Posted on 01/22/2026 8:23:41 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A pet cow named Veronika uses a tool in a surprisingly sophisticated way—possibly because she has been allowed to live her best life.
In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real.
Larson’s 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed a cow standing behind a table bearing an array of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image read simply “cow tools.” Now a pet cow named Veronika has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a surprisingly sophisticated way. The finding adds a new species to the growing list of creatures that have been found to use external objects to achieve a goal and suggests that society has been underestimating the minds of farm animals.
The story begins more than a decade ago with Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and traditional baker in the small Austrian town of Nötsch im Gailtal. Wiegele first observed that his family’s pet Swiss Brown cow, Veronika, would sometimes pick up sticks and use them to scratch herself, presumably to alleviate skin irritation from insects. When cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, saw a video recording of Veronika’s behavior, “it was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” she said in a statement. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”
Auersperg and her colleague Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró, a postdoctoral researcher, went to meet Veronika and her human family, who welcomed the researchers with freshly baked bread and apple strudel. “Veronika is very friendly,” says Osuna-Mascaró, who spent the summer observing her. “She also has a close bond with Witgar,” he notes. “Not only does Witgar prepare and sell bread, he also distributes it around the area. It was interesting to see Veronika watching every passing car with interest and trying to guess if the driver was Witgar. If she thought it was him, she would moo with all her might.”
The researchers analyzed how Veronika used one particular tool—a deck brush—to scratch herself. Observing Veronika’s behavior over dozens of trials, the researchers found that she used the broom exclusively to scratch the rear half of her body, including the rump, loin, udder and belly regions that would otherwise be difficult for her to reach. She precisely manipulated the broom with her mouth, using her tongue to lift it and her teeth to secure it in place. She targeted the thick-skinned upper areas of her body with the bristled end and the more sensitive underparts with the smooth stick end. She also scrubbed more vigorously on tougher parts of her skin and used gentle pushes on her delicate parts.
To the casual observer, using a broom to scratch an itch might not seem like an act of genius. But the way Veronika changed her grip on the broom and her movement of it in anticipation of the outcome calls to mind tool-using behaviors in the famously clever primates and corvids (crows and their kin). Moreover the way she uses the two broom ends differently “constitutes the use of a multipurpose tool, exploiting distinct properties of a single object for different functions,” Osuna-Mascaró and Auersperg write in their paper on the new findings, published today in Current Biology. Among nonhuman species, this kind of tool use has only been consistently documented in chimpanzees.
Such abilities may be widespread in cattle. “We don’t believe that Veronika is the Einstein of cows,” Osuna-Mascaró says. Together with anecdotal reports of tool use in cattle from South Asia, the results of the new study hint that the capacity for complex problem-solving behaviors, including tool use, might have ancient evolutionary roots but that such behaviors emerge only when conditions are favorable.
As a companion animal, Veronika, now 13 years old, has lived a long life in a stimulating environment. Nötsch im Gailtal is “the most idyllic place imaginable for an Austrian cow, like straight out of The Sound of Music,” Osuna-Mascaró says. He says the family contributed to Veronika’s tool use by “providing the special conditions that enabled Veronika to express herself.” Although she learned to use tools by herself, starting with branches that had fallen from trees, Wiegele later furnished her with sticks and rakes that allowed her to perfect her scratching techniques. Most livestock animals, in contrast, live much shorter lives and spend their time in impoverished settings such as factory farms without access to objects that they can manipulate.
“This is fantastic! I applaud the authors, as well as Veronika!” says primatologist Jill Pruetz of Texas State University, who was not involved in the new research. Pruetz studies how environmental factors influence the behavior of tool-using chimpanzees. She also has two companion cows of her own, Claire and Edith. “I am not completely surprised that cattle can use tools—after living in close proximity to my two cows for about seven years now, I have a lot more respect for bovine intelligence!” Pruetz says. “What strikes me about Veronika’s tool use is the precision with which she can manipulate the tool as well as switch its ends to target specific areas."
Pruetz adds that the paper illustrates the need for enrichment for the welfare of cattle.
“There are around 1.5 billion heads of cattle in the world, and humans have lived with them for at least 10,000 years. It’s shocking that we’re only discovering this now,” Osuna-Mascaró says. “We know more about the tool use of exotic animals on remote islands than we do about the cows we live with. However, we are now starting to be sensitive enough to observe them and give, at least to a few of them, the life they deserve, one in which they have the opportunity to play, interact with objects, and discover how to use them on their own.”
That is cute....I would have liked to have had a gun on some of those “roundups”....getting the cows to the barn at milking time. Did learn to shoot at a young age but didn’t take a gun to get the cows...our dad was probably smart to say, “leave it in the house.” LOL We shot water snakes with it so we could swim in the creek..
Cute!
We have two Treeing Walker Coonhounds that have BOTH learned that they can flip the latch on their kennels if they paw at them in an upward motion! I’ve hidden and seen them do it!
Not sure if one taught the other, or he just learned by observing, but both have carbine clips on their latches to prevent that now. ;)
“”Cows are idiotic. I know this for certain.””
I say “dumb” but idiotic will work...We left the farm when I was 15 and my “rounding up cows” days were over..moved to town and had different chores then - shoveling snow, raking leaves, mowing lawns, babysitting, cleaning houses - and getting paid which beat farming!!!
“”current intelligence level of ‘animals’””
We see those kind on the news every day!!!
I had to deal with a small herd of longhorns for several years. They were smart compared to regular cattle.
A cow that is smarter than half my fire department rookies that I attempted to train. Hmmm
“Some people are overly eager to “prove” that animals are intelligent beings and deserving of the full rights of personhood.”
I think they also use it to justify certain behavior in humans (like “homosexual” monkeys). I think Veronica, while having the sex organs of a female is “really” a male seeing how much “he” likes using tools. The paperwork is already in to change it’s name to Vern.
No! I hadn’t seen that one!
I wish we could keep crows in the US. It seems stupid we can’t, since we used to blow up trees full of them believing they were destructive to crops...
there are several vids of that crow. he’s impressive! ...and i didnt know there was a law against keeping them.
We’re only allowed to keep three wild birds in the US - English (or House) Sparrows, Rock Doves (common pigeon) and Starlings. They are all introduced species.
Licensed rehabbers sometimes keep wild un-releasable birds; and licensed falconers can take some birds of prey; but otherwise native birds are off limits.
why?... disease?
No; it’s because they’re native species, and has to do with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
I don’t know why/how it covers crows, but it does.
I’ve been BONKED by a cow tail at milking time a few times through the years. May as well hit me with a baseball bat!
I grew up on The Mean Streets of Milwaukeestan, but Mom would ship all of us kids to Aunt Alice’s farm for the summer months to help her out. Free Farm Labor. We cousins were the original Migrant Farmers, LOL!
I helped tend the Kitchen Garden but I ALSO milked goats. I hate goats to this day. Can’t stand their goofy faces and EVIL eyes. Can’t stand the smell of them, can’t stand any goat milk based cheeses. Ugh!
She needs to skill up with a shovel or rake she can get in her mouth so she can "Aus Misten" her stall! (And teach the other cows too! :0)
Thanks DiW. You've had two topics in GGG in one week, which is, uh, pasture your usual number.
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