Cow Veronika uses broomstick as a tool: 'Very special'
Claudia Vinke in the Volkskrant newspaper
The cow, Veronika, lives in the Austrian countryside, in a meadow next to her owner's bakery. Ten years ago, her owner noticed that Veronika used a stick to scratch herself. Years later, a video of this behaviour ended up with researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. They visited Veronika and brought a broom with them.
Veronika initially reacts to the broom as almost all cattle would react to new objects: sniffing and investigating with her tongue. “That's typical cow behaviour: first sniffing, then that twirling tongue,” says Claudia Vinke, senior lecturer in veterinary medicine at Utrecht University, who was not involved in the new study.
But then it happens: with the broom in her mouth, Veronika gently pushes the handle against the skin flaps under her belly. Or she grabs the broom at the other end and scrubs her back with the head. This alternation shows that the cow consciously chooses how to reach different parts of her body, says Vinke.