Military animal

Military animals are

For transportation and hauling

• The
  Hussites during the Hussite Wars.^{[citation needed]} With the appearance of modern ranged weapons and motor vehicles
  , horse use for military purposes fell into decline. However, horses and mules are still used extensively by various armies today for transport in difficult terrain.
• While
  Burma Campaign.^[4]
• world wars. Camels are used by the Indian Army and Border Security Force for patrolling in the desert regions of Rajasthan
  .

In World War II, many military units of the Soviet Red Army, sometime after the Battle of Stalingrad, took to using camels in the southern theatre of the war in order to transport ammunition, fuel for tanks and aircraft, food, water for kitchens, fuel, and even wounded Red Army soldiers. The use of these animals as means of transport was made necessary by the Kalmyk steppes' open terrain, its primitive roads and lack of water, as well as a shortage of adequate auxiliary vehicles in the Soviet armed forces.^[5] A case that became famous was that of the Bactrian camel named Kuznechik ("grasshopper") that followed the Soviet Red Army in practically all its advance towards Germany.

• Burma, and in Italy. They are also used for transporting supplies in mountainous
  regions.

• Oxen have been used widely in war as beasts of burden, especially to transport heavy or siege artillery
  through heavy terrain.
• Both
  Soviet-Finnish War and World War II.^[7]

• The Sumerians used hybrid donkeys to pull their war chariots around 2500 BCE.
• conquistadors used Alaunts to kill warriors in the Caribbean, Mexico and Peru. Mastiffs, as well as Great Danes
  , were used in England during the Middle Ages, where their large size was used to scare horses to throw off their riders or to pounce on knights on horseback, disabling them until their master delivered the final blow.
• Ramses II had a pet lion which fought with him during the Battle of Kadesh.^[9]
• pigs against elephants. As he relates it, elephants became scared by the squeal of a pig and would panic, bringing disaster to any soldiers who stood in their path of flight.^[10][11]

• It is unsubstantiated that rhinoceros were used for war functions. By analyzing Albrecht Dürer's famous 1515 woodcut Dürer's Rhinoceros, it is possible that the liberties taken with the rhino's design^{[clarification needed]} were in fact designs for a suit of armour created for the rhinoceros's fight in Portugal.^[12] However, rhinos' apparently 'thick' or 'plated' skin is actually susceptible and the animals have poor eyesight, heavily limiting their ability to run in a specific direction. Their overly aggressive nature would make them unsuitable for use in mounted combat.
• tusk swords and carried a howdah with soldiers and were controlled by a mahout. The Khmer Empire used ballista elephants, war elephants equipped with ballista
  -like weapons.
• Cattle, in some instances, saw use in battle through manmade stampedes of panicking herds that were driven towards the enemy. This was often a dangerous tactic to those that released them, especially following the invention of gunpowder. In both the Battle of Tondibi and Henry Morgan's siege of Panama, herds of cattle were released onto the battlefield, but stampeded back into their own army's lines due to gunfire from the opposing army.
• During the Warring States period of Chinese history, Qi general Tian Dan is said to have had 1,000 oxen dressed and painted like dragons, then their tails lit on fire and sent against the opposing Yan army.

As living bombs

• Historical accounts of
  incendiary pigs were recorded by the military writer Polyaenus^[13] and by Aelian.^[14] Both writers reported that Antigonus II Gonatas' siege of Megara in 266 BC was broken when the Megarians doused some pigs with combustible pitch, crude oil or resin, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming, squealing pigs, often killing great numbers of their own soldiers by trampling them to death.^[15][16]
• According to Pr. Shi Bo, monkeys were used in the beginning of the
  Southern Song Dynasty, in a battle between rebels of the Yanzhou (Yasuo) province and the Chinese Imperial Army, led by Zhao Yu. The monkeys were used as live incendiary devices. The animals were clothed with straw, dipped in oil and set on fire. They were set loose into the enemy's camp, thereby setting the tents on fire, and driving the whole camp into chaos.^[17]
• In 1267, the sheriff of Essex was accused of plotting to release flying
  cockerels carrying bombs over London.^[18]
• Anti-tank dogs – a Soviet, World War II weapon that had mixed success. Canines with explosives strapped to their backs were used as anti-tank weapons.
• Project Pigeon – a proposed U.S. World War II weapon that used pigeons to guide bombs.
• Bat bomb, a U.S. project that used Mexican free-tailed bats to carry small incendiary bombs.
• suicide bombers, in modern insurgent attacks in the Middle East
  .

