Veronika the cow joins club of tool-using animals.

A Current Biology study reports that Veronika, a 13-year-old cow, selected and adjusted sticks and brushes to scratch herself and met three scientific criteria for tool use.

A Current Biology paper documents a pet cow named Veronika using sticks and brushes to scratch herself. Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna observed the behavior and assessed it against formal criteria for tool use. The study is titled "Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow." The finding challenges the common assumption that cows do not use tools. Key findings: - Veronika is a 13-year-old cow observed selecting, adjusting, and reorienting sticks and brushes to scratch parts of her body. - The researchers, including Alice Auersperg and Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, reported that the behavior met three criteria for tool use: the object acted as an extension of the body, enabled an otherwise difficult action, and was intentionally reoriented. - The authors place Veronika alongside other reported tool users such as primates, elephants, cetaceans, and corvids. - Researchers offered possible explanations: one account links the behavior’s onset to the period after Veronika’s mother died and a loss of grooming, while applied ethologist Jan Langbein suggested access to manipulable objects made the behavior possible. - Langbein and others noted the work has prompted discussion about the conditions in which farm animals live. Summary: The study broadens descriptions of cow cognition by documenting flexible tool use in a single animal and records multiple interpretations of how the behavior developed. Undetermined at this time.