A cow that uses tools is challenging what we know about the intelligence of farm animals
A pet cow named Veronica uses tools in a surprisingly sophisticated way – possibly because she’s been allowed to live her best life
Antonio J. Osuna Mascaro
In news that will delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon-turned-meme about the limits of bovine cognition, cow tools are real.
Larson’s 1982 comic for his series far away A cow was shown standing behind a table with a series of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image simply reads “Cow Equipment”. Now a domesticated cow named Veronica has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a surprisingly sophisticated way. The discovery adds a new species to the growing list of creatures that have been found to use external objects to achieve a goal and suggests that society is underestimating the brains of farm animals.
The story begins more than a decade ago with Wittger Wiegele, an organic farmer and traditional baker in the small town of Notts im Geltal, Austria. Wigley first observed that his family’s pet Swiss brown cow, Veronica, would sometimes pick up sticks and use them to scratch herself, presumably to reduce skin irritation from insects. When cognitive biologist Alice Orsperg of the Veterinary University, Vienna, watched a video recording of Veronica’s behavior, “it immediately became clear that this was not accidental,” she said in a statement. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”
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Orsperg and his colleague Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaro, a postdoctoral researcher, visited Veronica and her human family, who welcomed the researchers with freshly baked bread and apple strudel. “Veronica is very friendly,” says Osuna-Mascaro, who spent the summer observing her. “She also has a close relationship with Witgar,” he notes. “Wittgar not only prepares and sells bread, but he also distributes it throughout the area. It was interesting to see that Veronica was looking with interest at every passing car and trying to guess whether the driver was Vittgar. If she thought it was him, she would moan with all her might.”
Researchers analyzed how Veronica used a special tool – a deck brush – to scratch herself. Observing Veronica’s behavior over dozens of trials, researchers found that she used the broom exclusively to scratch the back of her body, including the rump, groin, udder, and belly areas that would otherwise be difficult for her to reach. He operated the broom with precision with his mouth, using his tongue to lift it and his teeth to secure it in place. He targeted the thick skinned upper areas of his body with the bristle end and the more sensitive lower areas with the smooth stick end. He rubbed harder on the tougher parts of his skin and gave gentler strokes on the more delicate ones.
To the casual observer, using a broom to scratch an itch might not seem like a feat of genius. But the way Veronica changes her grip on the broom and shakes it in anticipation of the outcome calls to mind tool-using behavior in famously clever primates and corvids (crows and their relatives). Additionally, the way she uses the ends of both brooms differently “results in the use of a multipurpose tool, using different properties of the same object for different tasks,” Osuna-Mascaro and Orsperg write in their paper on the new findings, published today. Current Biology. Among non-human species, this type of tool use has only been consistently recorded in chimpanzees.
Such abilities can be found widely in cattle. “We don’t believe Veronica is the Einstein of cows,” says Osuna-Mascaro. Combined with anecdotal reports of tool use in cattle from South Asia, the results of the new study indicate that the ability for complex problem-solving behaviors, including tool use, may have ancient evolutionary roots, but such behaviors only emerge when conditions are favorable.
As a companion animal, Veronica, now 13, has lived a long life in a stimulating environment. Knötsch im Geltal “The most delightful place imaginable for an Austrian cow, like straight out sound of music,Osuna-Mascaro says. He says the family contributed to Veronica’s device use by providing “special circumstances that enabled Veronica to express herself.” Although he learned to use tools on his own, starting with branches fallen from trees, Wigley later provided him with sticks and rakes that helped him improve his scratching technique. In contrast, most livestock live very short lives and spend their time in poor conditions such as factory farms, where they do not have access to objects they can manipulate.
Veronica uses different ends of the broom and different techniques when scratching different parts of her body.
Antonio J. Osuna Mascaro
“This is fantastic! I applaud the writers as well as Veronica!” says Jill Pruetz, a primatologist at Texas State University, who was not involved in the new research. Pruetz studies how environmental factors influence the tool-using behavior of chimpanzees. She also has two companion cows, Claire and Edith. “I’m not entirely surprised that cattle can use tools – after living close to two of my cows for almost seven years, I have a lot of respect for bovine intelligence!” Pruetz says. “What impresses me about Veronica’s use of the tool is the precision with which she can manipulate the tool as well as switch its ends to target specific areas.”
Pruetz says this paper shows the need for enrichment for cattle welfare.
“There are about 1.5 billion cattle in the world, and humans have been living with them for at least 10,000 years. It’s shocking that we’re discovering this now,” says Osuna-Mascaro. “We know more about the tool use of exotic animals on remote islands than we do about the cows we live with. However, now we are beginning to be sensitive enough to observe them and give, to some of them, the life they deserve, in which they have the opportunity to play, interact with objects and discover how to use them themselves.”
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