Buzz
Animals have always played a pivotal role in warfare. Horses, both as cavalry and pack animals, are perhaps the most iconic of military animals, with a history spanning thousands of years. Yet, human innovation and curiosity have led to many imaginative uses for various other animals.
10. Islamic Countries Frequently ‘Detain’ Animals As ‘Israeli Spies’
Israel maintains a complicated relationship with its neighbors and the Palestinian people, which has frequently escalated into open warfare. The mistrust created by these tensions is vividly illustrated by the regular capture of birds on accusations of espionage. Nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan, Hezbollah, and Turkey have detained endangered eagles, vultures, kestrels, and other birds.
Often, it's a GPS tracker or other bird-monitoring equipment that raises suspicion—a result of Israel’s positioning along migratory paths and the interest from researchers. So far, no birds have been proven guilty of spying, but the fact that these conspiracy theories are taken seriously doesn’t bode well for peace in the region. In a different conspiracy vein, there are Egyptian rumors suggesting that Israel was behind a series of deadly shark attacks, originating from the governor of South Sinai’s refusal to dismiss the possibility of Mossad involvement.
9. Durer’s Rhinoceros
In the early 1500s, a rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon as a gift from an Indian ruler to the Portuguese King Manuel. As the first rhino in Europe since Roman times, it attracted much attention, prompting German artist Albrecht Durer to create a woodcut based on letters and sketches he had received. This became the dominant image of the rhino in Europe for the next two hundred years, despite its many inaccuracies—scaly legs, armored rivets, a gorget, and, most strangely, a horn growing from the creature’s back.
One intriguing theory about the appearance of Durer’s rhino is that it was equipped with armor, either arriving with the animal or specially made at the request of King Manuel. Armored or not, Manuel did organize a fight between the rhino and a captive elephant to test Pliny the Elder’s claim that these two animals were “natural enemies.” Unfortunately, the spectacle ended in disappointment as the creatures avoided each other and refused to engage. With the experiment failing, Manuel presented the rhino to the Pope. Tragically, the ship transporting the rhino sank, and the animal drowned before it could reach Rome.
8. Shark Brain Implants
In 2006, the Pentagon introduced a program exploring the potential for brain implants in fish, in which a series of electrodes could be inserted into the creature’s brain to enable remote stimulation of its central nervous system. While the primary goal was to investigate how animals interact with their surroundings and to gain insights into human paralysis, the Pentagon also hinted at possible military uses for the technology.
The Navy aimed to harness the shark’s ability to glide quietly through water, allowing it to follow a ship unnoticed in its wake. Sharks also possess the ability to sense subtle electrical gradients and detect chemical waste, enhancing their potential for stealth. Sadly, the project seems to have gone nowhere. (Unless, of course, Deep Blue Sea is real, and the government is simply hiding the fact that super-intelligent sharks now roam the ocean.)
7. Exploding Rats
In 1941, during the bleak period of World War II, the United Kingdom was desperately seeking ways to retaliate against Germany. Charles Fraser Smith and Section XV of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), often credited as the inspiration for James Bond’s Q, came up with innovative weapons. The most bizarre of these was the “rat bomb.” The plan involved placing explosive-filled rat corpses in the German coal supply to disable their boilers.
SOE obtained 100 rats for the operation. These rats were carefully skinned, packed with plastic explosives, and sewn back up. Unfortunately, the rats were intercepted before they reached occupied Europe, and with the plot exposed, it was never executed. Curiously, the rats still managed to disrupt the German economy, as the search through coal supplies across the continent created significant issues, and “the trouble caused to them was a much greater success to [Britain] than if the rats had actually been used.” The Germans were so intrigued by the device that it became a common exhibit in military schools.
6. World War I: Glowworms & Garden Slugs
Among the more peculiar participants in World War I were glowworms and garden slugs. Thousands of glowworms were carefully collected in jars to serve as illumination in the trenches, providing light for soldiers to read letters, maps, and intelligence reports.
Slugs, on the other hand, played a more subtle but important role: they were used as an early warning system for mustard gas. The US Army tested various animals, including cows, rats, mice, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, fleas, and flies, but ultimately chose the garden slug—since the other animals succumbed to pneumonia during the tests. It was found that slugs could detect a single molecule of mustard gas per 10–12 million air particles, and when they showed signs of distress, it signaled the danger, giving soldiers enough time to put on their gas masks (the human threshold for danger is one molecule per 4 million). As a result, they accompanied the doughboys into battle in July 1918.
