Military Animals: Unsung Heroes of the Battlefield

In this episode of Wildly Curious (formerly For the Love of Nature), co-hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the fascinating and often overlooked role animals have played in military operations. From war pigeons that saved lives to ferrets helping wire airplanes, the hosts uncover stories of remarkable animal contributions in warfare. Discover how beetles became remote-controlled cyborgs, goats boosted morale aboard ships, and more in this captivating look at the secret lives of military animals.

Perfect for history buffs, animal lovers, and curious minds alike, this episode sheds light on the unsung heroes of war. Tune in to learn how these creatures shaped battles, saved lives, and earned their place in history.

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Hello, and welcome to For the Love of Nature, a podcast where we tell you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.
And I'm Katie. And if you never hear from us again, it's because this episode is talking about how animals have secretly or not so secretly played an important role in military operations. I mean, everything that we found could be found off the internet, so can't be all that bad.
But this episode will probably be the first of a two-part series that was suggested to us by a listener who shall remain nameless because he's a boob and didn't want credit for his awesome idea. But maybe next season, we can talk him into being on the podcast under a pseudonym or something. Because he's way funnier than-
Mask his voice. Yeah, like a chipmunk, though.
Not making it deeper. We can go higher.
Really shrill. The voice changer.
But he is way funnier than me, so it would be a good episode. As far as the middle is.
You're standing. Yeah. I'm like, what, who is this?
Well, to get us started, this season so far, this is, we're on episode three.
Yes, three.
We haven't done any nature news yet. And we do love nature news, but it can be time consuming. So we're thinking, let's switch things up a little bit.
Not time consuming necessarily for us finding stuff, but time consuming because we talk about the subject stuff so long that it ends up being like 10 minutes of just nature news, yeah, in itself.
So we're thinking, let's do a question so that you guys get to know a little bit more about us. That is nature related. So I was thinking-
Why is it that every time I drink, I'm drinking Topo Chico, but it's through a straw. And when I drink it, it like activates the fizzle, and then it like fizzles up the straw.
Capillary action, man.
I guess so. I don't know what's-
Capillary fizzle? Okay, anyway, Katie, what's your favorite state park?
Okay, I would have to- There are several, because I really do like state parks.
Okay, top three.
Top, okay, I can't- Otherwise, this won't be any shorter than people. I can give you the top two, and I would say, okay, so first of all, Texas sucks when it comes to public lands.
For how big Texas is, they have- Right, for how big it is, they have zero public lands, because everything's privately owned. Oh.
Yeah. But we do have a state park here, Caprock and Palo Duro. They're two separate ones, but Palo Duro is really awesome, and I think I like that one just because that was the first state park that I had been to that felt like the Southwest.
And it is really cool. So it was just like a completely different ecosystem and everything than what I'm used to being in, because I grew up in Pennsylvania, where there's forests, and this was not forest. At all.
And then the other state park that I really liked, and that's for more sentimental reasons, I would have to say DeGray Lake in Arkansas.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Because we used to do, whenever Laura and I worked together at the zoo, we would do a week-long program where DeGray Lake would kind of be our base camp. And we'd work with the amazing and hilarious park interpreters that were there. And then we would go out from the park to area schools that normally couldn't afford for us to drive all that way.
And we did this and would always do an insane skit. And it was a bit, every year I tried to up the ante of what we did. It just got crazier and crazier every year.
I know, I bring it up to people at work sometimes, and I think they probably think we're nuts.
Yeah, we were definitely nuts.
I'm like, no, listen, listen, listen, I was a failed magician. Yeah, right?
But it was funny.
It's hard to describe.
There was another one where it was like an alien from another planet. Like, I mean, it just, yeah. But it was fun.
It was a fun week of just like, not something normal, not every day. And we just, oh my goodness. There are some times where I just, I laughed so hard on those trips, so.
Oh, yeah.
Those two, and the Grey Lake is just freaking beautiful. And I mean, the stars that you can see at night there, and just the lake itself, it's gorgeous. And so, yeah, fantastic, fantastic state parks.
Those would be my top two. What about you?
My top two would be sentimental reasons, probably, for the one Caledonia State Park, which is in Pennsylvania, it's near where I grew up. It was our state park that we went to all the time.
