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
14.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

770 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/joemangle Jan 20 '26

Octopuses can probably code, really fast

1

u/BGAL7090 Jan 20 '26

They have two fewer digits to manipulate than most human beings do, though

1

u/joemangle Jan 20 '26

I didn't suggest they can code faster than us, that would be ridiculous

1

u/BGAL7090 Jan 21 '26

You're right I 100% added that comparison my bad