A 13-year-old cow, Veronika, became the first cattle documented using tools to scratch hard-to-reach spots, showing intentional behavior.

According to Austrian researchers, Veronika, a 13-year-old Swiss-Brown cow, is the first cattle known to use tools. She was seen using a stick and then a broom to scratch difficult-to-reach places. She demonstrated deliberate, goal-directed behavior by using different parts of the tool for different body parts. The results, which were published in Current Biology, refute the notion that cattle lack intelligence and provide more proof that animals may use tools more frequently than previously believed.