Veronika the cow astounds science with first consistent case of tool use

In the 1980s, American cartoonist Gary Larson published a humorous cartoon that became a classic: Cow Tools. It depicts a cow next to some tools that are difficult to identify but appear to be useless. No one understood the joke, to the point that the author had to issue a statement to explain himself. The joke, he said, stemmed from the idea that if cows made tools, they would be ineffective and absurd. This image reflected the cultural perception of cattle that has existed for decades: that they are intellectually limited animals. However, what seemed absurd and impossible has just been documented in real life, specifically in Carinthia, a region in southern Austria. A domestic cow named Veronika demonstrated that she can use a tool flexibly, an action never before seen in cattle. She learned the technique, described by experts as “fascinating,” on her own. Her tools: a stick or a broom, which she uses to scratch various parts of her body.

The study, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, expands the small group of animals capable of using a tool for multiple purposes. In Veronika’s case, the changes in her grip indicate that it is an anticipatory action, a use seen only in primates and corvids. Her story has been documented by biologists Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró and Alice M.I. Auersperg. These researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna placed a broom with two different ends in front of Veronika: one with stiff bristles and the other smooth. Over seven sessions of 10 experimental trials, Veronika used the broom 76 times to scratch herself. With her mouth and tongue, she lifted the broom, carefully adjusted it, and held it firmly between her teeth to achieve precise control over which end to use.

Osuna-Mascaró states that what Veronika can do is the only consistent case — that is, not based on anecdote — that has been seen in cattle.

The right surface

Veronika adapted the use of each end depending on the area of the body. For areas with thicker skin, like the back, she used the brush with firm scrubbing motions. However, when it came to delicate areas like the udder or the folds of the belly, she changed her approach. She reserved the seemingly non-functional end of the handle for particularly sensitive areas and applied a much gentler technique.

Veronika’s behavior involved anticipatory adjustments to her grip, changes in technique, and coordination between body and tool. These traits, until now, were associated exclusively with primates and some highly intelligent birds, such as crows. “At first, we thought using the stick was a mistake,” Osuna-Mascaró admits. “But we began to see a pattern. Veronika was adapting the tool to the function. What seemed non-functional, she had made functional.”

While chimpanzees use tools to interact with external objects (an allocentric use), Veronika directs the tool toward her own body (an egocentric use). “Egocentric use is simpler,” Osuna-Mascaró emphasizes. “Children, for example, learn to comb their hair before they learn to use objects to interact with their environment.”

The Goffin Lab, directed by Auersperg, frequently receives videos sent by people who believe they have observed animals using tools. Most are not genuine. “Nowadays, with artificial intelligence, fake videos abound,” warns Osuna-Mascaró. But the video of 13-year-old Veronika was different. Suspecting it might be a genuine case, the team immediately traveled to the rural Austrian area where Veronika lives and met her owner, Witgar Wiegele, a traditional baker. There, they confirmed that this cow, his pet, used sticks and had started doing so at the age of four. She hadn’t been trained and was perfectly capable of scratching herself. “And this is because Veronika is subjected to constant pressure from horseflies during the summer. They are always biting her, always bothering her, and she absolutely hates them,” explains the biologist.

An exceptional case?

According to Osuna-Mascaró, this is not an isolated case. “There is no scientific literature on cattle using tools, but there are videos on social media of cows and bulls using sticks or branches to scratch themselves,” he says. Some of these cases even involve bulls from different lineages, domesticated independently in Asia and Europe thousands of years ago. This indicates, according to the researcher, that the ability could have been present since the time of the aurochs, the wild ancestors of cattle, the same animals that appear in cave paintings.

Christian Nawroth, a scientist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Dummerstorf, Germany, says that Osuna-Mascaró and Auersperg’s work comes at a time when more and more cases of tool use in the animal kingdom are being documented. “The fact that we are still surprised that farm animals exhibit such skills says a lot about our perceptions of these species as well as about animal behavior,” he argues. Because it involves only one subject, he cautions, “we lack the data to make broader claims.” Even so, he describes the finding as “fascinating.”

For Xavier Manteca, professor in the Department of Animal Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the main contribution is how this cow uses the object “flexibly.” This expert in ethology considers it unlikely that Veronika is an exception. In his opinion, these types of discoveries usually follow a pattern.

A major bias

Osuna-Mascaró criticizes the fact that “we know more about the cognition of exotic animals from remote islands than about the cows that live among us.” The reason, he says, is a major bias that has persisted for years. “When we look at them, we don’t see individuals with undiscovered abilities. We see objects of exploitation.”

Veronika transformed — with an action that demonstrates intelligence and adaptability — what Larson imagined as a clumsy and confused cow. Larson’s caricature had three problems, Osuna-Mascaró states. The first was thinking his joke was funny. The second was assuming that a cow’s tools would be “so simple and so ridiculous to us that we wouldn’t even recognize them as tools.” And the third mistake Larson made, the Spanish biologist asserts, “was assuming that it would be absurd for a cow to be able to use tools.”

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