Veronika, a cow living in an idyllic mountain village in the Austrian countryside, has spent years perfecting the art of scratching with sticks, rakes and deck brushes. Now that scientists have discovered her, she has the distinction of being the first known cow use tools.
She picks up objects with her tongue, squeezes them tightly with her mouth, and directs their ends where she wants them most. When wielding a deck brush, she’ll use the bristle end to scratch her thick-skinned back, but switch to the smooth handle when she’s scratching her soft, sensitive belly.
In a new studypublished in the journal Current Biology, scientists from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna analyzed Veronika’s behavior and concluded that it qualifies as a tool for use. Despite about 10,000 years of humans living with cattle, this is the first time scientists have documented a cow using an instrument.
The researchers say their discovery shows not only that cows are smarter than we think they are, but that other cows could develop similar abilities if given the chance.
Scratched an itch
The know-how of the brown cow came to the attention of scientists last year after Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, published a book on the use of tools in animals. Soon after, her inbox was flooded with messages from people claiming to have seen their pets using tools. “I get all these emails from people saying things like, ‘my cat uses the Amazon box as a tool. It’s her new home,'” she says. Among these mundane accounts was something truly new: a video of a cow taking a rake and scratching her back with it.
“It looked really interesting,” she recalls. “We had to take a closer look.” Not long after, Auersperg and her colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a postdoctoral researcher at the same university, drove to Veronica’s house.
To say that Veronika was living the best life would be an understatement. Her owner, a kind-hearted baker named Witgar Wiegele, had kept Veronika and her mother as pets. He had spent his life roaming a picturesque pasture surrounded by forests and snow-capped mountains. Veronika, now 13, has had many years to mess around with the many sticks and landscaping tools that line her enclosure.
The only downside to her idyllic lifestyle is that every summer horse flies infest Wiegele’s property. According to the researchers, the desire to ward off these flies and scratch their bites likely led Veronika to develop her scratching skills.
After meeting Veronika, the researchers conducted behavioral tests to determine if Veronika was indeed a tool user. The definition of using the tool “is very strict,” Auersperg says. To be considered a tool user, an animal must intentionally grasp an object and direct its functional end toward a target, creating a mechanical interaction that achieves a goal.
(This may be the first recorded tool used by a wild wolf)
A skilled brush user
To test Veronika’s skills, the researchers placed a deck brush on the ground near her in a random position and recorded which end Veronika grabbed and which part of her body she scratched. What the researchers saw took them by surprise.
“Her tongue rolled out like a carpet,” says Auersperg. “The tip of her tongue was like a really nimble index finger; she grabbed the stick in the middle and rolled it in her mouth. [the brush] very stable, he turned his neck and started scratching. It was really, really amazing.”
After dozens of tests, during which the researchers saw her use different ends of the brush, as well as different scratching styles, depending on which part of her body was targeted, they concluded that her behavior was deliberate and controlled.
“There’s absolutely no question that this is tool use,” says Robert Shumaker, an evolutionary biologist and president of the Indianapolis Zoo. Shumaker, who recently co-authored a book on animal tool use and was not involved in the new study, says he’s pleased to see cows added to the list of tool-using animals, but not surprised. Other domesticated hoofed mammals, such as water buffalo and goats, are known to use tools, so it makes sense, he says, that cows can do so too.
(Dolphins learn how to use tools from their peers, just like the great apes)
Veronika rests while using a stick. Antonio J Osuna Mascaro
Leisure and learning
In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a comic strip titled Cow Tools, which featured a cow standing next to a random assortment of useless objects. The joke was based on the widespread belief that cows are mere creatures incapable of making or using tools.
This belief, while convenient for those who prefer to think of cows as unintelligent, is completely wrong, says Osuna-Mascaró. “We don’t think Veronica is the Einstein of cows; we think her conditions are special enough that she can express herself in a way that other cows just can’t,” he says. “He has all the objects in the world to interact with and time to learn how to use them.”
According to Wiegele, Veronika started scratching herself with sticks when she was just 3 years old. He was clumsy at first, but over the past nine years he’s perfected his skills and can now scratch with precision. Given the time and enriched environment Veronika was given, other cows would likely exhibit the same behavior, says Osuna-Mascaró.
Osuna-Mascaró also believes there may be other species whose tools have similarly flown under the radar. He invites anyone with a report of animals using tools that have not been previously documented to email him. But please, refrain from sending him anecdotes about your cats’ fondness for cardboard boxes.