Gotcha.
All the time. So that one, there's the Whispering Pine Nature Trail was my favorite trail to take as a kid, because first of all, the whole trail. And it was all rhododendrons and white pines and hemlocks.
Thick, thick and dark and cool.
Man, that's awesome. For the name, yeah, man, everything.
It was a really great park. And my family, we'd go there for picnics with extended family. That's the place where we made up.
Oh, that's fun.
Memorial day.
Yeah, that's fun.
So Caledonia, and then...
Ossetake or Shinkatink. I mean, those are-
Yeah, but they're not state.
Well, they're national seashores, though.
Oh, yeah. I mean, if we're going national, I got lots more, but that could be a different question. I would say another, probably also something in Arkansas.
I don't know if I could choose one. Petitgene was really cool.
Yeah, Arkansas-
But Arkansas State Parks are on point.
Yeah, no, they are. I mean, it's the natural state for a reason.
Yes, right. And like unexpectedly, yeah, they've got not just the parks themselves. Like the land is beautiful.
Yeah.
The interpretation there is really like pioneering. Like, you go anywhere else and they're like, oh yeah, Arkansas interpreters.
Yeah, Arkansas interpreters.
So yeah, DeGray or Petitgene or Casatot, all of them are really gorgeous.
Yeah, they really are. As much as I would never in a million years move back to Arkansas, their state parks are outstanding.
Yes.
Outstanding. We want to get into animals now and military, so they can blacklist us.
Right. I mean, mine are ridiculous, and some of them are quite famous. So I feel like mine aren't like that scandal.
Yeah, no, I know they weren't. Mine aren't either.
But I mean, if anything, they should bring these animals back to prominence.
All righty. Do you want to go first? You want me to go first?
You go first.
All right. So the first animal I'm going to talk about are insects, and in particular, cyborg beetles.
I think I saw a headline about this.
I wouldn't be surprised.
I can do it.
As soon as you Google, animals and military. It's one of the ones that come up. So now the military utilize an insects has been around for quite some time.
Back in the 14th century, Europeans created a windmill-like weapon that launched beehives at their enemy.
That's cool.
Right? I need to do more research on that alone. Yeah.
More recently, though, in World War II, the Japanese weaponized insects by dropping plague-infected fleas on Chinese cities.
I did read that. That's horrible.
Which in which...
Biological warfare is...
Is a whole other game. Yeah. And that estimated to kill just over 440,000 people.
They had plans to do the same thing to San Diego. I think it was San Diego, San Francisco, one of the two, but they never followed through with it. And these are just two of the many examples of insects being used over the years.
There's so many examples that there's actually a whole thing called entomological warfare, or EW.
Wow.
Yeah, which throughout history, people have used insects to inflict pain, literally like dropping them that will eat people, or destroying crops, and countless, countless other uses.
That makes sense.
It does. No, it definitely does.
Release the locusts!
That needs to be a sticker or something. All right. But today, though, I'm going to talk about the U.S.'s efforts to utilize beetles.
And as far as we know, it was just a trial run for more discreet weapons, but we'll see at this point. So, releasing the results in January 2009, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley held a press conference, it seems like kind of out of the middle of nowhere, and just told the audience that they had managed to create a remote-controlled cyborg beetle by attaching a computer chip to the brain of the beetle.
Just casually dropping that.
Yeah.
Yeah, so we made this in separate.
We did this. The beetle was designed as part of a defense advanced research project, a research projects agency or DARPA project, which DARPA.
You have to stop and watch. Wait, DARPA, DARPA, DARPA. So the DARPA project, which looked to equip insects with cameras and other sensors in an attempt to turn them into essentially tiny biological UAVs, which are like a drum.
Yeah, one of the first ones that they did this on was a flower beetle, which was selected first because as one of the largest insects, it could carry the biggest payload. So I mean, of course, yeah, of course, that makes sense. After results from this first beetle proved to be successful, they replicated the results on several other beetles, the smallest, Cotinous Texana, which is two centimeters long, while the largest is the massive Megasoma eliphis.
