Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Austrian cow shows first case of flexible, multi-purpose tool use in cattle

Cell Press

image:
Veronika resting while using a stick.
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Credit: Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró

In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a now-iconic Far Side comic entitled Cow Tools. In it, a cow stands proudly beside a jumble of bizarre, useless objects that are “tools” in name only. The joke hinged on a simple assumption: cows are not intelligent enough to make or use tools. Now, this assumption is being challenged by a real cow named Veronika, according to a new study published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on January 19. This study is the first to describe tool use in a pet cow, suggesting that the cognitive abilities of cattle have been underestimated.

“The findings highlight how assumptions about livestock intelligence may reflect gaps in observation rather than genuine cognitive limits,” says Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

Veronika is not farmed for meat or milk. She is a long-lived Swiss Brown cow who has been kept as a companion animal by Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker with a strong appreciation for animals who regards her as part of the family. Over ten years ago, Witgar noticed that Veronika would occasionally pick up sticks and use them to scratch herself.

The behavior first came to scientific attention when it was recorded on video and shared with Auersperg. “When I saw the footage, it was immediately clear that this was not accidental,” she recalls. “This was a meaningful example of tool use in a species that is rarely considered from a cognitive perspective.”

Auersperg and her colleague, Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, traveled to meet and conduct systematic behavioral tests with Veronika. In a series of controlled trials, they presented a deck brush on the ground in a random orientation. The researchers recorded which end Veronika selected and which body region she targeted. Across repeated sessions, they found that her choices were consistent and functionally appropriate for the body regions she targeted.

“We show that a cow can engage in genuinely flexible tool use,” says Osuna-Mascaró. “Veronika is not just using an object to scratch herself. She uses different parts of the same tool for different purposes, and she applies different techniques depending on the function of the tool and the body region.”

Researchers found that Veronika typically prefers the bristled end of a deck brush when scratching broad, firm areas such as her back. However, when targeting softer and more sensitive regions of her lower body, she switches to the smooth stick end. In addition, she adjusts how she handles the tool. Veronika’s upper-body scratching involves wide, forceful movements, while her lower-body scratching is slower, more careful, and highly controlled, the researchers say.

Tool use is defined as the manipulation of an external object to achieve a goal through mechanical means. Researchers found that Veronika’s behavior meets this definition and goes a step further, describing it as flexible, multi-purpose tool use, meaning that different features of the same object are used to achieve distinct functional outcomes. Such multi-purpose tool use is extraordinarily rare and, outside of humans, has previously been documented convincingly only in chimpanzees.

“Because she is using the tool on her own body, this represents an egocentric form of tool use, which is generally considered less complex than tool use directed at external objects,” says Osuna-Mascaró. “At the same time, she faces clear physical constraints, as she must manipulate tools with her mouth. What is striking is how she compensates for these limitations, anticipating the outcome of her actions and adjusting her grip and movements accordingly.”

The findings represent the first documented case of tool use in cattle and the first evidence of flexible, multi-purpose tool use in this species. They also expand the taxonomic range of animals known to possess this capacity.

The researchers note that Veronika’s life circumstances may have played an important role in the emergence of this behavior. Most cows do not reach her age, do not live in open and complex environments, and are rarely given the opportunity to interact with a variety of manipulable objects. Her long lifespan, daily contact with humans, and access to a rich physical landscape likely created favorable conditions for exploratory and innovative behavior.

“[Veronika] did not fashion tools like the cow in Gary Larson’s cartoon, but she selected, adjusted, and used one with notable dexterity and flexibility,” the researchers write. “Perhaps the real absurdity lies not in imagining a tool-using cow, but in assuming such a thing could never exist.”

The team is now interested in understanding which environmental and social conditions allow such behaviors to emerge in livestock species, and how many similar cases may have gone unnoticed simply because no one was looking for them. “Because we suspect this ability may be more widespread than currently documented,” Osuna-Mascaró says, “we invite readers who have observed cows or bulls using sticks or other handheld objects for purposeful actions to contact us.”

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Current Biology, Osuna- Mascaró AJ, Auersperg AMI, “Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01597-0 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.059

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.059

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow

Article Publication Date

19-Jan-2026

Veronika using the broom with the bakery as background.

The wonderful Veronika.

