The Secret World of Animals By Martin Brown

THERE IS a long history of animals being used to defend and protect us – from Hannibal’s elephants to guide dogs for the blind. But nowadays there’s a whole new dimension to what animals can do — including spying missions!

A) Codename: Mr Codfish – Кодовое имя: Мистер Треска
The famous Russian animal trainer and circus artist Vladimir Durov was the first to suggest using trained marine animals to defuse sea mines during the First World War. Twenty seals were trained in 3 months and showed very good results. Since the 1970s, both the USSR and the USA have used dolphins and sea lions, who can see and hear extremely well underwater and are able to detect enemy swimmers and sea mines. Traditionally, human divers have had to do this job, but now they don’t need to. Russia might start using dolphins to protect the Crimea coastline.