I don't know which one that is, but it's 20 centimeters long. So it's a pretty dang big beetle. It's got to be like a rhinoceros beetle or something.
So and there was a third one too. So it kind of ranged in size that they duplicated this to show that they could do it with really big ones, and then down to teeny tiny beetles as well. So beetles and other flying insects are masters of flight of control.
Of course, they've been doing it for millions of years, duh. But beetles in particular have phenomenal sensory feedback from their eyes and their visual systems because most beetles do have compound eyes, which are eyes that are divided into the six-sided compartment things. Compound eyes are very sensitive to movement, and scientists do believe that they can probably see it in color.
And this has come to play a little bit later here.
I wonder if they've tried dragonflies. I bet dragonflies would be amazing.
Well, hold your thought. So beetles that rely on vision for hunting, ground beetles, or for breeding, like fireflies and stuff, do have larger eyes. So a lot of these beetles that they were picking had larger eyes so they could bring in everything imaginable.
So the flower beetle and other similar large beetles were a no-brainer for the projects. Beetles also have other senses to navigate and maintain stable flight, all while using very little energy, which was key. So rather than trying to recreate these systems from scratch, the researchers Hiro Takasato and Michael Marbes and their colleagues decided to take advantage of the beetles' natural abilities by melting insects and machines.
They outbidded the beetles with an off-the-shelf microprocessor, and like off-the-shelf meaning they probably ran down the street to Radio Shack. So they used a little microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animal's optic lobes and flight muscles.
That's nuts.
Yeah.
They could get through the exoskeleton without damaging it permanently.
Oh, well, not quite. So the components of the system were implanted in the beetles when they were in the pupil stage.
Okay.
Which makes a lot more sense.
Yeah.
So they were just babies.
You're going to grow up to be spied.
You little cyborg beetle, you. So flight commands were then wirelessly sent to the beetle when they grew up. They were sent to the beetle via radio frequency transmitter that was controlled by a nearby nearby laptop.
So the laptop then sent oscillating electrical impulses delivered to the beetle's optic lobe, which triggered to take off while single short pulses would cease the flight. Signals sent over the left or right flight muscles make the animal turn left or right. So since your body and muscles rely on small electrical impulses to move around anyway, this wasn't all that different because once the beetle had the initial pulse sent to its body, the natural intuition would take over.
So it's not like to make it fly, they would like keep zapping them. It was almost like just like a bzzz and then like on its right arm, let's just say, or the right muscle like bzzz and then and it wasn't a zap because it's electrical internally. And then once it knew to go right, then instinct just took over and it was like, oh, I need to go right.
So it was almost like the person who was controlling it was like their brain because you know how you're walking down the street and you trip, you don't just fall over like your body knows what to do. Well, they were tap essentially tapping into that and controlling it. So they just did.
So like the Beatles didn't know why they would be going that direction. They're just like, I need to go right, or I just need to take, you know, I need to take off. So it wasn't like a zap.
It was just like, I need to do this because my body's telling me I need to do it. That's good. Um, so the application of what they would use the Beatles for is still sort of a puzzle, but anything like drone UAV related is typically for going into inaccessible regions and areas.
And with a Beatle, as long as someone doesn't squash it, like you're, you're good, um, because they could pretty much go anywhere. So the Berkeley team also experimented on dragons, flies, flies, and moths because of also their unmatched capabilities. Yeah.
So I didn't see any results from those, like from the dragonflies and stuff. Um, it has been over a decade, but I did find information from Berkeley in which they were created a UAV, which mimicked a dragonfly. Yeah.
Cool to utilize the dragonflies.
Yeah.
That'd be cool too.
And I think, like, even though 2009 was not that long ago, like, at the same time, technology wise, 2009 was a very long time ago, as far as tech echoes, and it has come a long way. And I think as though the research, like the researchers' original project, their whole point was not to duplicate it. Like, they wanted to utilize the beetle because, hey, they're efficient anyway, why recreate it?
That's where a lot of the research projects have gone now, is like, they're going to mimic a dragonfly and just make it super tiny. And I mean, they're not the only ones. I mean, like, the circulatory system of a giraffe was used to help with how do you get fluid and water and things like that up and down the buildings and everything.
