From Midway Tricks to Covert Ops
In the 1960s, visitors to the I.Q. Zoo in Hot Springs, Arkansas, watched chickens play baseball, macaws ride bicycles, and pigs hit piano keys. Behind the scenes, however, the same methods used to delight families were also applied to Cold War intelligence work.
The trainers who ran the zoo, Keller and Marian Breland, along with Bob Bailey, were pioneers in operant conditioning. Their skills drew the attention of the U.S. military and intelligence services, leading to some of the most unusual projects of the era.
Training Animals for Espionage
Ravens were conditioned to deposit objects, including electronic devices, onto windowsills of targeted buildings. The CIA explored this technique to capture conversations using hidden transmitters. Pigeons were trained to fly ahead of convoys and land when they detected enemy troops, with field tests showing they could successfully warn against ambushes.
Dolphins, under Navy programs, learned to detect submarines and retrieve equipment, while cats were tested in the controversial “acoustic kitty” project, which aimed to use implanted transmitters to eavesdrop on conversations.
From Pavlov to Skinner
The foundation for these projects was the behavioral science of B.F. Skinner. During World War II, Skinner himself received defense funding for Project Pigeon, which attempted to use trained pigeons to guide missiles.
Though the project was never deployed, his graduate students, the Brelands, turned conditioning techniques into commercial and academic success. Their I.Q. Zoo served as both entertainment and a research ground, drawing interest from corporations, theme parks, and eventually government agencies seeking new tools for intelligence and defense.
The End of the Program
Animal Behavior Enterprises, founded by the Brelands, collaborated with the CIA and military through the 1960s and early 1970s. Experiments included conditioning insects for surveillance and testing cats fitted with transmitting devices.
Accounts of outcomes vary, but official CIA documents later confirmed cats could be trained for limited distances, though the method was deemed impractical. By 1975, the Senate’s Church Committee investigation into intelligence activities led the trainers to end government contracts. The I.Q. Zoo itself closed in 1990, leaving behind both a popular tourist attraction and a chapter of Cold War history that mixed fairground entertainment with espionage innovation.
In the Cold War, intelligence agencies turned to unlikely allies—trained animals.
From ravens carrying devices onto windowsills to dolphins scouting submarines, even cats fitted with transmitters, the projects were as real as they were extraordinary…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/2onflgjdUl
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) September 12, 2025