5. Turkey Parachutes
During the Spanish Civil War, 1,200 Nationalist Civil Guards found themselves trapped in the Santa Maria de la Cabeza mountain monastery. Crucial supplies of food, medicine, and ammunition could only be delivered by air. With a shortage of parachutes, the Nationalist pilots came up with a creative solution: attaching supplies to live turkeys. As the turkeys flapped their wings, they slowed their descent and helped deliver fragile goods. Once their parachute mission was complete, the turkeys also served as a much-needed source of food for the defenders.
However, after eight months, the besieged defenders—who had firmly refused to surrender—were overrun by a mass assault of 20,000 Republican troops. In the final assault, Nationalist leader Captain Santiago Cortes Gonzalez was mortally wounded. His last command was “the Civil Guard die but never yield,” and he became a national hero in the process.
4. Not The Bees!
Bees have long been one of humanity’s earliest weapons, with Neolithic tribes hurling beehives at their enemies trapped in caves. The true power of bee warfare was fully realized with the advent of siege techniques. During the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 B.C.), between Rome and the Kingdom of Pontus, bees were used several times. Roman sappers were forced to retreat from swarms of bees released into their tunnels, and another Roman army led by Pompey was undone when they unknowingly consumed toxic honey. The Romans clearly learned from this, as their continued use of hives as weapons caused a honey shortage in the later years of the empire.
Bees remained a staple in medieval warfare as an easy, low-tech weapon, deployed by figures like Henry I and Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade and in Iberia. Even as late as the 18th century, bees were used by Habsburg forces to defend Belgrade against Ottoman forces. In more recent times, bees have been suggested for use as bomb detectors at airports, with scientists successfully training bees to detect explosives.
3. Moose Cavalry
In the late 17th century, Sweden worked to secure its newly expanded empire against threatening neighbors, eventually leading to the Scanian War (1675–79) and the Great Northern War (1700–21). Swedish King Charles XI was known for his openness to military innovation, including the unconventional idea of moose cavalry. This idea wasn’t as outlandish as it may seem—moose were already used to pull sleighs in Sweden’s courier service and were more adapted to the harsh northern climate than horses. In fact, moose were commonly used as mounts in Siberia, where they were faster than Cossacks, a fact that so infuriated Tsar Ivan the Terrible that he destroyed the Siberian native tribes and banned moose farming.
Legend has it that the Swedes had some success in training and riding moose. However, their susceptibility to livestock diseases, fear of gunfire, and ability to spook nearby horses led to the eventual abandonment of the project. In the 1930s, the Soviets experimented with war moose, but the animals were unprepared when the Winter War began and never saw combat.
2. Bear Moat
The Rosenberg family, who ruled Cesky Krumlov Castle in what is now the Czech Republic, claimed to be descended from the noble Italian Orsini family. The name 'Orsini' comes from the Italian word orsa, meaning 'she-bear,' so the Rosenbergs proudly adopted bears as their shield bearers, resulting in their coat of arms featuring these creatures (they were essentially shield-bearing she-bears). To take this idea even further, the Rosenbergs also incorporated bears into their family mythology (their supposed link to the Orsini was likely fabricated).
Although the Rosenberg family itself ended in 1611, the tradition of bears continued. The current bear moat was established during the Thirty Years' War, with the first records of bears there dating back to 1707. The moat was continuously inhabited by bears during three separate periods: 1730–90, 1857–87, and 1907–35. Over the years, the bear population was maintained through natural births, donations, and purchases from zoos, all managed by an official known as the 'bear-keeper.' Today, four bears still live in the moat (which has since been transformed into a 'natural environment'). These bears are beloved local celebrities, with the community celebrating their birthdays and even holding a Christmas Eve Bear festival.
1. Donkey & Mule IEDs
Donkeys have long been utilized as draft animals in wartime, notably serving as stretcher-bearers during World War I. In more recent years, however, these animals have been repurposed as living IEDs (DBIEDs) in attacks against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These attempts have often failed, with insurgents raising suspicions by abandoning the donkeys close to military compounds or even standing nearby and actively urging the animals onward. Donkeys laden with explosives have also been used in Israel, particularly in retaliation against the invasion of Gaza.
There’s also a tale of mule bombs being used during the American Civil War's New Mexico Campaign. At the Battle of Valverde, Union Captain Paddy Graydon chose two aged but loyal mules, packed them with howitzer shells, and led them within 140 meters (450 ft) of the Confederate camp. After lighting the fuse, he sent them on their way. However, the mules, ever faithful, tried to follow their master when he retreated, prompting Graydon to gallop out of the blast zone. Thankfully, no casualties occurred, though the explosion did send the Confederate mule herd into a stampede.
