WATCH: Scientists Amazed by ‘Cow Using an Actual Tool’
A 13-year-old Austrian cow may be rewriting what we know about bovine intelligence. Veronika, a pet cow in the Alpine village of Nötsch im Gailtal, drew the attention of animal cognition researchers after her owner, organic farmer Witgar Wiegele, noticed her unusual habit: playing with sticks and using them to scratch hard-to-reach spots.
A video of Veronika’s behavior made its way to biologists in Vienna, who realized they could be witnessing something rare in livestock—deliberate tool use. “It was a cow using an actual tool,” said Antonio Osuna Mascaró of Vienna’s University of Veterinary Medicine. “We got everything ready and jumped in the car to visit.”
Osuna Mascaró and fellow researcher Alice Auersperg arrived with a deck brush to see if Veronika could use it intentionally. In multiple trials, she grabbed the broom, repositioned it with her tongue, and held it in her teeth to scratch herself. She used the bristled end for tougher areas like her back, but switched to the smooth handle for sensitive spots such as her belly and udders, according to a study published in Current Biology.
Across seven sessions of 10 trials each, the researchers recorded 76 instances of tool use, including what they call “multi-purpose” use—choosing different ends of the same object for different tasks. This kind of flexibility has previously been documented in only a few nonhuman species, such as chimpanzees. The team believes other cows likely possess similar problem-solving skills that emerge under the right conditions, Scientific American reports.
“We don’t think Veronika is the Einstein of cows,” Osuna Mascaró said. But her ability to select, adjust, and wield a tool with precision is striking, especially for a species not usually associated with tool use outside of Gary Larson’s famous “Cow Tools” cartoon. The researchers suspect cows may generally be smarter than humans have assumed—particularly when they live long, stimulating lives. Osuna Mascaró describes Veronika’s home as “the most idyllic place imaginable for an Austrian cow, like straight out of The Sound of Music.”
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