History Main / AnimalEspionage

Spying on people is an activity carried out by humans, but it can also be carried out by animals. These animals can have implants allowing for communication, be sapient or not sapient, and maybe even have chips that allow you to record what they see. The animals can be trained, used as tools by the humans, or could be doing it for their own purposes.

For Carrier Pigeons, see InstantMessengerPigeon. Supertrope to LiteralSurveillanceBug and StealthyCephalopod. If a character does this by using the eyes of the animal, it's AnimalEyeSpy.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Most of the team's non-combat morphs are for this purpose, and in time manage to get the hang of a morph's senses (especially insects) well enough to understand what's being said. The Yeerks catch on to this, and take great care to kill any insect or animal that enters their facilities.

* In ''Literature/TheImmortals'', Daine uses her animal magic primarily for this, since she can speak to animals, share their bodies, and later transform into one. She gets away with it in part because wild magic is assumed by most to be an old wives' tale, but as she becomes more famous her enemies wise up and start noticing things like squirrels reading maps or animals where they shouldn't be.

* Perry the Platypus, from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', is secretly Agent P of the Organization Without a Cool Acronym. All other agents in the OWCA are also animals (and on at least one occasion, a potted plant).

* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', one of [[TheDragon Zorg]]'s minions uses a cockroach fitted with a [[IncrediblyObviousBug hilariously conspicuous transmitter]] to spy on the president. The roach also seems to have a brain implant that allows him some rudimentary control over it. The president eventually notices the bug and squashes it, causing painful feedback for the listener. (Note that this is a parodical exaggeration. Despite the film being set a few centuries in the future, in real life the technology already exists to do this trick more effectively.)

* Early in the ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' Mewtwo spies on Ash and company with a camera attached to a Fearow.

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* ''Film/GForce'' has sentient guinea pigs that are spies.

* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', Belloq and the Nazis employ a monkey to try and spy on Indy. It doesn't entirely work, since the monkey eats a poison date, which in turn causes Sallah to stop Indy doing the same, thus saving his life.

* ''Film/TheFieldGuideToEvil'': In "The Cobbler's Lot", Princess Boglarka sends her pet raven to spy on Tivadar on his quest to see if he succumbs to the temptations of the loosestrife pool.

* The book ''Literature/ASentientAnimal'' involves dolphins being used and trained for espionage
* Dean Koontz's 1987 novel ''Watchers'' deals with genetic engineering that uplifts a Golden Retriever named "Einstein" to near-human intelligence for the purpose of espionage.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', ravens are the typical way to send letters. More extreme examples are wargs, who are basically people that can fall asleep at will and look out the eyes of an animal. It's usually a pet they're very close to, but very talented wargs can become any animal they'd like. Its television adaptation, ''Series/GameOfThrones'', also shows them used for this purpose.
* The dwarfs of Middle Earth in Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheHobbit'' find an old crow who once served Thorin's grandfather, as at that time, dwarfs could speak with various birds. Thorin is able to use the crow to get a thorough analysis of the Five Armies marching toward Lonely Mountain: which races, how many, which direction, and distance from target. Bilbo Baggins also hears this report, and it moves him to take remedial action.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series, [[CreepyCrows ravens, crows]] and rats can be used as spies for [[SatanicArchetype the Dark One]], and as such have bounties in the Borderlands and are generally killed on sight. Generally speaking, they have to report to some manner of [[OurMonstersAreDifferent shadowspawn]], but some more powerful villains can [[AnimalEyeSpy take them over directly]].
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': {{Invoked|Trope}}. Animagi can turn themselves into animals so as to go around without attracting suspicion as a human, though there's always an element to the disguise that identifies their human form. In Rita Skeeter's case, she turns into a literal surveillance bug (a beetle). This causes Bellatrix Lestrange to kill a fox at one point, as she believed it to be an auror... except in this case it genuinely was a fox.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Most of the team's non-combat morphs are for this purpose, and in time manage to get the hang of a morph's senses (especially insects) well enough to understand what's being said. The Yeerks catch on to this, and take great care to kill any insect or animal that enters their facilities.

* This is the reason that Jabberjays were created in ''Literature/TheHungerGames''. People figured this out, though, and began giving the birds [[RedHerring Red Herrings]] to throw off President Snow.

* Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheBeastMaster'' novels. Hosteen Storm has telepathic/empathic links with four animal companions -- the meerkats Hing and Ho, the African Black Eagle Baku and the sand cat Surra. He regularly uses them as spies/observers.
* The [[spoiler:diamond turtle]] in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfAlice''. Subverted, as it turns out to be a remote-controlled robot.
* In ''Literature/FairyOak'' Tomelilla mentions it's quite probable that the emissaries of the Enemy transform themselves into animals to do this, cue a class on animal behavior and characteristics that Magicals can't imitate. The taste of cow milk is one of them, apparently.
* ''Literature/InSearchOfDorothy'' has a heroic example in Trisha the Good Witch of the South, who communicates with butterflies that warn her of any impending danger.

* In the ''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Dr. Watson]] At War'' series by Robert Ryan, UsefulNotes/TELawrence thinks the Germans have a spy in the room where he's drawing up maps for the Allied armies. Watson spends the night staking out the map room, but all he gets is a CatScare when he interrupts a cat rummaging in a waste basket for food. Afterwards however, he suggests to Lawrence that a cat might be trained to retrieve waste paper before it's put in the incinerator.
* In ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'', the uplifted foxes all think like spies, and have been recruited by the Folly (mostly Abigail) to do surveilance in exchange for cheese puffs.
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* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': In "Chico", the IMF must rely on a trained terrier, named Chico, to retrieve a list of undercover agents from a drug lord's underground vault.