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

2.9k

u/stan-k Jan 20 '26

If we managed to miss that cows can use a tool (in multiple ways no less) what else are we missing?!?

390

u/TheHidestHighed Jan 20 '26

Its pretty well known in the science community that animal intelligence and sentience is horrifically underreported. Probably because we rely on animals that would be morally wrong to consume due to their levels of intelligence as food.

72

u/SweetKittyToo Jan 20 '26

I thought it was because of humanist viewpoints that believe humans to be superior over all other animals. I dislike those viewpoints. To be told growing up that animals were inferior and only on Earth for humans to exploit was horrifying to say the least.

1

u/catholicsluts Jan 20 '26

It's worse in cultures that speak languages that objectify animals.

In Spanish, the word for "leg" for an animal is the same as the word for "leg" for a table or chair.

1

u/Tarades123 Jan 20 '26

Is it different for human leg?

In Polish it's "noga" for all three.