Is Hvaldimir the beluga a Russian spy? He wouldn't be the first militarized mammal

It may be impossible to interrogate Hvaldimir the beluga on his connection to Russian espionage, but if he is a spy, he wouldn't be the first sea creature to be given a covert mission. 

The whale first surfaced near Norway in 2019 carrying camera gear marked "equipment of St. Petersburg" prompting some to wonder if the whale was a Russian spy. It was named Hvaldimir, which is a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The whale returned to Scandinavian waters in May, this time off the coast of Sweden.

"It's all shrouded in mystery," Gervase Phillips, a lecturer at the U.K.'s Manchester Metropolitan University told The Sunday Magazine guest host David Common.

"There's definitely a history, there's definitely a precedent," Phillips said of military forces enlisting animals. "But it's really very hard to say for sure what is going on."

"It seems to me if he was [a spy], he's quit," said the academic who wrote about Hvaldimir in 2019. "Animals have always been caught up in our foolish conflicts, in massive numbers." 

Hvladimir wouldn't be the first sea creature to be recruited by humans. During the First World War, the British trained sea lions to chase German U-boats. 

But it wasn't really a success. The sea lions, which were former circus performers, decided to pursue other interests.

"Once they got into the North Sea, they generally proved more interested in fish than pursuing German submarines," said Phillips. 

The U.S. also tried training sea life to join its navy. It employed dolphins to protect its harbours. 

That turned out to be a success because dolphins, Phillips said, are the dogs of the sea. 

"They're often doing the same kind of work that a military working dog would do on land. So mine detection, sentry duty, tracking, those kind of functions, a dolphin or a similar marine mammal can do in the sea," said Phillips. 

Americans used dolphins in the Vietnam War and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and they are still active members of the navy, he added. 

While the pigeon may be seen as a pest, the bird has actually spent time in the military with a role comparable to the world's first drones.