Former MI5 Director General Lord Jonathan Evans has disclosed that the intelligence agency once considered using gerbils as lie detectors to catch undercover spies. The revelation came during an appearance on The Rest is Classified podcast, where Lord Evans described a secret dossier titled 'Gerbils Use in Counterintelligence'.
The proposal involved placing a suspect's hand into a box containing gerbils. If the rodents detected stress-related hormones in the sweat, they would trigger a mechanism such as a wheel or a light to indicate deception. However, the plan was abandoned due to a fundamental flaw.
Lord Evans, who led MI5 from 2007 to 2013, told the podcast hosts: 'The only problem with this technology is that it doesn't actually work.' He jokingly added, 'I thought that was really going to solve counter-espionage challenges - but there you go. You have to take risks. We normally like our pigeons, but we've introduced gerbils into the spy world now.'
The curious military application of rodents was reportedly part of a classified project, but never reached operational use.
