Researchers identify tool use in a pet cow, indicating livestock might be smarter than thought

Veronika the cow demonstrates her tool-using abilities by scratching herself. (Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró via CNN Newsource)

How does a cow scratch an itch on its back? An Austrian cow named Veronika has a solution that could change how we view livestock.

For the past decade, Veronika has been observed by her owner occasionally picking up sticks with her mouth, maneuvering the ends to reach areas of her body she can’t otherwise reach. When a team of animal behavior experts at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna recently saw a video of Veronika in action, they knew her use of sticks was exceptional.

Veronika’s innovative behavior is reported in a new study — the first to describe tool use in a pet cow, according to the researchers. It was published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

“What this tells us is that cows have the potential to innovate tool use, and we have ignored this fact for thousands of years,” lead author Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, said in an email. “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.”

The research paves the way for more cattle to be observed for this trait and could be evidence that cognitive capabilities of farm animals are greater than once thought, Osuna-Mascaró said.

A cow using tools

Veronika, a Swiss Brown cow, lives on a farm in the small Austrian town of Nötsch im Gailtal. It has everything a pet cow could dream of, including a green meadow and plenty of neighbors who greet her in passing.

When the study authors first saw the video of Veronika using a stick to scratch herself, it was clear that the behavior was intentional and not accidental, Osuna-Mascaró said.

To test how far her tool-use capabilities went, the researchers performed a series of controlled trials in which they placed a deck brush in front of the cow in various orientations. Each time Veronika used her long tongue to pick up the stick, they recorded which end she selected and the body region she targeted when scratching herself.

The researchers found that not only was Veronika displaying true tool use — when a tool serves a functional purpose and allows the subject to extend its own bodily limits — but she had a clear preference for how the tool was used. The side of the brush with the bristles was used when Veronika would rub at the thick skin of her upper body, and the blunt handle was used for the areas of her lower body where her skin is more delicate, such as her udder.

“This is extremely surprising because the only other solid example of multipurpose tool use that we know of belongs to the chimpanzees of the Congo Basin. These, sometimes, are observed using a single tool with two different ends, and use one end to open a hole in the termite mounds, and the other end to fish for the termites,” Osuna-Mascaró said. “The spatial relations in Veronika’s case are simpler. Nevertheless, it’s astonishing to find that a cow has the capability to do something like this.”

While chimpanzees have the advantages of hands and opposable thumbs, Veronika still surprised the researchers with the control she had with her mouth; she would readjust her grip depending on what side of the brush she wanted, what part of her body she was targeting and the range of motion she needed for the area. For her upper body, she would maintain a scrubbing motion, whereas the stick end allowed for gentle forward pushes with more precision.

Marc Bekoff, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who was not involved with the study, agrees that Veronika’s use of the deck brush is a clear display of tool use.

“While she didn’t manufacture (make) the brush, she clearly learned it could be used to relieve her itching and it felt good to do so. Since she clearly is cleverly manipulating the brush, I’m sure other cows have the bovine IQ to do it as well,” Bekoff said in an email.

“Cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are far too often written-off as being dumb and lacking emotions. Detailed research shows they are fully sentient beings with very active brains and rich and deep emotional lives,” he added.

Livestock intelligence

World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall discovered in 1960 that chimpanzees make and use tools, challenging the belief that the trait was unique to humans and forever transforming how we saw chimpanzees.

In the 1970s, avian scientist Irene Pepperberg challenged the notion that the bird brain is too small to perform complex cognition. She published numerous studies on an African Grey parrot that displayed skills similar to those of a human toddler, such as vocabulary recognition and counting objects.

“Today, we know that corvids and parrots can perform some tasks at the level of great apes. This would have been unimaginable years ago,” Osuna-Mascaró said. “This is just one example. There are many more. We still have a strong bias regarding the cognitive capabilities of the animals we exploit, and Veronika is here to point out our mistake.”

Veronika’s environment, which allows her to interact with humans and the rich landscape, may have given the cow the conditions she needed to develop this behavior. However, the researchers don’t believe that she is the “Einstein of cows,” Osuna-Mascaró said. It is likely that there are many other cows, bulls and farm animals with this ability that have gone unnoticed.

While the researchers plan to further study Veronika’s capabilities, they also invite anyone who has personally experienced a farm animal using an object as a tool to contact them via email or social media.

“We know more about the tool use of exotic animals on remote islands than we do about the cows we live with,” Osuna-Mascaró said. “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.”

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN