Austrian cow uses broom as scratching tool, makes history

Veronika the cow has just rewritten what we know about animal intelligence, one scratch at a time.

The 13-year-old Swiss brown cow living in Austria became the first scientifically documented case of a cow using tools. Researchers watched in amazement as she picked up a broom by its handle, used the bristles to scratch her torso, then flipped it around to use the smooth handle end on more sensitive areas.

"We were not expecting cows to be able to use tools, and we were not expecting a cow to use a tool as a multipurpose tool," said Dr. Antonio Osuna-Mascaro of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Until now, only chimpanzees have consistently shown this level of tool adaptation.

Veronika started her tool-using career at just three years old, picking up sticks to scratch unreachable spots. When scientists gave her a broom to study her behavior, she immediately understood its purpose and even improved upon it by using different ends for different tasks.

Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the university, confirmed what they witnessed wasn't random. "It was clear that this was not accidental," she told reporters. "This was a meaningful example of tool use."

Why This Inspires

Veronika's scratching sessions reveal something profound about the animals we share our world with. Since her discovery went public, videos of other cows using tools have surfaced online, including Brahman bulls that diverged from Veronika's species millions of years ago.

This suggests tool use among cattle isn't new at all. We simply weren't paying attention. How many other animal abilities have we overlooked simply because we weren't looking?

The discovery even brought new life to Gary Larson's infamous 1982 Far Side comic "Cow Tools," which puzzled readers for decades with its image of a cow displaying strange objects. What seemed like absurdist humor might have been weirdly prophetic. The comic became an internet meme, and now scientists are half-jokingly crediting it for inspiring them to actually study bovine behavior.

Veronika's story reminds us that intelligence comes in many forms, and our understanding of the animal kingdom still has plenty of room to grow.