Scientists Amazed by 'Cow Using an Actual Tool'

A 13-year-old Austrian cow has just nudged cattle a little higher up the intelligence ladder. Veronika, a pet cow in the Alpine village of Nötsch im Gailtal, caught the attention of animal cognition researchers after her owner, organic farmer Witgar Wiegele, noticed she liked to play with sticks and had learned to use them to scratch hard-to-reach spots, the Guardian reports. A video of her behavior made its way to biologists in Vienna, who realized they might be looking at something rarely seen in livestock: deliberate tool use. "It was a cow using an actual tool," said Antonio Osuna Mascaró at Vienna's University of Veterinary Medicine. "We got everything ready and jumped in the car to visit."

Osuna Mascaró and fellow researcher Alice Auersperg showed up with a deck brush to test her. In repeated trials, Veronika picked up the broom, repositioned it with her tongue if needed, and held it in her teeth to scratch herself. She typically used the bristled end for tougher areas like her back, but switched to the smooth handle and lightened the pressure when scratching sensitive regions such as her belly and udders, according to a study published in Current Biology.

Over seven sessions of 10 trials each, the team recorded 76 instances of Veronika using the broom, including what they call "multi-purpose" tool use—choosing different ends of the same object for distinct tasks. That kind of flexibility has been clearly documented in only one other nonhuman species: chimpanzees. The researchers believe other cows probably have similar problem-solving abilities that only surface when conditions are right, Scientific American reports. "We don't believe that Veronika is the Einstein of cows," Osuna Mascaró says.

Cows haven't traditionally been mentioned in the same breath as chimps, crows, or dolphins when it comes to tool use—outside of Gary Larson's famously baffling "Cow Tools" cartoon. Veronika doesn't build her own gadgets, the scientists note, but she does select, adjust, and wield one with striking control. The researchers suspect cows may generally be more cognitively capable than humans have assumed, especially when they live longer lives in stimulating environments. Osuna Mascaró describes Veronika's home as "the most idyllic place imaginable for an Austrian cow, like straight out of The Sound of Music."