Cow Intelligence: Scratching Reveals Smarter Animals 🐄🧠

Scientists are reassessing the intelligence of cattle after an Austrian cow named Veronika demonstrated an unprecedented ability to use tools.

Cow Displays Tool Use, Challenging Assumptions About Cattle Intelligence

Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker from Carinthia, Austria, first noticed Veronika playing with sticks and using them to scratch her body. Wiegele observed that Veronika also recognized family members’ voices and would greet them upon hearing them.

The observation prompted biologists at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna to investigate. “It was a cow using an actual tool,” said Dr. Antonio Osuna Mascaró.

Researchers conducted field trials with Veronika, a brown Swiss cow, using a deck brush. They found she could not only pick up the brush but also manipulate it effectively. Veronika used her tongue to reposition the brush and held it in place with her teeth.

The cow favored the bristled end of the brush to scratch her back, but switched to the handle for more delicate areas like her udders and belly, according to a study published in Current Biology.

“At the beginning I thought this was the result of a mistake,” Osuna Mascaró said. “But after a while we started to observe a pattern: Veronika indeed had a preference for using the broom end, but when she used the handle end she was doing so in a meaningful way.”

Tool use is common in species like chimpanzees, crows, dolphins, and octopuses – the latter of which have been filmed throwing shells at one another. However, livestock have historically been considered less intelligent.

The findings contrast with depictions of cows, such as Gary Larson’s 1982 Far Side cartoon, “Cow Tools,” which humorously portrayed a cow with nonsensical tools. Larson later explained the cartoon was meant to illustrate the imagined limitations of a tool-using cow.

Over seven sessions of trials, Veronika demonstrated tool use in 76 instances, scratching areas she couldn’t reach otherwise. Researchers noted her use of both ends of the brush constituted multi-purpose tool use, a behavior rarely observed outside of humans and chimpanzees.

Researchers believe Veronika’s age (13 years) and stimulating environment may have contributed to her skills, but suggest cattle may generally be more intelligent than previously thought. Since the initial study, other clever cows have been identified. “We don’t believe that Veronika is the Einstein of cows,” Osuna Mascaró said. “What this tells us is that cows have the potential to innovate tool use, and we have ignored this fact for thousands of years.”

The scientists emphasize that Veronika’s abilities do not suggest the emergence of a “super-cow” species. As they wrote in their study, “She did not fashion tools like the cow in Gary Larson’s cartoon, but she selected, adjusted and used one with notable dexterity and flexibility. Perhaps the real absurdity lies not in imagining a tool-using cow, but in assuming such a thing could never exist.”