Suspected Russian spy whale found dead in Norway: story of Hvaldimir, other spy animals

Adding to the intrigue around Hvaldimir was a harness that it wore, which said “Equipment St Petersburg” in Russia. The harness also had a camera mount. This led to speculation that Hvaldimir was a Russian spy, sent on a reconnaissance mission to the Nordic coast, and earned Hvaldimir his name — ‘hval’ is the Norwegian word for whale, ‘dimir’ is a play on Vladimir [Putin]. Moscow has never responded to this speculation.

If indeed Hvaldimir was a spy, it was a friendly one. Over the years, the beluga was seen in the waters off several Norwegian coastal towns, often playing with people, NRK reported. The beluga even responded to some hand signals.

Hvaldimir “was completely acclimatised to human culture,” marine biologist Sebastian Strand told The New York Times, suggesting that the beluga had “been in captivity for a lot of his life”. Strand is the founder of the nonprofit Marine Mind, which had been tracking the whale’s movements since it was first spotted. According to Marine Mind’s website, Hvaldimir arrived in Norway by crossing over from Russian waters where it was likely held in captivity. Hvaldimir’s behaviour suggested that it might have been a therapy whale, rather than a spy, the website says.

Animals in espionage

Although Hvaldimir might not have been a spy, animals are no strangers in the world of espionage.

During World War I, pigeons were used not only to ferry messages in the frontline, they were also used as spies with little cameras fitted to their legs. Spy pigeons would fly over the enemy lines as their cameras clicked photographs of the ground below. Their speed and trainability meant that 95 per cent of such missions were successful, according to a report by the International Spy Museum.

Pigeons and other birds might still be used for espionage. In May 2023, Mumbai police detained a pigeon with two rings tied to its legs, carrying words that “looked like Chinese”. The pigeon was eventually set free earlier this year after it was determined to be an open-water racing bird from Taiwan which had escaped and reached India. In March 2023, two pigeons — one with a camera attached to its legs — were caught under the suspicion of spying in Odisha’s Puri.

During the Cold War, both the West and the Soviet Union tried to induct various animals into their espionage programmes. The US Navy, for instance, trained dolphins to detect submarines and underwater mines in the 1960s. The Navy also trained sea lions, according to the magazine Business Insider, to retrieve unarmed mines and other materials.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), also in the 1960s, tried to deploy cats with listening devices to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. Project Acoustic Kitty, which cost the exchequer some $ 20 million, saw veterinary surgeons implant a microphone in cats’ ear canals, a small radio transmitter at the base of their skull, and a thin wire into their fur. The project would eventually be abandoned after the CIA found it difficult to control their feline agents who would, according to some accounts, wander in and out of important meetings or simply ignore their “orders”.

Squirrels too have been implicated in espionage. In 2007, Iran reportedly captured 14 squirrels near a nuclear enrichment plant as they were equipped with “espionage gear”. The details of this incident remain unclear.