When Norwegian fishermen accused a beluga whale of being a Russian spy, they made international headlines but was the white whale really trained by the Russian Navy to join the special ops force?
Norwegians named the whale Hvaldimir, a pun on hval (whale) and Vladimir Putin
Whale watching
Hvaldimir, as the whale is now called, was first spotted by Norway’s fishermen in 2019 wearing a tight-fitting camera harness labeled ‘Equipment St. Petersburg’. He rubbed up against their boats, seemingly trying to break free of the spy gear, and appeared comfortable around humans. Hvladimir has been hanging around the coast for years now, seemingly intent on defecting to Norway.
While Russia said it doesn't use whales as spies (although it does use them in combat), the idea isn’t so far-fetched. Whales are intelligent animals with incredible sonar abilities who use sound waves to find food and identify prey and predators. Hvaldimir isn’t the only animal accused of dabbling in espionage (RODINT?) either.
‘Come out with your hands up’
Squirrel spies
The Iranian Army arrested 14 ‘spy squirrels’ in 2007 who were allegedly working for the Americans and wearing small recording devices that could be used for eavesdropping. Robert Baer, who spent much of his 21 years in the CIA chasing Iranians and Iranian-backed terrorists around the Middle East, joked, “I was never put in charge of the squirrels. It was always too important.” Baer called the idea of squirrel spies ‘complete idiocy’, but an ex-CIA spook would say that, wouldn’t he? Others may not find the idea so… nutty.
Flight risk? What Taiwan's pigeon may have looked like
India's 'Spy' Pigeon
In 2024, India finally released a pigeon suspected of being a Chinese spy and held for eight months. The bird, captured near a Mumbai port, hjad two rings tied to its legs and writing the seemed to be Chinese. The bird was sent to do hard time at Mumbai's Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals. Alas, it emerged that the pigeon was a Taiwanese open-water racing bird who'd escaped and flown to India. The bird was transferred to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and set free. It's not India's first suspected spy pigeon. In 2016, another pigeon was 'arrested' after being allegedly found with a note that threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hamas did not release photos of the ‘spy dolphin’
Agent Dolphin?
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group and political organization, accused Israeli forces of sending a spy dolphin on a covert mission off Gaza in 2015. The dolphin was reportedly equipped with cameras, according to the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds. It was discovered by a naval unit of Hamas's military wing. “Frogmen managed to control the ‘spy dolphin’ and take it out to the beaches,” Al-Quds reported. While the idea of a spy dolphin may seem suspect to some, the US Navy is known to have studied the military use of marine mammals, a program de-classified in the early 1990s.
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When Norwegian fishermen accused a beluga whale of being a Russian spy, they made international headlines but was the white whale really trained by the Russian Navy to join the special ops force?
Norwegians named the whale Hvaldimir, a pun on hval (whale) and Vladimir Putin
Whale watching
Hvaldimir, as the whale is now called, was first spotted by Norway’s fishermen in 2019 wearing a tight-fitting camera harness labeled ‘Equipment St. Petersburg’. He rubbed up against their boats, seemingly trying to break free of the spy gear, and appeared comfortable around humans. Hvladimir has been hanging around the coast for years now, seemingly intent on defecting to Norway.
While Russia said it doesn't use whales as spies (although it does use them in combat), the idea isn’t so far-fetched. Whales are intelligent animals with incredible sonar abilities who use sound waves to find food and identify prey and predators. Hvaldimir isn’t the only animal accused of dabbling in espionage (RODINT?) either.
‘Come out with your hands up’
Squirrel spies
The Iranian Army arrested 14 ‘spy squirrels’ in 2007 who were allegedly working for the Americans and wearing small recording devices that could be used for eavesdropping. Robert Baer, who spent much of his 21 years in the CIA chasing Iranians and Iranian-backed terrorists around the Middle East, joked, “I was never put in charge of the squirrels. It was always too important.” Baer called the idea of squirrel spies ‘complete idiocy’, but an ex-CIA spook would say that, wouldn’t he? Others may not find the idea so… nutty.
