Meet Veronika, the first cow known to engage in flexible, multipurpose tool use

"In news that is sure to delight fans of a certain Gary Larson cartoon turned meme about the limitations of bovine cognition, cow tools are real. Larson's 1982 comic for his series The Far Side showed a cow standing behind a table bearing an array of oddly shaped objects. The text below the image read simply cow tools. Now a pet cow named Veronika has been documented not only using a tool but doing so in a surprisingly sophisticated way."

"The finding 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 has been underestimating the minds of farm animals. The story begins more than a decade ago with Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and traditional baker in the small Austrian town of Notsch im Gailtal. Wiegele first observed that his family's pet Swiss Brown cow, Veronika, would sometimes pick up sticks and use them to scratch herself, presumably to alleviate skin irritation from insects. When cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, saw a video recording of Veronika's behavior, it was immediately 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."

An organic farmer, Witgar Wiegele, documented his pet Swiss Brown cow Veronika picking up sticks and using them to scratch herself. Cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg and postdoctoral researcher Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaro reviewed video evidence and visited the farm to observe the behavior. They judged the actions purposeful and identified the behavior as meaningful example of tool use. The observation extends the list of species known to use external objects to achieve goals and challenges assumptions about farm animal cognition. Veronika is described as very friendly and emotionally bonded to her owner, and the farmer’s long-term observations provided the initial evidence.

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