The Russian Defense Ministry wants to purchase five bottlenose dolphins for 1.75 million rubles ($24,475), according to a tender document posted on the website of state purchases on Wednesday, TASS reported.
The tender specifies that they should be two female and three male dolphins, between 3 and 5 years of age. Their body length should be between 6.9 and 8.1 ft.
The tender requires that the dolphins “should display motor activity.” That’s the same requirement they used to have for prisoners who were let go from Lubyanka prison in Moscow.
The tender does not reveal what the defense ministry wants to do with the dolphins.
Bottlenose dolphins typically live in groups of 10–30 members, called pods, but group size varies from single individuals up to more than 1,000. Their diet consists mainly of fish (no big surprise there). Dolphins often work as a team to harvest fish schools, but they also hunt individually. Dolphins search for their prey primarily using echolocation, which is similar to sonar. They emit clicking sounds and listen for the return echoes to determine the location and shape of nearby items, including potential prey. Bottlenose dolphins also use sound for communication, including squeaks and whistles emitted from their blowhole and sounds emitted through body language, such as leaping from the water and slapping their tails on the water surface.
Research into bottlenose dolphin intelligence examined mimicry, use of artificial language, object categorization, and self-recognition. They can use tools (sponging) and transmit cultural knowledge across generations, and their considerable intelligence has driven them to having interaction with humans.
Bottlenose dolphins have also been trained by militaries to locate sea mines or detect and mark enemy divers. In some areas, they cooperate with local fishermen by driving fish into their nets and eating the fish that escape.
The Russian Defense Ministry tender says the bottlenose dolphins should be caught in the presence of marine mammal specialists and transported by freight vehicles in bathtubs with sea water. The captured dolphins must undergo a 30-day quarantine period at a facility “provided by the contractor,” the document says.
According to news reports, in late 2014 Russia’s Black Sea Fleet held exercises with combat dolphins, after Russia announced it was taking over the Ukrainian Navy’s dolphin program. The program trained dolphins to find mines in the water and track down divers. The dolphins have also reportedly been outfitted with weapons that could be used to kill people and even plant bombs on a submarine.
The Russian Defense Ministry dismissed these reports at the time, and its spokesman Igor Konashenkov said “there is no need to use exotic methods of protecting the adjacent water area.”
Now, apparently, there is.