Why an Austrian cow scratching its back has scientists scratching their heads

What is the study?

After coming across a video of Veronika, researchers Alice Auersperg and Antonio Osuna-Mascaro, from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, went to its home to observe her. Their findings were published on Monday in the journal Current Biology. “We recorded 76 instances of self-directed tool use over seven sessions of 10 trials…Veronika’s behavior… showed versatility, anticipation, and fine motor targeting.”

The study adds, “Although flexible tool use has been reported in terrestrial ungulates [ungulates are hoofed mammals] (including a recent, well-documented case in Asian elephants) prior to our study it had not been experimentally verified in cattle.”

Is tool usage in animals uncommon?

This study defined tool usage as “the manipulation of an external object to achieve a goal via a mechanical interface”.

In the 1960s, the renowned English primatologist Jane Goodall observed that chimpanzees could use blades of grass to spoon out insects from termite mounds to eat. Over the years, crows, parrots, whales, elephants, and wolves have shown varying levels of skills at manoeuvring objects to use as tools. But using one tool for multiple purposes is much rarer.

“Importantly, the differential use of both broom ends constitutes the use of a multipurpose tool, exploiting distinct properties of a single object for different functions. Comparable behavior has only been consistently documented in chimpanzees,” the study says.

In India, primatologist Anindya Sinha of the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bengaluru has, along with his collaborators, documented several female and a male bonnet macaque insightfully manufacturing and using tools in a variety of contexts — the only example of wild monkeys actively making tools anywhere in the world.

Is Veronika a super-smart cow?

The researchers say it is not the cow but the conditions in which it lives that are unusual. Veronika is being kept as a pet, not as a milch animal, by a family that also reared its mother. It lives near a meadow where it is allowed to roam free, and has been given opportunities to play and interact with loving humans. It is also 13 years old, a long and remarkably distress-free life for a cow.

The researchers say that because of the “persistent mind-denial biases associated with meat consumption”, there haven’t been many research attempts that look at cows beyond their utility value and as intelligent, social animals.

They claim that if more cows were offered a life as rich as Veronika’s, they could display similar behaviour.

Sinha, of NIAS, told The Indian Express, “The case of Veronika is that of one individual. This is not a systematic study of a large number of animals over a long period of time. There are two possibilities here. One is that this is a case of associative learning, where through trial and error, the cow has learnt that the broom can be used to scratch herself. The second, more intriguing possibility, is that Veronika has discovered that a tool can be manipulated in different ways for different goals. If that is true, it talks of a cow displaying insight, which would be much more remarkable.”

And what is the significance of all this?

The findings challenge assumptions about animals that are seen largely as utilitarian and boring. The case of Veronika can be used as a basis for further studies about the intelligence of cattle, and further our understanding of these animals.