A white beluga whale, believed to have been used as a Russian spy, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in a harness near Russian waters in Norway late last week, animal rights groups say.
The beluga – named after the Norwegian word for whale, “hval” and part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first name, “dimir” – was lifted out of the water using a crane and taken to a nearby port for examination by experts.
In 2019, the beluga gained worldwide attention when fishermen discovered it off the Norwegian coast. Hvaldimir wore a camera harness with the inscription “Equipment St. Petersburg”. This led to suspicions in the West that the whales may have been part of a Russian navy program that trained aquatic animals as spies – although others argued that Hvaldimir may have been trained to help with therapy for disabled children.
Marine biologist Sebastian Strand, founder of the Norwegian nonprofit Marine Mind, which advocates for the protection of oceans and marine life, has been tracking Hvaldimir for more than three years.
“Unfortunately, we found Hvaldimir floating in the sea. He has died but the cause of death is not immediately clear,” Strand told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
Still, while the cause of Whale’s death is unclear, and – like the best secret agents – Hvaldimir never left any concrete evidence to confirm whether he was a spy, his story is just the latest in a long history of spooks.
So who was Hvaldimir, what animals have been used for espionage before – and who has been the most successful?
Who was Hvaldimir?
The 4.2-meter (14-foot) long and 1,225kg (2,700-pound) whale Hvaldimir was first spotted in 2019 by fishermen near the northern Norwegian island of Ingoya. It is believed to have been 14 or 15 years old when it died, less than half the average lifespan of a beluga whale, around 30 years.
Before their deaths, belugas would be seen in several coastal towns in Norway and have also been reported over the years. A conversation with a fisherman And even retrieving a kayaker’s dropped GoPro.
Controversy over how Hvaldimir died
Marine Mind isn’t the only nonprofit marine organization that has followed this famous beluga in recent years.
Since 2019, OneWhale, another non-profit organization, has a team present in Norway, closely monitoring Hvaldimir’s activities, behavior and interactions with the public.
OneWhale founder Regina Hough suspects Hvaldimir’s death “wasn’t a natural death”.
in the range of Video Messages on Instagram, Haug said: “The false information that is being spread is that Hvaldimir had no damage to his body and there were no significant injuries at the time of his death. It is believed that Hvaldimir died of natural causes such as heart failure. .
But, she said, “there were some very noticeable holes with blood pouring out of them [Hvaldimir’s] body”.
Have other animals been used as spies?
Yes, plenty of them. Before the advent of sophisticated listening devices and miniature spy cameras, the size of a few shirt-buttons, the need to move intelligence over long distances was a challenge.
Carrier pigeons have been used to send messages and notes for centuries, including during wars. During World War I, the German military used pigeons fitted with specially designed cameras for surveillance.
Pigeons were then used for espionage by the Allies during World War II. According to declassified documents, in the 1970s the CIA’s Operation Takana flew pigeons equipped with miniature cameras into the Soviet Union to take photos of sensitive locations.
Not only pigeons, cats, whales, dolphins, other types of birds and dead animals have also served as covert operatives. For instance, the CIA once trained crows to plant bugging devices on window sills.
Cloak-and-dagger dolphins
During the Cold War, the Soviet Navy implemented various programs involving marine mammals, one of which involved training dolphins in the area around Sevastopol. The US Navy is also known to use dolphins under the Marine Mammal Program (MMP), which has used the animals for underwater surveillance and intelligence gathering.
In the 1960s, the CIA launched Project OXYGAS under which dolphins were trained to attach explosive devices to enemy ships. Two wild-caught bottlenose dolphins were used for the program.
In 2019, an unclassified agency report on the program stated that OXYGAS “is considered more than reasonable to provide the potential to deliver a simulated weapon package to a moored PT’s propeller over open ocean distances.” [patrol torpedo] Boat”.
According to a British intelligence report last year, Russia created a mammal program at its Sevastopol Black Sea Fleet naval base in Crimea to train dolphins to detect and “counter” enemy divers.
At the time, British military satellite imagery showed a significant increase in the number of mammal pens floating in the port of Sevastopol from April to June 2023.
Stealthy cats
Dolphins are known as one of the most intelligent animals in the world. But cats are also considered clever.
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 happening around them — such as near Soviet diplomats and agents.
The idea was clear: the cat, a common domestic pet, would not be suspect in public or in enclosed spaces. Although the technology works, controlling cats is not easy. During field testing, they could not be controlled and instructed to go to specific locations, resulting in the “spy cats” being able to go wherever they wanted.
The program was finally canceled in 1967. It cost an estimated $20m.
Dead rats
The CIA experiment was not limited to cats.
A common practice in spycraft is the dead drop – where an agent leaves a message or document at a predetermined location for another person to pick up.
During the Cold War, the CIA’s Office of Technical Services suggested using dead rats to hide secret messages for officials to pick up. Dead rat carcasses will be treated with a preservation agent, hollowing out the inside to hide notes, secret photos or film. Idea: Most humans would find the body of a dead rat so disgusting that they wouldn’t go anywhere near it.
But field testing revealed a challenge the agency hadn’t anticipated — dead rats may turn up their noses at humans, but they make cats lick their lips. Cats pick up the dead drops before they reach the agent they were intended for.
So the CIA tried soaking preserved rat carcasses in hot sauce and cayenne to make them less palatable to cats. The strategy had mixed results. They finally settled on wormwood oil which served as an effective deterrent.
Best Spies: The winner is…
But while cats and dead rats may have their advantages, spy agencies over the years have returned — time and time again — to an old cadre of agents: pigeons.
A highly successful spy program run by British intelligence during World War II was the carrier pigeon scheme known as Operation Columba. Homing pigeons collected intelligence on German military activities and sensitive military locations.
Small messages written on rice paper were stuffed into a box and tied to the bird’s leg. Many of these secret messages included Nazi troop movements, reports on new Nazi weapons, and planned rocket attacks.
According to Gordon Correra, author of Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service, British intelligence released 16,000 homing pigeons into Nazi-occupied Europe between 1941 and 1944, from Bordeaux, France to Copenhagen, Denmark.
They used their superpower to deliver around 1,000 messages back to London – the almost surreal ability to find their way home no matter where they stayed.
Birds, in general, also inspire spy technology. In August, China unveiled a military spy drone disguised as a bird.
But pigeons also suffer from their own success as spies.
India’s Pigeon Spy Obsession
In May 2020, villagers in Indian-administered Kashmir captured a pigeon suspected of being a Pakistani spy. The bird that was captured was found with a ring with a set of numbers. The villagers handed over the pigeon to the local police, who launched an investigation to decrypt the number — suspecting it was a code.
But eventually, they concluded that the pigeon was not a spy – and let it go.
In October 2016, another pigeon was found with a note threatening the Indian Prime Minister. The pigeon was found in Pathankot, Punjab state of North India 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 a ring attached to its leg and Chinese writings visible under its wings. Authorities eventually concluded it was a racing bird from Taiwan and released it in February.
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