Which animal is a better spy—a pigeon or a cat? We actually know the answer.

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The CIA spent $20 million on an eavesdropping cat, but it’s the humble pigeon that’s pulled off the greatest intelligence heists.

Most people don't think twice when they see a cat, which makes it ideal for under-the-radar espionage. In the 1960s, the CIA sank some $20 million into Operation Acoustic Kitty to create the world's first feline espionage cyborg. Amid the high stakes and desperation of the Cold War, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency faced a perpetual espionage challenge: access. Every situation called for its own unique solution.

“You kind of wonder what they were thinking,” says David Welker, a CIA agency historian. “Did nobody own a cat? You can't make a cat do anything. As a proud cat owner, I could have told them that wouldn’t work.” The first pigeon camera, created by German inventor Julius Neubronner in 1907, involved a lightweight aluminum harness and time-delay camera. To find a more promising animal secret agent candidate, the CIA needed look no further than Acoustic Kitty’s natural enemy: birds. Specifically, the humble pigeon. Warring armies have relied on homing pigeons as messengers since ancient times, but the birds came into their own as espionage assets in World War II.

“The crucial thing about pigeons is they have this superpower, the ability to find their way home,” says Corera. “It’s still not entirely understood how they manage to, even if you drop them hundreds of miles away in a place they’ve never been before.” The CIA tried to train more exotic bird spies, like falcons, ravens, even cockatoos, to carry the camera, but in the end settled again on the humble pigeon for its ability to hide in plain sight, fly great distances without landing, and always find its way home.

 

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