Austrian cow makes history as tool use recorded for first time ever

Veronika is able to pick up objects with her tongue, grip them firmly in her mouth, and direct them exactly where she needs them most.

Scientists from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna have now confirmed what her owner spotted over a decade ago – she genuinely knows how to use tools.

The discovery came about after Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the university, published a book on animal tool use.

Her inbox was soon flooded with messages from pet owners claiming their animals used tools – including one person insisting their cat treated an Amazon box as a house.

But among these everyday reports was something genuinely remarkable: footage of a cow picking up a rake and scratching her backside.

"It was immediately clear that this was not accidental," Auersperg said.

"This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective."

Auersperg and her colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaro ran a series of tests, placing a deck brush on the ground and recording how Veronika handled it.

They found when scratching her thick-skinned back or rump, Veronika grabbed the bristled end and applied sweeping, forceful movements.

But when targeting softer, more sensitive areas like her belly and udder, she switched to the smooth handle, moving more gently.

"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," Mr Osuna-Mascaro said.

Veronika's life is far from typical for a cow. Her owner, Witgar Wiegele, is an organic farmer and baker who kept her and her mother as pets rather than for milk or meat.

She's spent her days roaming a picturesque pasture surrounded by forests and snow-covered mountains in the small town of Notsch im Gailtal, with plenty of sticks and landscaping tools to explore.

The researchers reckon her long lifespan, daily human contact and access to such a rich environment created the perfect conditions for her skills to emerge.

Horse flies that plague the property each summer likely motivated her to develop these self-scratching abilities in the first place.

"We don't think that Veronika is the Einstein of cows; we think that her conditions are special enough for her to be able to express herself in a way that other cows simply can't," Mr Osuna-Mascaro said.

The team is now asking anyone who's spotted cows or bulls using sticks or other objects for purposeful actions to get in touch.

Marc Bekoff, an emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, agrees this is genuine tool use.

"Cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are far too often written off as being dumb and lacking emotions," he said.

Veronika joins an impressive club of tool-users, including chimpanzees, crows that bend wires into hooks, and sea otters who crack shellfish with stones.

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