And so engineers and scientists looked to wildlife and animals all the time, and this was definitely another one of those instances.
Yeah, definitely gives a new meaning to bugging.
Right. But what did you say earlier? And I said, I'll get back to that.
You said the dragonfly one. Yeah, I feel like there was something else that I said that will come into play later.
I don't think so.
The eyeballs. Oh, it was because so because they could see in color and everything. And so you figure like if someone is controlling them, and that's where they kind of got at a stalemate was that to really make it effective, you want to have eyes on it.
All right. And so that's kind of where the shift started coming, or at least from what I found, the shift started coming to just using like actual robots, because like a beetle can only carry so much. And so even though they have very, very complex eyes, and like you as the controller were then relying on that beetle's instincts.
And so they think where this was all going was for like possibility of biological warfare and stuff, because it's not like a drone where the pilot could see where the, you know what I mean, like see where the beetle was going, because also add on a camera would have just been way, way too much for it.
Just use their error.
Yeah.
Like animal error could be too much.
Although it would be sweet if we could tap into beetle eyesight and everything more, but they just kind of had it in a lab and really didn't do much, much else with it. So overall, that's the cyborg beetle.
Cool. I'm got a completely different animal, not an insect, not a surprise, it's a mammal. And I just ferrets.
Oh, that was a good one too.
Yeah, I love ferrets. I love the weasel family. I've brought them up in lots of episodes.
So real quick, ferrets, they were probably domesticated about 2,500 years ago from European pole cats. And they have traditionally been used as hunters and pest control. And so taking how they've traditionally been used and then utilizing them through the military, same kind of thing.
So I kind of broke my mind down into like a timeline. Okay, so first, we've got the warrior and military genius, Genghis Khan. He hunted with ferrets.
Of course.
So he would, you know, use them to go get prey and, you know, feed him and probably anyone else he wanted to share things with. Then World War I, ferrets were again used to hunt for food when there were food shortages. So they would bring things like rabbits back to the men who were stuck maybe in the trenches and couldn't go out hunting.
They would just send ferrets. Bring back something.
Yeah. I don't know what, but anything.
Thank you. Then in World War II, they were used to wire planes. So they tied like little harnesses on their back and ran them through little planes and they were taking all the wires back and forth, which leads us to more modern times.
So in 1999, US Space Command, which is a branch of the military, at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, they were building what was called Year 2000 Missile Warning Center. So they discovered too late, and this doesn't surprise me now that my husband's in construction and talking about how all this electricity stuff works, so they were laying…
All this electricity stuff, all this electricity stuff, whatever.
They're like laying pipes with electric wires going through them. Well, it turns out that they had missed some of the wires, but things were already installed. Yeah.
Too difficult to go back now.
So the lieutenant colonel who was supervising the project brought in his pet ferret, Misty, Come on, Misty? Misty, to wriggle through a 40-foot-long piece of conduit, which is what holds all the wires. So he tied a piece of yarn onto her and then sent her down, and then he pulled on the yarn, pulled the wire through, and then they did that multiple times, and they were able to pull all the necessary wires.
I mean, if you've ever played with a ferret, one, they are like noodles. They love it. They love it.
Yeah. So it's not like, go in this tube. I'm sure Misty was like...
It was a normal instinct.
Yeah. It was like, woo-hoo!
Ferrets are meant to burrow. And so they're perfectly fine going in tight spots like that. And there was a reward system.
She was rewarded with strawberry pop tarts, which she was a vow.
Which that's really cute.
So thanks to Misty, the computers were able to get wired. Can you...
Okay. Let's... I was gonna say, let's just pause for a second to appreciate...
Okay, yes, that like, this whole system was gonna be stopped. And somebody's like, well, I have a pet ferret, and...
A derpy little ferret.
Yeah, that's gonna save this whole thing.
And it was just right, the lieutenant colonel's pet, it was random.
I wonder if it was his idea. I wonder if it was his idea.
He thought, he thought, I guess he knew about the fact that they wired planes and wallpapers. So he was like, well, if they can wire a plane, then they could probably do this.
And I just happened to have one.
Yeah. So that was in 1999. In 2010, we see ferrets again pop up in the military.
