Cows Really Can Use Sophisticated Tools

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IIf cows could use tools, imagine the scenes that might unfold: cutting wires to escape from their pastures; getting out of milking machines; or remove the twine from the hay bales. Of course, we haven’t seen cows doing any of these things. But a study published today in Current biology shows a cow named Veronika effectively using a patio broom as a scratching tool, thus satisfying the scientific definition of tool use as “the manipulation of an external object to achieve a goal via a mechanical interface.”

Veronika is a brown Swiss cow pet (Bos bull) kept as a companion by a farmer. In a series of 10 trials, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna presented him with a broom thrown on the ground in a random orientation. On each trial, they recorded which end of the brush she selected and how she used it. Veronika manipulated the broom with her mouth, placing it under her tongue, then wedged it into the spaces between her incisors and molars for a stable grip.

Veronika skillfully used the brush to scratch her itch, manipulating it to target different areas. During randomized trials, she chose the spiky end for scratching her rear end, but switched to the stick end for gentler areas of her lower body. Over repeated trials, she made consistent choices about how to handle the broom. “When I saw the images, it was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” study author and cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg said in a statement.

Read more: »Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours»

Veronika’s use of tools is considered “self-centered” because it is directed against herself. Although simpler than using an “allocentric” tool, where the tool is directed at something outside oneself, it is nonetheless a cognitive feat. Except in primates, such adaptive tool use by a mammal has never been reported before.

The results suggest that the cows’ abilities were underestimated, since tool use offers a “rigorous test of cognitive flexibility,” the study authors wrote.

Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us, since cows have been associated with humans for over 10,000 years as domestic animals. The researchers point out that Veronika may have had sufficient time to experience and learn this behavior during prolonged contact with a human-built environment. Its status as the farmer’s pet might also have provided him with more opportunities to observe a cow’s behavior.

“The results highlight how assumptions about livestock intelligence may reflect gaps in observation rather than true cognitive limitations,” Auersperg said.

What will the cows, sheep or goats do next?

Main image: Peter Hofstetter / Shutterstock

• Devin Reese

  Published on January 19, 2026

  Devin Reese is the editor-in-chief of Natural history and a science writer based in Alexandria, Virginia.