How does a cow scratch an itch on her back? An Austrian cow named Veronica has a solution that could change our view of livestock.
Over the past decade, Veronica’s owner has occasionally noticed her picking up sticks with her mouth, maneuvering her limbs to reach areas of her body she couldn’t otherwise reach. When a team of animal behavior experts at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna recently watched a video of Veronica in action, they knew her use of sticks was exceptional.
Veronica’s innovative behavior has been reported in a new study, the first to describe tool use in a pet cow, according to researchers. It was published on Monday in Journal of Current Biology.
Lead author Antonio J. “What this tells us is that cows have the ability to innovate tool use, and we have ignored this fact for thousands of years,” Osuna Mascaro, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, said in an email. “There are about 1.5 billion cattle in the world, and humans have lived with them for at least 10,000 years. It is shocking that we are only discovering this now.”
Osuna Mascaro said the research paves the way for more livestock to be observed for this trait and could be evidence that the cognitive abilities of farm animals are greater than previously thought.
Lead author Antonio J. -Antonio J. Osuna Mascaro
Cow using tools
Veronica, a brown Swiss cow, lives on a farm in the small Austrian town of Noch im Ghiltal. It has everything a pet cow could dream of, including a green meadow and plenty of neighbors to greet her as she stops by.
When the study authors first watched a video of Veronica using a stick to scratch herself, it was clear that the behavior was intentional rather than accidental, Osuna Mascaro said.
To test their ability to use tools, the researchers conducted a series of controlled experiments, in which they placed a brush in front of the cow in different directions. Each time Veronica used her long tongue to pick up the stick, they recorded the tip she chose and the area of the body she targeted when scratching herself.
The researchers found that Veronica was not only displaying authentic tool use—when the tool serves a functional purpose and allows the person to stretch his or her physical limits—but that she had a clear preference for how the tool was used. The bristle side of the brush was used when Veronica was scrubbing the thick skin on her upper body, and the sharp handle was used for areas of her lower body where her skin was more sensitive, such as the udder.
“This is very surprising because the only other strong example of multi-purpose tool use that we know of belongs to… Chimpanzees in the Congo Basin. “These are observed, sometimes, using a single tool with two different ends, using one end to open a hole in termite mounds, and the other end to fish out termites,” Osuna Mascaro said. “The spatial relationships in Veronica’s case are simpler. However, it is surprising to find that a cow has the ability to do something like this.
While chimpanzees have the advantages of opposable hands and thumbs, Veronica still surprises researchers with her ability to control her mouth; She would readjust her grip depending on which side of the brush she wanted, the part of her body she was targeting, and the range of motion she needed for the area. For her upper body, she maintained the rubbing motion, while the end of the wand allowed for gentle forward thrusts with more precision.
Mark Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who was not involved in the study, agrees that Veronica’s use of a deck brush is a clear display of tool use.
“Even though she didn’t (make) the brush, she clearly learned that it could be used to relieve her itch and felt comfortable doing so. Since she manipulates the brush so cleverly, I’m sure the other cows have the bovine IQ to do this as well,” Bekoff said in an email.
He added: “Cows and other highly intelligent and emotional animals are often written off as stupid and lacking in emotions. Detailed research shows that they are fully conscious beings with highly active brains and rich and deep emotional lives.”
Livestock intelligence
World-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall He discovered in 1960 that chimpanzees make and use tools, challenging the belief that this trait was unique to humans, and forever changing the way we see chimpanzees.
In the 1970s, the world of birds Erin Pepperberg Challenge the idea that the bird brain is too small to perform complex cognition. Many studies have been published about African gray parrot Which showed skills similar to those of young children, such as vocabulary recognition and object counting.
“Today, we know that Corvids Parrots can perform some tasks at the level of great apes. “This would have been unthinkable years ago,” Osuna Mascaro said. “This is just one example. There are many more. We still have a strong bias regarding the cognitive abilities of the animals we exploit, and Veronica is here to point out our mistake.”
Veronica’s environment, which allows her to interact with humans and the rich landscape, may have given the cow the conditions she needed to develop this behavior. However, researchers don’t think they are “Einstein cows,” Osuna Mascaro said. There are probably many cows, bulls, and other farm animals that have this ability and no one has noticed.
While the researchers plan to continue studying Veronica’s abilities, they are also inviting anyone who has personally experienced a farm animal using an object as a tool to contact them via email or social media.
“We know more about the use of tools by exotic animals on remote islands than we do about the cows we live with,” Osuna Mascaro said. “However, we are now beginning to be sensitive enough to monitor them and give, at least a few of them, the life they deserve, a life in which they have the opportunity to play and interact with things and discover how to use them on their own.”
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