The 1st Battalion, the Yorkshire Resi- man, I can't talk today. 1st Battalion, the Yorkshire, or Yorkshire Regiment.
Sorry, British people. They were stationed in Munster, Germany. And before they were deployed to Iraq, they received 2 ferrets as mascots.
This apparently was a traditional gift from the residents of Yorkshire.
What a present.
Yeah, this is World War II, apparently. They have been giving this battalion gets ferrets. So anyway, they got these 2 little ferrets.
Their names were Imphal and Quebec, named after battle honors. And as you might expect, and what a mascot's job is, is a huge morale boost. And Katie, they participated in parade, and had their own tiny uniforms.
They were just in hats and jackets.
Of course, there has to be a hat.
You'll have to Google it. Yeah, and their little harnesses matched the belts of the men.
Of course.
So they took place in parade, and they were allowed to run around the soldiers' boots when they were in formation. Anybody who knows a ferret, you just imagine their little jump, like, They're just like, Hi guys, what's going on? So they stayed behind in Germany while they were deployed, and the battalion had them for two years.
And then ferrets have also been used to teach army and navy medics how to intubate people. Not anymore, so animal rights activists spoke up about that, and it probably was a pretty awful process. They were intubated multiple times a day, so she had a tube shoved down their throat multiple times a day.
Poor ferrets. They probably had to have a lot of popsicles after that. It just really hurts.
So yeah, that is how ferrets have been directly involved in the military over time, and people are just really like the concept of ferrets because, again, throughout time, things have been named after ferrets. There was the ferret force, which was a combination of the British and Malayan authorities in 1948. The British Army created a light armored vehicle dubbed the ferret, and there was Operation Black Ferret in Vietnam.
Yeah, the ferret.
So yeah, ferrets.
Man, it is so funny how we pick, how we pick our stuff every time, because that perfectly leads in to mine. So my second animal, goats.
Talk about the mascot aspect.
Well, there's several aspects. So a little disclaimer, if you do start researching the use of goats within the military, you will see, sort of like what Laura was saying, scores and scores of animal rights groups, talking about how the military for years have used live goats and pigs and other animals for their medics to train on.
I was reading about pigs, because I thought about doing pigs, and then I was like, I can't cover this, this is awful.
Yeah, it's a bit much. So that's not what we're going to talk about, although, like Laura said, it is important. They don't do it anymore.
There's a bill passed and everything.
They're thinking of simulations and things now that they could do.
But again, technology caught up. But I mean, you figure how many thousands and thousands and thousands of lives that were saved because of because of them anyway. All right.
So my topic is a little more lighthearted. Some aspects anyway. All right.
So goats have been kept around combat areas for quite some time. In the early days of the Navy, the US Navy, you figure there was no refrigerators within the boats. So keeping live meat aboard the ships became quite a task, which it seems only goats could fill the role of.
They tried larger animals like oxen, but given that goats...
Can you imagine sharing a boat with an ox?
Yeah, like when you butcher it... Yeah, first of all, let's just talk about that. The process alone to butcher an ox, yeah, blood everywhere.
But given the goats' small size and agility, even aboard a rocking ship, goats seem to be a really good winner. Goats not only became a good food source aboard ships, but their milk was also beneficial. Now, I'm not quite as addicted to milk as I once was, because I grew up in dairy country, so I mean, come on now.
But milk really is like one of those luxuries, like whenever you're away and then you come back and you're like, oh, milk, and so having meat and milk was definitely beneficial. And of course, if 90s got milk ads taught us anything, a great source of calcium for our growing bones. So in the 20th century, then goats served a different purpose, like Laura said, as mascots.
So goats continued to ride on US Navy ships, but now served as pets and morale boosters rather than sources of food.
Well, I'm sure even before, like, can you imagine like you've been on the ship with these goats forever, it would be probably pretty heartbreaking.
Oh, I would totally be playing with a goat, yeah, rather than eating it. And the Navy's first mascot, El Cid, was the pet aboard the cruiser in New York. In 1893, New York crew members brought El Cid to Annapolis for the Army-Navy game, which the Navy won.