Flight risk? What Taiwan's pigeon may have looked like
India's 'Spy' Pigeon
In 2024, India finally released a pigeon suspected of being a Chinese spy and held for eight months. The bird, captured near a Mumbai port, hjad two rings tied to its legs and writing the seemed to be Chinese. The bird was sent to do hard time at Mumbai's Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals. Alas, it emerged that the pigeon was a Taiwanese open-water racing bird who'd escaped and flown to India. The bird was transferred to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and set free. It's not India's first suspected spy pigeon. In 2016, another pigeon was 'arrested' after being allegedly found with a note that threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hamas did not release photos of the ‘spy dolphin’
Agent Dolphin?
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group and political organization, accused Israeli forces of sending a spy dolphin on a covert mission off Gaza in 2015. The dolphin was reportedly equipped with cameras, according to the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds. It was discovered by a naval unit of Hamas's military wing. “Frogmen managed to control the ‘spy dolphin’ and take it out to the beaches,” Al-Quds reported. While the idea of a spy dolphin may seem suspect to some, the US Navy is known to have studied the military use of marine mammals, a program de-classified in the early 1990s.
When Lebanese villagers spotted a griffon vulture with a six-foot wingspan flying across the border from Israel they were suspicious. After all, the vulture had a tracking device on its tail. The bird of prey was cleared of espionage charges in 2016, however - but only after an intervention from UN peacekeepers. It seems the raptor, which initially hailed from Spain, was living at the Israeli Gamla Nature Reserve and the tracker was part of a program to repopulate griffon vultures in the Middle East.
Sudan called in mediators before returning a GPS-tracked pelican
In the line of duty?
Many animals have been accused of working for Mossad, including a shark that killed a tourist in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. What then, are we to make of a great white pelican killed in Sudan in 2011, apparently in the line of duty? The pelican flew into a fisherman’s net. It too was equipped with a GPS tracker and the local fisherman was suspicious. Israeli scientists said they were following its migration patterns but Sudan wasn’t convinced. As Sudan has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, the countries negotiated the repatriation of the pelican’s remains through American and German mediators.
Dolphins: repeat offenders?
Military mammals
Dolphins were accused of being up to their old tricks again in 2014 when Russia took over Crimea and in 2018 when it emerged that the Russian Navy sent trained dolphins to support its war in Syria, deploying them to the naval base at Tartus. Researcher H.I. Sutton, who studied satellite imagery, told Forbes that dolphins would likely be used to counter enemy divers who might try to sabotage Russian ships or to perform ‘intelligence missions’.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
Killer spies?
The Pentagon reportedly planned to turn sharks into spies, according to New Scientist and the BBC. The aim is to exploit the shark's natural ability to glide through the water, sense delicate electrical gradients and follow chemical trails. The reports, dating back to 2006, said the US Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency planned to remotely control sharks by implanting electrodes into their brains. The sharks were to be used to track underwater vessels. There’s no word about whether they’ve followed up.
‘It wasn’t us.’
Man’s best friend?
Britain’s WWI intelligence officers suspected their four-legged friends were spying on them on behalf of the Germans: “Two (2) cats and a dog are under suspicion, as they have been in the habit of crossing our trenches at night; steps are being taken to trap them if possible,” according to an official British Army document published by the UK’s National Archives. The incident was recorded in a 1915 intelligence briefing prepared by officers from the 36th brigade of the 12th Division who were stationed in trenches on the Western Front states. The document does not say whether the animals were detained.
Iran is wary of lizard ‘spies’
Cold-blooded spies
Iran believes the US sent lizard spies with the ability to ‘attract atomic waves’ to gain intel on Iran’s nuclear program. Hassan Firuzabadi, a doctor and senior military advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told local media that he’d been aware of the spy reptiles for several years and referred to one case where foreigners brought in the lizards and chameleons to find out where Iran was mining and developing uranium. The lizards' skin was apparently capable of attracting atomic waves, according to Firuzabadi. Alas, the 'espionage' effort failed.
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