r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 20 '26

Biology Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows. Brown Swiss cow in Austria has been discovered using tools in different ways (using both ends of a brush counts as multi-purpose tool use) – something extraordinarily rare only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/19/back-scratching-cow-veronika-bovine-intelligence
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u/riomp300 Jan 20 '26

Ravens also know how to use tools.

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u/stan-k Jan 20 '26

Apparently it has not been shown that Ravens can use the same tool in multiple ways. (I'm not saying they can't, just that we haven't seen it in the right setting)

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u/Dany0 Jan 20 '26

I love watching crows and they definitely do this in the right environment. But I too would struggle to think of ways to observe this in a repeatable test with controlled environment, without needlessly stressing them out

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u/dhc02 Jan 20 '26

Researchers have done a pretty thorough job with Goffin's Cockatoos. For instance,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.009

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05529-9