Swiss-funded study finds cows are smarter than originally thought

Veronika the cow has amazed researchers by using a broom to scratch specific areas of her body. This is considered tool use – a skill that was not previously known to be possessed by cattle. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox This calls into question the previous assessment of the cognitive abilities of cattle, as reported by scientists from the Research Institute for Human-Animal Relations in Vienna, funded by the Swiss Messerli Foundation. The study was published on Monday in the journal Current Biology. “For a long time, it was virtually automatically assumed that cows were stupid,” said study leader Alice Auersperg in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. However, the study has shaken the common mockery of the “stupid cow”. Initial doubts After publishing a book on animal intelligence, Auersperg received an email with a video of the cow Veronika. “We are always cautious with videos like this. In the age of deepfakes, you never know if videos ...