This tool-using cow defies expectations for bovine braini...

What’s Happening

Listen up: Veronika the cow uses a brush as a tool to scratch herself, revealing rare problem-solving skills and expanding what we know of tool use in animals.

News Animals This tool-using cow defies expectations for bovine braininess Veronika uses a long-handled brush to scratch her back and other out-of-reach body parts ⏸ A pet Brown Swiss cow named Veronika has learned to use tools such as a deck brush (shown) to scratch parts of her body that she can’t otherwise reach. Auersperg/ Current Biology 2026 By Erin Garcia de Jesús at 11:00 am this: via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. (wild, right?)

) A deck brush can be a good tool for the right task.

The Details

Just ask Veronika, the Brown Swiss cow. Veronika uses both ends of a deck brush to scratch various parts of her body, researchers report January 19 in Current Biology .

It’s the first reported tool use in a cow, a species that is often “cognitively underestimated,” the researchers say. Cows usually rub against trees, rocks or wooden planks to scratch, but Veronika’s handy tool allows her to reach parts of her body that she couldn’t otherwise, says Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a cognitive biologist at the Messerli Research Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

Why This Matters

It’s unclear how the cow figured it out, but “somehow Veronika learned to use tools, and she’s doing something that other cows simply can’t. ” for our We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. Veronika, a pet cow that lives in a pasture on a small Austrian farm, picks up the brush with her tongue and twists her neck to place the brush where she needs it.

Scientists and researchers are watching this development closely.

The Bottom Line

Veronika, a pet cow that lives in a pasture on a small Austrian farm, picks up the brush with her tongue and twists her neck to place the brush where she needs it. Setting the brush in front of her in different orientations showed that she uses the hard, bristled end to target most areas, including the tough, thick skin on her back.

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