spy agencies have capitalized on this, using them for surveillance, concealment, or covert communications.
Animals also fuel imagination for high-tech gadgetry - from a boat’s sonar to an owl’s night vision.
Pigeon Power!
How can soldiers get a bird’s-eye view? Get a bird!
In WWI, pigeons were fitted with cameras and released over European military sites to collect intel.
Their cameras clicked continuously as they flew, snapping photos of weapons, troops, and terrain. Analysts at the birds’ destination developed the film.
The program never fully took off, however. A new technology proved more effective: airplanes.
What Popular Pet Has the Run of the Place?
In the 1960s, the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology proposed using a cat as a listening device to spy on cold war adversaries. Bob Wallace, the real life "Q" of the CIA and then Director of OTS writes in the book, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs that the agency was targeting a head of state for surveillance and saw cats at the meeting area… sparking an idea. Tech Ops embedded a tiny transmitter in a cat’s skull and a mic in its ear.
Affectionately called “Acoustic Kitty,” the cat proved trainable in familiar settings. When flown across the globe, however, it seemed lost. The CIA canceled the operation. In total, the Agency spent five years and an estimated $20 million on "Project Acoustic Kitty."
What Critter Can “Sniff Out” an Underwater Mine?
The Palestinian terror organization Hamas announced in 2005 that it had captured an Israeli infiltrator. The agent, Hamas said, was outfitted with spy cameras and other surveillance equipment. Also… it was a dolphin.
Was the claim true? Maybe. Both the US Navy and Ukrainian military have taken advantage of dolphins’ precise echolocation abilities to find underwater mines or guard restricted waters.
Do you Smell a Rat?
During the Cold War, the CIA used gutted rats as dead drops-places to hide messages, money, and film to be passed to agents. The rats were doused with pepper sauce to deter scavenging cats.
Who’s the Stealthiest Fish in the Sea?
Catfish have long been popular among diners. But in the 1990s, they went from fish fry to fish spy.
The CIA developed “Charlie,” a robotic catfish carrying a microphone and communication devices, with a propulsion system in its tail. The radio-controlled robot fish swam beneath enemy craft collecting underwater signals.
Which Animals Make the Best Robots?
Russian intelligence made this model of CIA's original 1976 Insectothopter – a dragonfly-shaped drone that carried a microphone. It was too small to be remotely controlled & there was no surveillance equipment tiny enough for it to carry.
Today, intelligence agencies use similar devices that are fully controllable and can carry out surveillance. And they’re even smaller!
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