In 1982, Gary Larson drew one of his most famous Far Side cartoons, a scene of a bovine amusingly standing behind an assemblage of strange-looking implements labeled as “cow tools.” More than 40 years later, a cow in Austria is proving that the notion of cattle being smart enough to wield tools — with flexibility and dexterity, no less — isn’t so silly after all.
Meet Veronika, a pet Swiss Brown Cow who has been observed using a deck scrub broom to scratch herself, even repositioning the tool with her mouth according to which part of the body she wants to scratch. She stars in a new study in the open-access journal Current Biology that describes what appears to be the first use of flexible multipurpose tool use in cattle.
“The findings highlight how assumptions about livestock intelligence may reflect gaps in observation rather than genuine cognitive limits,” said Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna and co-author of the study.
Veronika’s behavior first came to Auersperg’s attention through a video recorded by the animal’s human companion, Witgar Wiegele. More than a decade ago, the organic farmer began to notice that the pet occasionally picked up sticks and used them to scratch herself — a behavior that is known though not often documented — and captured her in action as her technique improved.
“When I saw the footage, it was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” Auersperg said in a statement. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”
Intrigued, Auersperg and her colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a post-doctoral researcher at the same Vienna school of veterinary medicine, visited Veronika in her picturesque Austrian town to discover exactly how she used tools to scratch itches, which likely result from bug bites.
They placed a deck scrub brush in front of the creature, and across randomized trials, watched her using her tongue to position the tool before securing it laterally in the space between her incisors and molars to create a stable grip for precise control.
Marina von Keyserlingk, a professor of animal welfare at the University of British Columbia has conducted prior research showing that cows in natural environments are highly motivated to use trees and other abrasive surfaces to scratch and groom themselves.
“The difference here is that the cow is using her mouth to operate the broom handle for scratching purposes rather than approaching a brush, tree or something similar,” von Keyserlingk said in an interview. She was not involved with the Veronika study.
In 70 experiments conducted over a few days, Veronika applied the implement exclusively to hard-to-reach areas, like her rump, loin, thurl and navel flap. The Austrian researchers were struck by how she used the bristled end of the brush for thick-skinned areas, like her back, switching to gentle forward pushes with the less abrasive long wooden handle when targeting softer body parts, such as the udder.
Comparable use of a single object for different functions has only been consistently documented in chimpanzees, which have been seen applying a deliberate, distinguishable actions to modify herb stems into a brush-tipped probe before fishing for termites.
A Cow Seeking Comfort
“This is a very interesting example of a cow excerpting agency in order to increase her own comfort,” von Keyserlingk said, adding that it’s important we “not underestimate their ability to experience positive and negative states.”
Despite millennia of domestication for productivity, livestock have been almost entirely excluded from discussions of animal intelligence, according to the study.
“Veronika’s case challenges this neglect, revealing that technical problem-solving is not confined to large-brained species with manipulative hands or beaks,” the researchers write.
They do note that Veronika’s environment may have played a role in her skillful use of a tool to overcome limitations. She has long lived in an open, complex environment, with the opportunity to interact both with friendly humans and a variety of objects.
The scientists want to further understand the impact of environmental and social conditions emerging in such livestock behaviors. “Because we suspect this ability may be more widespread than currently documented, we invite readers who have observed cows or bulls using sticks or other handheld objects for purposeful actions to contact us,” Osuna-Mascaró said.
Meanwhile, researchers have yet to explore whether cows can use tools to scratch the backs of their human friends, an ability that would no doubt be welcome by farmers with hard-to-reach itches.