Midshipmen aboard the New York attributed the victory to the presence of the goat, because what else could it be? And from that point onward, the US. Naval Academy's tradition of having a goat as a mascot was born.
The term goat locker is another example of how the goat has influenced Navy culture. In 1893, when a chief petty officer rank was established, the goat locker was still an area where goats were kept aboard the ship. So basically, in Navy jargon, the goat locker is the lounge, sleeping area, and galley on board a naval vessel, which is reserved for the exclusive use of chief petty officers, which, I mean, I guess goat is a term of endearment since it's their mascot, but like chief petty officers are E7, so it's not like they're low man on the totem pole.
But anyway, so yeah, so it's heavily influenced, obviously, in the Navy, the US Navy. Abroad, though, goats have served in similar roles. Some units in our in the British Army adopt military mascots, animals maintain, and the animals that are maintained for military purposes or ceremonial military purposes.
These are different to working animals which serve in combat combat and transport roles. The British Army has both official and unofficial mascots. Now this next part, I'm just going to go ahead and do a direct quote, because I have a lot of questions unofficial mascots are fed and housed as as regimental expense, or taken on the strength.
Official mascots are entitled to the services of the Royal Army Veterinarian Corps and looked after with public money. Official mascots also have a regimental number and rank. As with human soldiers, they can be promoted and demoted.
So first, at least unofficial mascots are fed. I'd like to point that out, that it says unofficial mascots are fed and housed, which is great first step. But also official mascots have ranks that are promoted and demoted.
If you've ever cared for a goat, been in the general vicinity of a goat, or even found yourself on the goat side of TikTok, my guess is that goats were way more demoted than promoted. But that's just my guess. Just constant demotions.
Some of these mascots have connections to the regiment's home country, other symbolize part of their unit's history, like a Welsh billy goat. So let's talk about one goat in particular real quick. Billy Windsor.
Lance Corporal Willie Billy Windsor was the mascot of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh, and as one would suspect, he earned a demotion in 2006. How? Well, when leading a parade in front of the Queen, he marched out of line and tried to headbutt one of the battalion drummers, which sounds about...
The Queen herself runs over and just headbutts her. So he was then demoted to the rank of Foolisher, which I don't know what that meant. Like the rank down, I guess, but this also meant, because he was demoted, that other soldiers were no longer expected to salute to him as a sign of respect.
Yes!
So, so, I mean, how morale killing is it for that goat to no longer be saluted to? I mean...
Or how morale killing is it for any man to have to salute to a goat?
Salute to a goat, right? But apparently, it's a thing. It's a very thankful thing.
Thankfully, though, Billy eventually did regain his old rank and retired with full honors to Whipsnedge Zoo in 2009, and kind of like Laura's stuff, just do yourself a favor and Google, regimental goats, you will not be disappointed.
I have seen pictures.
These goats are fancy AF, for sure. It is so funny.
The medals and everything.
Yes, it's insane. So, while goats may not have played a tactical role, per se, within the military operations, food, or the military operations, the food, milk, and morale boosters definitely have their place in the battlefield, and goats are a shining example of that.
Cool. I have like a love-hate relationship with goats.
I know, right? I do laugh. I can't, and I will take any day of the week, goat screaming videos.
It doesn't matter how many times I've seen them. I laugh so hard every time. It's just...
My weakness is the babies playing.
They are really cute. I can't take screaming goats. I can't take it.
It's just too funny. It's just something about the distressed yell.
Alright, are you ready for mine?
I'm always ready.
Okay, this one's great, because this one's all about pigeons.
Yes! I did see some come across some stuff about pigeons.
I always knew that of course pigeons were going to be used in military operations to carry messages. Of course. But let me just tell you, some of these pigeons were war heroes, and absolutely deserved the recognition.
It really gave me a new appreciation for pigeons.
Man, that's a…
Yeah, yeah.
Laura has an appreciation for pigeons.
They've been kind of endearing, just the way that they're so hated, and that they're so dumb looking.
They are dumb looking.
Anyway, real quick, natural history. So domestic pigeons, they all have a common ancestor of the rock dove, and it was likely the first bird ever tamed by man. They know it has at least been domesticated since Mesopotamia, which was in 4,500 BC.
