Word soon got around and before long a video clip of the cow’s behaviour reached biologists in Vienna who specialise in animal intelligence. “It was a cow using an actual tool,” said Dr Antonio Osuna Mascaró at the city’s University of Veterinary Medicine. If the broom was at an awkward angle, Veronika used her tongue to reposition it before clamping it in place with her teeth. Gary Larson’s 1982 Far Side cartoon, Cow Tools, shows a cow standing behind a table of oddly shaped objects. Since the study, Osuna Mascaró said other clever cows have come to light.

Source: The Guardian January 19, 2026 17:30 UTC