Science & Technology

Russia's military is now recruiting dolphins

By T.K. Randall
March 11, 2016

Image: Bottlenose Dolphin
Credit: NASA / (PD) The mysterious military notice specified that Russia was willing to pay the sum of $24,000 to a broker who could provide three male and two female bottlenose dolphins.

The tender stipulated that the animals should be ready and willing to "display motor activity" and needed to be around average length which, in the case of a dolphin, is around 8-9ft long.

There is no indication of exactly what the dolphins will be used for however the notice does imply that Russia may still be dabbling with the idea of deploying the animals during military operations.The concept is actually not as silly as it sounds because the Soviets had previously used dolphins during the Cold War and the US military is also known to have trained dolphins as well.

Being intelligent and highly proficient swimmers, the animals were used for a number of different tasks including rescuing mariners, locating underwater mines and even spying on the enemy.

Whether Russia will be able to find any candidates for its latest project however remains to be seen.

Source: Washington Post

Tags: Dolphins, Russia