So we have had friendships with pigeons for a very long time.
Yeah, that's way too long for us to be friends with such a stupid bird.
All the pigeons that we call street pigeons, that's what they called them, they come from feral domestic ones. So they all just have ancestors that decide to become wild one day.
That's why they're so dumb, because they were domesticated, and then they're like, no, we're going to stay in the wild again. And that's why they're not suited.
So, how are they involved in military operations? Well, one of the first examples is that homing pigeons were extremely important to Romans, Greeks, Persians, and Syrians, and that they had message systems. Once again, good old Genghis Khan, he was ahead of his time, he was, he used pigeons to carry military messages.
And this was such a quick and efficient way to communicate that it allowed him to outmaneuver his enemies and conquer, like, the known world.
Yeah, pretty much.
Then in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, during the Siege of Paris, 800 pigeons were sent with over 40,000 messages.
That's insane.
Yeah, so, like, also, who was counting? I don't know.
Like, Tally 1, Tally 2, Pigeon 1.
Yeah, just looking over, that's all the poop.
Right?
Like, oh my gosh.
Dang.
Okay, then we really get into things. In World War I, this is where pigeons really hit their stride. So they were used for a couple of different things.
First off, surveillance. So much like your beetles, these pigeons were equipped with tiny little backpacks that had cameras in them. And mind you, this is World War I, which is pretty amazing.
Yeah. And they would take pictures of enemy camps as they flew over. They were also used as reconnaissance, which is similar.
So soldiers would be flying around in planes, and then they would get information, write it down, and then toss a pigeon out of the plane. Yeah, and then just check it out, and then that pigeon would go back and relay the message. This allowed for immediate updates, especially if you were out of radio range at the time.
Because, I mean, who doesn't want a good reconnaissance pigeon?
Yes, absolutely. I mean, you could report troop movements. It was very, very important.
Then we get into our award-winning pigeons. I seriously couldn't read enough about these guys. So, in World War I again, the pigeon Cher-A-Me was a pigeon sent to Europe from the United States.
He delivered 12 messages in battle, and on his 12th mission, he was the third and last bird that they tried to use because all the rest had been shot and killed at that point. Hmm.
That was pretty good shot for a pigeon, but continue.
Oh my gosh, like, I think it was just a hail of bullets.
Yeah.
Like, it was just a curtain of bullets that these poor pigeons had to fly through. So, his unit, which is now known as the Lost Battalion, it's a really cool story.
Oh, I have heard, yeah, go ahead, continue.
They were deep behind enemy lines, and they were completely out of radio range.
Yeah, I read about this.
And unfortunately, because they were so far behind, they were being bombed by their own side. And people, like, the poor guys were, 30 men had already been killed by friendly fire, and they needed to get a message through telling their own side to please stop firing on them. So they tried to send out pigeons, they just kept getting shot.
Finally, they're like, okay, Cherie, you're our last chance. This poor little pigeon, he is tossed into the air. He flies through enemy bullets.
He's shot in the chest, falls to the ground, and they're like, well, that's it. And then he gets back up and he keeps flying.
I must complete my mission.
He did, he completed his mission. He was treated for his wounds, but the leg with the message was barely attached and he was blind in one eye.
Jeez.
Yeah, he's a poor little pigeon.
It's awful. And so he wasn't even a French pigeon, but the French awarded him a medal.
Wait.
He belonged to the US.
I know, but and so the French were just like-
Those French were impressed by this pigeon. They awarded him the-
Lieutenant Dan, the pigeon.
Cher ami. Yeah. Unfortunately, poor Cher ami retired from his military service and died a year later.
Because it's a pigeon. Yeah, because it's a pigeon.
Oh, they said from his wounds.
Oh, really?
And like many war pigeons, apparently many of them were taxidermied and displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
I believe it.
And he was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931 and received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Pigeon Fanciers.
That's a thing?
Oh, pigeon people are serious.
We haven't heard the last of our pigeon heroes. I've got more.
Yes.
Another one. Very similar story, but not quite. This pigeon is known as President Wilson.
Great name. President Wilson was a carrier pigeon for the US. Army Signal Corps.
