Veronika, a 13-year-old Swiss Brown cow living a comfortable life in southern Austria, has become an unlikely scientific star after being observed using objects to scratch herself – deliberately, skilfully and with clear intent.
Armed with her long, strong tongue, she picks up sticks and brushes, manoeuvres them into position, and gets to work on those hard-to-reach itchy spots. Yes, even her bottom.
What started as a curious video clip quickly turned into a proper scientific investigation. Biologists Alice Auersperg and Antonio Osuna Mascaró from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna decided to see whether Veronika’s behaviour was a one-off party trick or something more impressive.
It turned out to be very much the latter. In a series of observations, Veronika demonstrated what scientists call “goal-directed tool use”: she didn’t just grab whatever was lying around; she adjusted how she used each object depending on the itch.
For tougher areas like her back, she favoured the bristled end of a brush. For more sensitive spots, she carefully opted for the smoother handle. Not bad for an animal many people assume just chews grass all day!
The findings, published in Current Biology, mark the first scientific proof that domestic cattle can use tools in a targeted way – something previously documented mainly in primates and clever birds like crows.
Auersperg, who is originally from Bavaria, told German news agency dpa that cows are nothing like the dim-witted caricatures they are often made out to be. “The cognitive abilities of farm animals are often underestimated,” the researchers noted.
Veronika’s lifestyle may have helped: she doesn’t produce milk and isn’t destined for the butcher. Instead, she lives as a pet with an organic farmer and baker in Carinthia, enjoying space, stimulation and human interaction.
These are conditions that scientists say may allow animals to express abilities rarely seen in industrial farming settings.
Auersperg first heard about Veronika after publishing her book “The Inventive Spirit of Animals”, which prompted people to share stories of animals doing unexpectedly clever things.
A video of a cow wielding a scratching tool was too intriguing to ignore, although the researchers made sure it wasn’t a trained trick or an AI fake before taking it seriously.
Whether Veronika is a rare genius or simply the first cow scientists have bothered to study properly remains to be seen. But her brush-wielding antics have already scratched away at old assumptions – proving that when it comes to intelligence, cows deserve a little more credit… and a good back scratch, too.