Veronika (not pictured) taught herself how to scratch her back with a broom.

Veronika taught herself to use a broom to scratch herself. 

A pet cow from Austria has stunned scientists by displaying a skill previously undocumented in cattle: the flexible use of a multi-purpose tool.

Thirteen-year-old Veronika reportedly began using tools over a decade ago - first playing with wooden sticks, before learning how to scratch herself with them.

Her most striking skill involved using a broom for scratching, which caught the attention of Dr Antonio Osuna-Mascaró from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

When Osuna-Mascaró visited Veronika at her home in Carinthia, he observed Veronika scratching her back with the bristles, then flipping the stick over to scratch more sensitive areas, such as her stomach.

Speaking to BBC Science Focus, Osuna-Mascaró said: “The only well-documented case of something comparable comes from chimpanzees, on those – also rare – occasions when they fish for termites by combining the functions of the two opposite ends of the same stick.”

According to Dr Osuna-Mascaró, behavioural scientists have largely overlooked livestock, suggesting they may be more intelligent than previously thought.

He added: “It is important to know that cows have the capacity to innovate in their use of tools and to use them flexibly, because this sends a strong message about how biased we have been regarding cows’ intelligence and their capabilities.”

The study, Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow, is published in Current Biology.

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