The story began when Austrian baker Witgar Wiegele sent a video of his cow, Veronika, to the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Researchers saw a cow scratching its back with an old rake in the video. They realized there was something special about Veronika, as they were used to studying inventive birds and primates but had never seen a cow using tools.
Antonio Osuna-Mascaró traveled to a small Austrian alpine village to study the 13-year-old Veronika more closely. He gave Veronika a multi-purpose tool, a broom with a brush on one side and a handle on the other. After a while, Antonio Osuna-Mascaró discovered that Veronika used the broom in a flexible and purposeful way.
The results of the study are published in Current Biology. Veronika is an unusual cow, not used for food production but kept as a companion animal that roams freely in meadows. Maria Vilain Rørvang, a behavioral biologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp, has seen the video of Veronika.
She has researched cows for many years but has not seen them do exactly what Veronika does. ' There are about a hundred documented cases of animals using tools, most common among primates and corvids, but it has been observed in about ten different species. Researchers do not know how common tool use is among cows globally.
Antonio Osuna-Mascaró has searched for more cows with Veronika's ability and found a cow in India (Bos indicus) with the same ability. He wants to continue studying Veronika's abilities and find more cows that use tools. Researchers in Austria are now encouraging people to submit videos of their tool-using cows and other animals.
They do not believe Veronika is some kind of bovine Einstein, but she has had the right conditions to develop this ability and they believe there are more such cows.