• Exploding rat – dead rats were prepared for use by the British Special Operations Executive in World War II against Germany. Rat carcasses were filled with plastic explosives, to be left in locations such as factories where, it was hoped, the stoker tending a boiler would likely dispose of the unpleasant discovery by shoveling it into the furnace, causing it to explode.^[20] The rats contained only a small amount of explosive; however, a puncture of a high-pressure boiler could trigger a devastating boiler explosion
  .
• Animals' carcasses have been used to camouflage roadside
  Iraqi insurgency
  .

• In the Battle of Pelusium (525 BCE) between the Achaemenid Empire and Ancient Egypt, Polyaenus claimed that the Achaemenid forces held cats in front of them as psychological tactic against the Egyptians, whose archers did not shoot for fear of harming what they considered to be sacred animals.
• In the
  Hannibal Barca had torches attached to the horns of bulls before being set alight during nightfall and allowing them to run amok. The Romans, believing the torchlight was from fleeing Carthaginian
  soldiers, pursued the cattle and were caught in an ambush.

Homing pigeons have seen use since medieval times for carrying messages. They were still employed for a similar purpose during World War I and World War II. In World War II, experiments were also performed in the use of the pigeon for guiding missiles, known as Project Pigeon. The pigeon was placed inside so that they could see out through a window. They were trained to peck at controls to the left or right, depending on the location of a target shape.

Some dogs also saw use as messengers.

For morale

There is a long-standing tradition of military mascots – animals associated with military units that act as emblems, pets, or take part in ceremonies.

For espionage

In the years before the First World War pigeon photography was introduced to military intelligence gathering. Although employed during major battles like at Verdun and Somme, the method was not particularly successful. Various attempts in this direction were made during the Second World War as well. A CIA pigeon camera dating from the 1970s is displayed in the CIA Museum; details of CIA missions using this camera are still classified.^[21]

The Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project to use surgically modified cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies in the 1960s. Despite expenditure of around $10 million, the project failed to produce practical results and was cancelled in 1967. Documents about the project were declassified in 2001.^[22][23]

In 2006, The Independent ran a story that the "Pentagon develops brain implants to turn sharks into military spies".^[24][25]

In 2007, Iranian authorities captured 14 squirrels, which were allegedly carrying spying equipment. The story was widely dismissed in the West as "nuts".^[26]

A number of spying scares in the Middle East involved birds. According to Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem, Sudanese authorities detained an

Ship's cats were used in the Royal Navy to control vermin on board ships. Able seacat Simon of HMS Amethyst received the Dickin Medal.

During the

• Animal–industrial complex
• Animal training
• Biological warfare
  • Entomological warfare
• Cruelty to animals
• Parachuting animals
• Remote control animal
• Brain implant § Research and applications
• Ship's cat

References

Further reading

• Blanchard, Lucy M, Chico, The story of a Homing Pigeon in the Great War (Diggory Press),
  ISBN 978-1-84685-039-4
• Cooper, Jilly (2002). Animals In War.
  ISBN 1-58574-729-7
  .
• Dyer, Walter A., Ben, the Battle Horse,
  ISBN 978-1-84685-038-7
• Itoh, Mayumi (2010). Japanese Wartime Zoo Policy: The Silent Victims of World War II. Palgrave-MacMillan.
  ISBN 978-0230108943
  .
• Nocella, Anthony J. II, ed. et al., "Animals and War: Confronting the Military-Animal Industrial Complex" (2013, Lexington Books),
  ISBN 978-0739186510
  .
• McWilliams, Beverley (2022). The Reindeer and the Submarine. Pantera Press. ISBN 978-0-6489876-9-7.
• McWilliams, Beverley (2023). Spies in the Sky. Pantera Press. ISBN 978-0-6456245-3-3.
• Peters, Anne; de Hemptinne, Jérôme; Kolb, Robert, eds. (2022). Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict. Cambridge University Press.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military animals.

• Cats in the Sea Services
• War Dogs
• Other Animals Who Served
• An Additional “R”: Remembering the Animals (PDF), an article about memorials for animals, including military animals. HTML version, without photos.