Gorilla Warfare

[Lord Jim]

I have read some articles that say this really could not be done successfully, but I still found it amusing:

Animal Warfare: Could the Taliban Train Monkeys to Shoot?

Published July 27, 2010

A bizarre report of Taliban insurgents training monkeys and baboons to shoot at U.S. and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan seems unrealistic at best, according to an expert.

The story that appeared this month in the Chinese People's Daily suggested that insurgents used a reward-and-punishment system to train macaques and baboons to target soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms. The Taliban supposedly "taught monkeys how to use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars," the People's Daily wrote. [Top 10 Animal Recruits of War]

But a researcher who has spent his career studying the social life of nonhuman primates cast a highly critical eye on the story.

"They can be trained to do things like turn off lights and open faucets and so on, but eventually that breaks down," said William Mason, a psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis. "If we're talking about animals going out into the field or a fortress with an AK-47 or whatever, it seems very, very implausible."

It didn't seem like something anyone would try seriously to do, Mason said. He added that humans might demonstrate aiming and pulling a trigger to nonhuman primates, but that doesn’t amount to the same cognitive skill required to actively aim and fire at intended targets on a battlefield.

The Chinese story cited unnamed British journalists and U.S. military sources when discussing the idea of insurgent monkeys. By contrast, the U.S. military's Stars and Stripes news source interviewed a NATO spokesman who said the notion had no basis in reality.

Humans have used a wide variety of animals in warfare before, whether as battle mounts, supply carriers, marine patrollers or bomb sniffers. Yet such actions all still fall far short of turning a nonhuman primate into a miniature soldier capable of operating weapons and making thoughtful decisions about where to aim.

"The closest you could come plausibly [to using nonhuman primates] would be strapping explosives on an animal and sending it off," Mason told LiveScience. "To give a monkey a complex device like a rifle and say ‘We're going to train it to become a soldier’ is purely fantastical."

Nonhuman primates such as chimps do attack and kill rivals in other gangs, perhaps even to acquire more territory. But such conflicts don't perfectly parallel human wars, just as animal monogamy doesn't bear full comparison to human marriage.

"The analogies almost always break down at some point,"

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/ ... eys-shoot/

[Crackpot]

It's already been proven false.

[Crackpot]

especially considering the only native monkey/baboon is:

[Miles]

I don't know I saw some guys in the military who handled weapons like a monkey would perhaps.........

[Lord Jim]

It seems to me that it ought to be possible to train a chimp to shoot, (it wouldn't be easy; since the recoil and the noise would be very startling to the animal) but not at anything in particular....

And you certainly couldn't teach them how to load it, or what to do if it jams...

[Rick]

I figger they would actually be trained to carry and detonate explosives.

The gun part is just a ruse...

[Grim Reaper]

I dunno, this looks totally legit

[Miles]

Sooooo if I see a monkey with a back pack coming down the street towards me I should probably take cover..........

[Sue U]

Organ-grinders everywhere now live in constant fear.

[loCAtek]

I can't recall any animals historically used in warfare, (as opposed to messengers or guards) that weren't used in conjunction with human handlers e.g. horses, elephants or dogs.
They may attack an opponent, but they need a person to direct them, as they can not use higher judgment. As with dogs, leaving them to choose their target is open to too many errors.

[Rick]

If the objective is indiscriminant decimation they would work just fine...

[Big RR]

I can't recall any animals historically used in warfare, (as opposed to messengers or guards) that weren't used in conjunction with human handlers e.g. horses, elephants or dogs.
They may attack an opponent, but they need a person to direct them, as they can not use higher judgment. As with dogs, leaving them to choose their target is open to too many errors.

I thought BF Skinner trained pigeons to guide missiles into target buildings during WW2; not sure how well it worked, but I think it was used more than once.

edited to add: Sorry, it looks like the project went forward, but was abandoned in 1944 in favor of electronic guidance.

[rubato]

World Nut Daily has a Chinese edition!