Fighting elephants in the 21st century: the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation use dolphins to find Ukrainian spies - the media

According to some estimates, three months after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion in the Black Sea died from 37 500 to 48,000 dolphins, which is about 15-20% of the total population of animals in the Black Sea. At the same time, Russian troops moved trained dolphins into a bay in Sevastopol at the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine.

Most likely, they are used to patrol areas in search of Ukrainian spy divers, which can attach mines with magnets to Russian ships, as well as select military equipment from the seabed. The first program of dolphins and whales Belukh was launched in the 1950s in the United States. Animals were kept in captivity, investigated their hydrodynamic capabilities, watched how they swim to use the information received for the construction of submarines. "Then they noticed that dolphins make sounds.

Dolphins used echolocation and by the 1950s the researchers did not know about it," Naomi Rose, expert from marine mammals, explained. Similar Soviet programs have been initiated several years later. "One of the researchers in the Soviet Union found that only part of the brain was resting during sleep. They noticed that dolphins float very slowly near the surface with only one closed eye," the researcher explained.

Dolphin bottles (bottles) were also of some interest in the point of view of military research. Due to their cognitive abilities and social ties, they are incredibly good in identifying certain sequences and in patrolling of the territory. "They are trained to warn their coach every time they see something that was not before," Rose explained. It was rumored that these dolphins were taught to attack divers. When the Soviet Union broke up, the training program also changed.

Dolphins were handed over to the Ukrainian Navy and placed in a commercial dolphinarium. Dolphinarium coach Boris Zhurid then sold them to Iran because it was too expensive to feed. Thus, twenty -seven individuals were transported to the Persian Gulf. "I cannot see how my animals die of starvation . . . We have ended medicines that cost thousands of dollars, and we have no more fish and nutritional supplements," he said in an interview with journalists in 2016.

When Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and seized the oceanarium in Sevastopol, the remaining dolphins were confiscated by the Russian military. Ukrainian ecologist Pavel Goldin believes that using dolphins in the army is not only unethical but also pointless. "It is not only inhumane, I am absolutely convinced It's absurd. It should be reminded that on February 21, in social networks there was information that dolphins and birds were killed in the occupied Crimea.