{{Use British English|date=January 2026}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}}
[[File:Veronika’s_tooling_technique_and_targeted_areas_(cow_tools).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Veronika uses a broom to scratch herself, using the coarse brush on her tough [[Hide (skin)|hide]] and the wooden handle on her udders and underbelly.]]
[[File:Veronika’s_tooling_technique_and_targeted_areas_(cow_tools).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Veronika uses a broom to scratch herself, using the coarse brush on her tough [[Hide (skin)|hide]] and the wooden handle on her udders and .]]
”’Veronika”’ (born {{Birth based on age as of date|13|2026|1|noage=y}}) is a pet [[Braunvieh]] cow in the Austrian town of [[Nötsch im Gailtal]] ({{langx|sl|ÄŒajna}}). She has been observed to scratch herself using tools and is believed to be the first cow to be documented doing so.
”’Veronika”’ (born {{Birth based on age as of date|13|2026|1|noage=y}}) is a pet [[Braunvieh]] cow in the Austrian town of [[Nötsch im Gailtal]] ({{langx|sl|ÄŒajna}}). She has been observed to scratch herself using tools and is believed to be the first cow to be documented doing so.
0-=di
== Life ==
== Life ==
Cow that has used tools (born 2010s)
.jpg)
Veronika (born 2012 or 2013) is a pet Braunvieh cow in the Austrian town of Nötsch im Gailtal (Slovene: Čajna). She has been observed to scratch herself using tools and is believed to be the first cow to be documented doing so.
0-=di
Life
Veronika, a brown cow, was born in 2012 or 2013[1] and lives in the Austrian town of Nötsch im Gailtal,[2] near the Italian border. She is kept as a pet by Witgar Wiegele, a farmer and baker. Veronika started playing with branches that had fallen off trees years before the study was published in 2026,[1][3] and worked out in about 2016[4] how to use them as tools to scratch herself, likely driven to alleviate irritation from insects. Wiegele has also reported that Veronika can recognise the voices of her family members and runs over to them when they call for her.[1]
After cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg found video recordings of Veronika using tools, she and her postdoc Antonio Osuna-Mascaro travelled by car to Nötsch im Gailtal to study the cow[1] and did so for two weeks.[4] They gave her a broom and she would pick it up, using her tongue to reposition it until firmly holding it with her teeth. The cow would move the broom around by moving her head, and would use the broom to scratch regions of her body that were normally unreachable to her. She would use the bristles to scratch the tough parts of her skin and would use the wooden handle of the broom to more carefully scratch her udders and underbelly. The researchers initially thought that this was a mistake, Veronika picking up the wrong side of the broom, but came to the conclusion that Veronika appears to do it on purpose.[1]
The study was published in the journal Current Biology in January 2026.[5] It described it as the first documented use of a tool by a cow. The lead author of the study, Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró, has written that “What this tells us is that cows have the potential to innovate tool use, and we have ignored this fact for thousands of years … There are around 1.5 billion heads of cattle in the world, and humans have lived with them for at least 10,000 years. It’s shocking that we’re only discovering this now.” As of January 2026 the authors plan on further studying Veronika’s behaviour and request contact from people who have observed farm animals using tools.[2] Before the study, chimpanzees were the only mammal known to use tools for multiple purposes.[6]
The authors do not believe that Veronika is an extremely intelligent cow, but instead believe that cows have always been capable of tool use and that humans have not noticed them.[2] While the cause for Veronika’s learning to use the tools is unknown, Osuna-Mascaró has said that the cow’s owner “provid[ed] the special conditions that enabled Veronika to express herself”. The owner gave the cow rakes and sticks which allowed her to improve her ability to use them. Veronika was 13 years old in 2026, which is much older than what most farm animals live to. Farm animals also often live in places where they cannot interact with and manipulate objects, such as in factory farms.[3]
Reception
Jill Pruetz, a primatologist at Texas State University, has said that “I am not completely surprised that cattle can use tools—after living in close proximity to my two cows for about seven years now, I have a lot more respect for bovine intelligence!” Scientific American has paraphrased further comments from Pruetz, saying that the “paper illustrates the need for enrichment for the welfare of cattle”.[3]
