Chimpanzees use sticks to extract insects and honey, while crows do so to reach food. Dolphins and octopuses have also been documented doing so. However, now, for the first time, a cow can be added to that short list.
Veronika, a pet cow from Austria, shocked observers by grabbing sticks with her mouth and using them to scratch her body.
A team at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, in Austria have documented Veronika's use of sticks in a study published in Current Biology on Monday (January 19).
Meet Veronika
Veronika is a 13-year-old Swiss Brown cow that is not used for meat or milk production. Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker from a small town in Carinthia, keeps Veronika as a pet, according to BBC Science Focus.
Wiegele noticed that Veronika would occasionally grab sticks and use them to scratch her body.
Veronika, a Swiss Brown cow in the Austrian Alps, has long been seen picking up sticks and brushes to deliberately scratch an itch
This is not quirky behaviour it’s the first documented case of a cow using a tool
pic.twitter.com/B8baL7gnjK
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) January 20, 2026
According to Wiegele, Veronika started playing with pieces of wood several years ago. She then figured out how to scratch herself using sticks. He also pointed out that Veronika recognised the family members' voices and rushed over when they called her.
“I was naturally amazed by her extraordinary intelligence and thought how much we could learn from animals: patience, calmness, contentment, and gentleness,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian. A long video of Veronika reportedly shared by Wiegele caught the eye of scientists in Vienna.
Testing Veronika’s skills
Scientists were stunned by the video.
“It was a cow using an actual tool,” Dr Antonio Osuna Mascaro at the city’s University of Veterinary Medicine said after seeing it. Mascaro and his colleague, Dr Alice Auersperg, then led the study into Veronika's use of tools. Both reached the Austrian Alps, which they said was “the most idyllic place imaginable for an Austrian cow.”
The team initially offered her a broom brush, assuming she would use only the bristled side. Instead, Veronika changed how she handled the tool based on where she needed to scratch.
For larger areas like her back that required a firm scratch, she used the bristles. But when tending to more sensitive spots, such as her underbelly, she turned the brush around and used the smooth handle for a gentler touch, according to the study.
A pet cow named Veronika uses tools in a surprisingly sophisticated way. Image courtesy: @JungereCato/X
“We thought at the beginning that perhaps Veronika was not careful enough when choosing which end to use against her body,” Mascaro told the Washington Post. Adding, “However, after a while, we started to observe a pattern. Veronika indeed had a preference for using the broom end..."
“She was using a far more careful approach. It wasn’t an error. It was a meaningful use of the handle end of the tool,” Mascaro added.
Mascaro also told BBC Science Focus, “The only well-documented case of something comparable comes from chimpanzees, on those – also rare – occasions when they fish for termites by combining the functions of the two opposite ends of the same stick."
'Not Einstein of cows'
The study says that Veronika may not be special. Rather, it is the circumstances that have been in her favour. Veronika has been granted access to large, open spaces, daily human interaction, and the freedom to explore and experiment in her surroundings.
The findings also indicate that perceptions of livestock and animal intelligence may depend less on the animals’ abilities and more on whether they are given the chance to explore their intelligence. Researchers also note that most cows do not live as long as 13 years, and they do not even live in such a stimulating environment. Therefore, their intelligence is rarely witnessed.
Veronika and her ground-breaking scratching are detailed in a study published today in Current Biology. Image courtesy: @SciVigil/X
“Other clever cows have come to light. We don’t believe that Veronika is the Einstein of cows,” Mascaro told The Guardian. “What this tells us is that cows have the potential to innovate tool use, and we have ignored this fact for thousands of years,” he added.
With inputs from agencies
