Cows can use tools, scientists report

Cow holding a stick — Cow intelligence might have been ‘underestimated’

(Image credit: Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró / Current Biology)

What happened

An Austrian cow named Veronika can use different parts of a wooden push broom to scratch herself, in the first verified instance of cattle using tools, cognitive biologists reported Monday in the journal Current Biology. The study adds cows to the “growing list of animals capable of using tools, an ability once thought to be a hallmark of humanity,” The Washington Post said.

“Making and using tools” was “thought to be uniquely human” until the 1960s, when primatologist Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee she named David Graybeard “dip a blade of grass into a termite mound to fish for insects to eat,” the Post said. “Since then, orcas, elephants, octopuses, crows, wolves, fish and ants have taken human beings down a peg or two by apparently wielding tools.”

Cattle “have not traditionally been celebrated for their smarts,” but perhaps they have been “underestimated,” The New York Times said. Unlike Veronika, a 13-year-old family pet, “very few of them get the opportunity to develop or demonstrate their cognitive abilities.” It’s probably not that Veronika is “like, the bovine Einstein,” study co-author Alice Auersperg of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna told the Times. But “she has the opportunity to interact with her environment and to learn about her environment.”

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Other species of cattle have been caught on camera using branches to scratch themselves, so “our conclusion is that Veronika is not special,” said study co-author Antonio Osuna-Mascaró. Humans have been mainly interested in cattle for meat and milk, Auersperg told the Times. “Perhaps the absurd thing was not the absurdity of a cow using tools, but the absurdity of us never thinking that a cow might be intelligent.”

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.