Guy Veronika, who lives in a picturesque mountain village in the Austrian countryside, has spent years perfecting the art of scratching herself with sticks, rakes and deck brushes. Now that scientists have discovered her, she has the distinction of being the first cow known Use the tools.
She picks up objects with her tongue, holds them with her mouth, and directs their ends where she wants them most. When she’s using the deck brush, she uses the bristle end to scratch the back of her thick skin, but switches to the smooth handle when scratching her soft, sensitive belly.
in the new StudyPublished in the journal Current Biology, scientists from the Veterinary University of Vienna analyzed Veronica’s behavior and concluded that it qualifies as a tool. Although humans have lived with cattle for nearly 10,000 years, this is the first time scientists have documented a cow using an instrument.
The researchers say their findings show that not only are cows smarter than we thought, but other cows can develop similar skills if given the chance.
Itching
How the gray cow’s knowledge came to the attention of scientists last year came to the attention of scientists after Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, published a book on tool use in animals. Soon after, her inbox was filled with messages from people claiming to have seen their pets using the devices. “I get all these emails from people saying things like, ‘My cat is using Amazon Box as a device. This is his new home,'” she says. Some of these mundane reports were truly new: a video of a cow picking up a rake and scratching her backside.
“It sounded really interesting,” she recalls. “We had to take a closer look.” Not long after, Eursperg and his colleague Antonio Osuna-Mascaro, a post-doctoral researcher at the same university, drove to Veronica’s house.
To say that Veronica was living her best life would be an understatement. Her owner, a gentle-hearted baker named Witger Weigel, kept Veronica and her mother as pets. She spent her life roaming the lush pastures surrounded by forests and snow-capped mountains. Veronica, now 13, has spent years messing around with the many sticks and landscaping tools that line her enclosure.
The only downside to his idyllic lifestyle is that every summer, horse flies plague Wiegele. According to the researchers, the desire to repel these flies and scratch their bites led Veronica to develop her self-scratching skills.
After getting to know Veronica, the researchers conducted behavioral tests to determine if Veronica was indeed a device user. The definition of device use is “very strict,” says Auersperg. To be considered a tool user, an animal must intentionally grasp an object and direct its functional end toward a target, creating a mechanical interaction that achieves a goal.
(This may have been the first recording device used by wild wolves)
A skilled brush user
To test Veronica’s skills, the researchers would randomly position a deck brush on the floor next to Veronica and record which corner Veronica grabbed and which part of her body she scratched. What the researchers saw surprised them.
“His tongue rolled like a carpet,” says Auersperg. “The tip of his tongue was really like a dexterous index finger; he held the stick in the middle and twirled it in his mouth. [the brush] Very steadily, twisted his neck, and began to scratch himself. It was really, really wonderful. “
After dozens of tests, during which the researchers saw her use different ends of the brush depending on which part of her body she was targeting, as well as different scratching styles, they concluded that her behavior was deliberate and controlled.
“There’s no doubt it’s a tool use,” says Robert Schumacher, an evolutionary biologist and president of the Indianapolis Zoo. Schumacher, who recently wrote a book on tool use in animals and was not involved in the new study, says he is excited, but not surprised, to see cows added to the list of tool-using animals. Other domesticated hoofed mammals, such as water buffalo and goats, are known to use tools, so it makes sense, he says, that cows could too.
(Dolphins learn how to use tools from friends, just like great apes)
Veronica relaxing while using a stick. ANTONIO J. OSUNA MASCARO
Leisure and learning
In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a comic titled Cow Tools that depicted a cow standing next to a random assortment of useless objects. The joke is linked to the widespread belief that cows are simple creatures unable to make or use tools.
This belief is convenient for those who prefer to think of cows as stupid, but it is completely delusional, says Osuna-Mascaró. “We don’t think Veronica is the Einstein of cows; we think her situation is good enough for her to be able to express herself in a way that other cows just can’t,” he says. “He has all the objects in the world to interact with and time to learn how to use them.”
According to Weigel, Veronica started scratching herself with a stick when she was 3 years old. At first, she was clumsy, but over the past nine years, she has honed her skills and can now scratch with precision. Given the time and rich environment in which Veronica was economized, other cows are likely to exhibit similar behavior, Osuna-Mascaro says.
Osuna-Mascaró also believes there may be other species whose tool use has flown under the radar. He invites anyone who has reports of animals using equipment that has not been previously documented to email him. But please, refrain from sending him anecdotes about your cats’ mastery with cardboard boxes.
