10 animals used as weapons of war

New Delhi: We know about destructive weapons being use for war. Guns, rifles, tankers etc have been used by man to win battles. But this, might sound bizarre, man has also trained animals for war.As they say, everything is fair in love and war, here is a list of ten insane examples of adapting animals to weapons in both life and death situations. 1. Anti tank dogs These dogs were taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military warfare.They were earlier trained to leave the bomb and run off before the bomb gets detonated, but the procedure failed as dogs used to die in the process.They were actively trained by the Soviet and Russian military forces in 1930–1996 and used in 1941–1942 against German tanks in World War II. The U.S. military trained anti-tank dogs in 1943 for use against fortifications, but never deployed them. Dogs strapped with explosives were unsuccessfully used by Iraqi insurgents in 2005. 2. Bat bombsThese were developed in World War II by US. It consisted of bomb shaped casings with various compartments. Each compartment had a Mexican free tailed bat with a small bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then rest in nests and tree hideouts. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper construction of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target.3. Cat bombsUS needed too guide bombs to sink German ships. Cats were used to do that since they do not refrain from water. Bomb was attached to the cats and dropped in the vicinity of the ship. However, these were unsuccessful as cats were not active animals. 4. DolphinsUS and Russian navies have deployed dolphins to rescue naval swimmers and locate underwater miners.The U.S. Navy trains dolphins and sea lions under the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, which is based in San Diego, California. Military dolphins were used by the U.S. Navy during the First and Second Gulf Wars. About 75 dolphins are in the program.5. War ElephantsThey are trained by man for combat. Their main purpose was to crush and stamp the enemy.They were probably first employed in India, the practice spreading out across south-east Asia and westwards into the Mediterranean. Their most famous use in the West was by the Greek general Pyrrhus of Epirus and in great numbers by the armies of Carthage, especially under Hannibal.In the east, where supplies of animals were greater and the terrain ideal, it was the advent of cannon that finally concluded the use of the combat elephant at the end of the 19th century, limiting them thereafter to engineering and labour roles. 6. African Giant Pouched RatsThese rodents are used to detect land mines.A Belgian company, APOPO, trains Gambian pouched rats to do so.APOPO, a non-profit organization, trains African Giant Pouched Rats, also known as giant pouched rats or Gambian pouched rats (genus Cricetomys), to detect land mines. This helps to deal with the global landmine problem. 7. Orcas of war In a project, called Deep Ops, a pilot whale and two killer whales demonstrated their ability to recover objects from greater depths. The recovery device the whales attached to the target object, a dummy torpedo containing an acoustic beacon, incorporated a hydrazine gas generator which was activated upon attachment of the device to the torpedo. The generated gas filled a large lift bag which raised the torpedo to the surface. The picture shows an orca named "Ahad" enlisted in the navy working off the coast of Hawaii. Ahad was one of two orcas working in the navy in Hawaii retrieving decoy torpedos on the ocean floor. The other orca named Ishmel swam off when they were brought out to the open ocean and he never returned.Ahad was captured in 1968 in October off the coast of Washington. He was a member of either J or L pod. He died in 1974 after a short life of only 5 1/2 years in captivity. 8. Pigeon guided missileDuring World War II, Project Pigeon was American behaviorist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile. The control system involved a lens at the front of the missile projecting an image of the target to a screen inside, while a pigeon trained (by operant conditioning) to recognize the target pecked at it. As long as the pecks remained in the center of the screen, the missile would fly straight, but pecks off-center would cause the screen to tilt, which would then, via a connection to the missile's flight controls, cause the missile to change course.9. Dead Rat bomb Dead rats were prepared for use by the British Special Operations Executive in World War II against Germany. Rat body cavities 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.The rats contained only a small amount of explosive; however, a puncture of a high-pressure boiler could trigger a devastating Boiler explosion.10. War pigsWar pigs are pigs said to have been used - at most, rarely - in ancient warfare as a countermeasure to war elephants. The Romans would later use the squeals of pigs to frighten Pyrrhus' elephants. Procopius, in book VIII of his History of the Wars, records the defenders of Edessa using a pig suspended from the walls to frighten away Khosrau's siege elephants.While the above use of pigs in war is plausible, another historical reference - incendiary pigs or fire pigs - is much less so. Aelian reported that Antipater's siege of Megara during the Wars of the Diadochi was broken when the Megarians poured oil on a herd of pigs, 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 the army the elephant was part of.