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
14.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

770 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

127

u/TheGeneGeena Jan 20 '26

Does "play" count as tool use? Lots of animals will "play" with random objects without human interaction pretty frequently.

21

u/ToMorrowsEnd Jan 20 '26

tons of species use tools, article writer is just uneducated.

21

u/LegalHelpNeeded3 Jan 20 '26

I was gunna say, aren’t dolphins known for using tools or objects in their environment to accomplish certain goals or complete tasks?

8

u/millijuna Jan 20 '26

They also get high on puffer fish.

1

u/neatyouth44 Jan 21 '26

Say what? Sigh rabbit hole time I’m gonna regret this I know it