Cow surprises scientists by using brush to scratch her back

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Credit: Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró

When it comes to using tools, Veronika the Austrian cow is outstanding in her field.

The 13-year-old Swiss Brown is the first cow to show the ability to use tools, scratching itself with a deck brush and even switching from the bristled end to the smooth end for sensitive areas.

The adjective “bovine” has become a synonym for “dull-witted” but cognitive biologists at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna say footage of Veronika challenges common assumptions about the cognitive ability of cows.

Dr Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a researcher at the Messerli Research Institute, said: “We expected to spend hours on the meadow, just waiting to see if she’d use a tool.

“But Veronika surprised us: she started using a stick the moment it was placed in front of her.”

He continued: “She picked it up with her hand-like tongue, held it in her mouth with precision, aligned it with her body, and rubbed it along parts of her back she clearly couldn’t reach otherwise.”

Veronika is a family pet belonging to Witgar Wiegele, an organic grain farmer and baker in Nötsch, a picturesque mountain village in southern Austria.

Around 10 years ago Mr Wiegele noticed that Veronika would occasionally pick up sticks and scratch with them. A friend of his sent phone footage to researchers.

Prof Alice Auersperg, lead researcher, said: “When I saw the footage I immediately thought: this is not just a curious behaviour, this is a scientifically valuable example of a tool used by a species that is traditionally overlooked in relation to its cognitive abilities.”

Flexible tool use is associated with complex cognition and has been seen in chimpanzees, the closest animal to humans.

Over a series of sessions, the team presented Veronika with a deck brush – a stiff-bristled broom – placed horizontally on the ground.

The orientation of the broom, bristle-end to left or right, was randomised. On each occasion, the cow purposefully chose the end appropriate for the area it wished to scratch.

Veronika used the broom with broad movements reminiscent of a human sweeping a floor for upper-body scratching, but with more control for sensitive areas such as udder or belly skin.

Prof Auersperg said: “To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of tool use in cattle.”

Scientists believe Veronika’s conditions as a pet – a long lifespan, a rich environment and daily human contact – created the ideal conditions for this behaviour to emerge.

The research was published in the journal Current Biology.

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