He was born in France, rather than sent to France, and given to the US. Army's newly formed Tank Corps, and then sent on to an infantry unit. So when his unit came under attack, he was sent with a message of artillery support.
He had to fly 25 miles, during which he was shot at by Germans. He was hit multiple times, including having one of his legs blown off. And he made that journey in 25 minutes.
Holy crap.
Little pigeon, literally being shot to pieces, 25 miles in 25 minutes, and saved them because he got them artillery support. He was able to retire and live another 11 years.
I wonder what kind of reward system these pigeons got.
I don't know.
Because it had to have been good. Yeah, it had to have been good.
Tottie.
Yeah, because, I mean, like, yeah, the ferret got her straw, you know, the strawberry pop tart, but like, it's a pigeon.
There had to be really fancy bread. Like baguettes.
That's why the French awarded them. Because they were also providing the baguettes for them.
So yeah, he lived another 11 years, so he had a good retirement. His body was also taxidermied and displayed in the Smithsonian. Of course.
If you look it up, he's missing, I mean, he's just got one leg shot off. And now his body actually resides at the Pentagon.
Geez.
Outside of like a chief person's office. Okay, World War II. So in World War II, they were still used, even though our tech had come quite a ways, and you'd think, okay, why are we still using carrier pigeons?
They're still very important. They-
Still reliable.
Yeah, they gathered intel. So pigeons, paper, and pencils were airdropped into towns behind enemy lines. And then the citizens were encouraged to write information on them and then send their pigeon on.
So they could collect stuff from towns rather than having to have all those people, you know, have like radio. Like that would be impossible. Yeah.
It was also, carrier pigeon was also the primary mode of communication between the UK and the Dutch resistance spy, Josef Raskin, he transferred messages, giving information on the location of German forces until he was found and executed. More than 32 pigeons have received the Dicken Medal, which is the animal equivalent of a Medal of Honor for their service. One last war hero that I'll mention was in World War II, his name was GI Joe.
He was an American pigeon. And there was a town that was taken over by Germans, was then recaptured, but they did it ahead of schedule. And that town, before it got recaptured, they were like, all right, we are going to shell this town to get rid of the enemy at a certain time.
And so because it was recaptured ahead of schedule, they were gonna fire on their own people. So they were like, GI Joe, you have to get this message out. So this little guy.
Fly, GI Joe, fly.
Fly, again, he flew 20 miles in 20 minutes and was able to stop the bombing. There's actually an entire book. It's historical fiction, but it's all based on, you know.
I was gonna say, why has nobody created a movie about these pigeons? Like, I mean, I know it seems silly, but.
Because this book's pretty new. It's called The World Flight Home, and it's a historical fiction book about pigeons in World War II and their handlers. I would watch it.
Yeah, it would be interesting. Especially if they did it, like, not as a funny sense, but like on a serious, like, a serious movie.
War Horse or Secretariat or, yeah.
Yeah.
All the horse movies that we have.
Yeah.
Pigeons get their day.
Yeah.
Shout out to other famous pigeons. Commando, Patty, William of Orange, and Winky.
So, thank goodness. I mean, pigeons are responsible for saving so many lives. So many lives.
And people call them the rats of the sky.
Street pigeons. To be fair, they are. Yeah, they are kind of rats of the sky.
But they're really very intelligent, and war heroes.
Yeah. That was a good one.
Yeah, I was stoked. I could read a lot more about, I actually totally think I could read, even just a non-fiction book about war hero pigeons.
I wanna hear more about Winky.
Yeah, they all have stories, I know, cause I could have kept going, cause they've all got their own hero stories.
I wonder if you got the name Winky before, or after his battle time.
Yeah, right. William of Orange.
Yeah, yeah. Ah, great names. All right, well, hopefully you guys enjoyed that one.
That was fun to research one, and there was more and more. And so we'll definitely have to break this up into a couple more other ones, because there was just so much that I didn't know.
Yeah, so hopefully you guys now know how some species were used in military operations.
And there's so many more that were used.
There's even an entire museum devoted to it in Britten.
I believe it, there's a lot. All righty, well, thank you guys for listening. Make sure you check us out on social media and Patreon, and we will talk to you next week.
Talk to you next week.