Veronica is a domesticated cow from Austria. His owners do not use him for meat or milk production. Nor was he trained in juggling; On the contrary, over the past 10 years he has developed the ability to find branches in the grass, pick one, hold it with his mouth and scratch himself with it to relieve skin irritation.
Until now, only chimpanzees had demonstrated the ability to use tools to improve their living conditions. Recent studies also show whales to be the only marine animals capable of using complex tools. This European cow is about to join that elite group of fantastical animals.
Videos of Veronica circulating online attracted the attention of veterinary researchers in Vienna. They visited the farm, conducted behavioral tests and conducted controlled trials. “In repeated sessions, they verified that their decisions were consistent and functionally appropriate,” a press release said.
The authors of the study published in Current Biology explained that Veronica’s abilities go far beyond using a point to scratch herself. In tests, the cow was presented with different textures and objects, and it adapted to its needs. Sometimes she would choose soft bristles and sometimes hard points. Researchers say she used different parts of the same tool for specific purposes and even modified her technique depending on the type of object or area of her body she wanted to scratch.
Although they consider the use of a tool to relieve irritation “less complex”, for example, using a sharp rock to reach the seeds, experts highly value Veronica’s ability to do so. For now, she demonstrates that she can decide which part of the device is most useful to her. According to the authors, the findings show that we have underestimated the cognitive ability of cattle.
Why is Veronica so skilled?
The team acknowledges that it is still too early to say whether all cows can use the tools with the same skill as Veronica. Currently, researchers are trying to figure out how this cow developed awareness of its surroundings.
Researchers believe her special circumstances played a role. Veronica has been living in a complex, open environment full of manipulable objects for 10 years – a far cry from the experience of cattle raised for milk and meat production. These conditions, he says, fostered exploratory and innovative behavior. Now they are using the equipment to search for more videos of the cattle to gather further evidence about their cognitive abilities.
“Until now, tool use was considered a select club, almost exclusively for primates (especially great apes, but also macaques and capuchins), some birds such as corvids and parrots, and marine mammals such as dolphins. Finding it in the cow is a fascinating example of convergent evolution: intelligence arises as a response to similar problems, no matter how different the ‘design’ of the animal is,” said Mikel Llorente, director of the Department of Psychology at the University of Aragon. Said, who were. It said in a statement to Science Media Center Spain that it was not involved in the study.
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