A cow invents a backscratcher

The star of the story is Veronika, a 13-year-old Brown Swiss cow living on a mountain pasture in Austria. According to a study published in Current Biology, Veronika independently learned how to use a long-handled brush found in a field to reach parts of her body that are difficult to scratch, such as her back and belly. Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna observed that the cow does not simply use the object at random: she chooses which end to use depending on the part of the body she wants to reach. For example, the bristled end is used to scratch broader, tougher areas, while the smoother handle is used more gently on more sensitive spots. This type of behaviour is considered flexible tool use, associated with intelligence and the capacity to innovate by using external objects to achieve a goal. Until now, similar examples had mainly been documented in species such as chimpanzees and crows, but never before in cattle. The authors stress that Veronika did not make the tool, but selected and used it deliberately - a detail that challenges preconceptions about the intelligence of cows and livestock more generally. Researchers are now calling on other observers to report similar cases, in order to understand whether this kind of behaviour is more widespread among cattle than previously believed.