Veronika scratching herself while having two sticks in her mouth.

Veronika resting and using tools to self-scratch.

Different techniques and body areas.

Credit

Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró

Human nasal passages defend against the common cold and help determine how sick we get

Cell Press

Human nasal epithelial cell releasing rhinovirus — image:
Electron micrograph showing a human nasal epithelial cell releasing rhinovirus (blue). 
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Credit: Julien Amat & Bao Wang

When a rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, infects the lining of our nasal passages, our cells work together to fight the virus by triggering an arsenal of antiviral defenses. In a paper publishing January 19 in the Cell Press journal Cell Press Blue, researchers demonstrate how the cells in our noses work together to defend us from the common cold and suggest that our body’s defense to rhinovirus—not the virus itself—typically predicts whether or not we catch a cold, as well as how bad our symptoms will be.

“As the number one cause of common colds and a major cause of breathing problems in people with asthma and other chronic lung conditions, rhinoviruses are very important in human health,” says senior author Ellen Foxman of Yale School of Medicine. “This research allowed us to peer into the human nasal lining and see what is happening during rhinovirus infections at both the cellular and molecular levels.”

To do so, the researchers created lab-grown human nasal tissue. They cultured human nasal stem cells for four weeks while exposing the top surface to air. Under these conditions, the stem cells differentiated into a tissue with many of the cell types that are found in the human nasal passages and lining of the lung airways, including cells that produce mucus and cells with cilia—moving hair-like structures that sweep mucus out of the lungs.

“This model reflects the responses of the human body much more accurately than the conventional cell lines used for virology research,” Foxman says. “Since rhinovirus causes illness in humans but not other animals, organotypic models of human tissues are particularly valuable for studying this virus.”

The model allowed the team to examine the coordinated responses of thousands of individual cells at once and test how the responses changed when the cellular sensors that detect rhinovirus were blocked. In doing so, the researchers observed a defensive mechanism that keeps rhinovirus infections at bay, coordinated by interferons—proteins that block the entry and replication of viruses.

Upon sensing rhinovirus, cells in the nasal lining produce interferons, which induce a coordinated antiviral defense of infected cells and neighboring cells, making the environment inhospitable for viral replication. If the interferons act quickly enough, the virus cannot spread. When the researchers prevented this response experimentally, the virus quickly infected many more cells, causing damage and, in some cases, death of the infected organoids.

“Our experiments show how critical and effective a rapid interferon response is in controlling rhinovirus infection, even without any cells of the immune system present,” says first author Bao Wang of Yale School of Medicine.

The research also revealed other responses to rhinovirus that kick in when viral replication increases. For example, rhinovirus can trigger a different sensing system that causes infected and uninfected cells to synergistically produce excessive mucus, increase inflammation, and sometimes cause breathing problems in the lungs. These responses may be good targets for intervening in rhinovirus infection and promoting a healthy antiviral response, say the researchers.

The team acknowledges that the organoids used contain limited cell types compared to those in the body, since in the body an infection attracts other cells, including those in the immune system, to join the defense against rhinovirus infection. They say that understanding how other cell types and environmental factors in the nasal passages and airways calibrate the body’s response to rhinovirus infection is an important next step of this work.

“Our study advances the paradigm that the body’s responses to a virus, rather than the properties inherent to the virus itself, are hugely important in determining whether or not a virus will cause illness and how severe the illness will be,” Foxman says. “Targeting defense mechanisms is an exciting avenue for novel therapeutics.”

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This study was supported by funding from the Yale Colton Center for Autoimmunity, the Rita Allen Foundation, and the China Scholarship Council Yale World Scholars Fellowship.

Cell Press Blue, Wang et al., “Rhinovirus triggers distinct host responses through differential engagement of epithelial innate immune signaling” www.cell.com/cell-press-blue/fulltext/S3051-3839(25)00001-5

Cell Press Blue (@cellpressblue) is a highly selective open-access journal from Cell Press that publishes cutting-edge research from across the sciences. The journal welcomes advances in biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, materials science, energy, environmental science, and sustainability, as well as interdisciplinary work that forges new connections between these fields.

Electron micrograph of differentiated human nasal epithelial organoids with cilia of multiciliated cells accentuated in blue.

Credit

Julien Amat & Bao Wang