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Animals Helping in Wars
by
Fereydoun Kian
Pigeons have long been used in both peace and war. Some delivered love letters and some delivered battle plans. A recent CIA exhibition in Washington gave a new perspective on pigeons and animals.
The CIA Science and Technology department has been using pigeons to take pictures of the enemy positions. Who would doubt a pigeon? The problem with the first cameras was that they were too heavy. In one test over the skies in Washington, the heavy camera made the pigeon so tired that he landed after a few minutes and walked all the way home.
From sky over and above, lets now take a dive to see a catfish robot named Charlie who can swim up the rivers and canals to detect chemical and nuclear activities. The only problem this catfish may have is that some bigger fish, who may judge a book by its cover, may try to eat it up, thinking its a real fish. 
Robots disguising as animals
When it comes to spying, a dragonfly is totally an animal of in its own league. The remote control dragonfly - some kind of tiny helicopter, carries tiny listening devices outside windows or doors. As the bug sits on a window, the listening device could be detached, so the bug can get ready for another spy mission.
Now if animals by themselves couldnt do the trick, their droppings sometimes did the trick. Perhaps that's why a lot of people think that spying stinks. For example, tiger droppings have been used to hide a microphone by Americans in Southeast Asia. While all reporters and performers prefer a nice looking microphone, why would somebody invent a poop-like microphone? Because they didn't want the enemy to pick it up to check, or try to sing in it, perhaps.
Although we have read a lot of animal stories in the past, it should be interesting now to listen to animals who participated in some spying missions to tell us about their adventures, won't you agree?
Of course to make these robots, one has to know about the anatomy of the creatures. If you like to learn more, click on the Exhibit and check for instance, Grasshopper.
Exhibit
 Copyright, 2004 Global Education a Not for Profit 501(c)3 organization in Miami, Florida, focused the global understanding, through arts and literature wrapped in geography education. www.globalkids.info
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