+- Animal Lovers Web Forum (http://www.animalloverswebforum.com)
+-- Forum: Animals (http://www.animalloverswebforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Cows (http://www.animalloverswebforum.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=13)
+--- Thread: Tool use in Cows? (/showthread.php?tid=9027)
Tool use in Cows? - Catherine - 01-20-2026
We tend to see tool use as a sign of intelligence. We keep finding out that different species use tools. The latest is a cow. She picked up a stick and used it to scratch her back. Veronika the cow has been using sticks for years. Researchers only saw the video recently. This is the first time researchers have noticed tool use in a cow.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/researchers-identify-tool-use-in-a-pet-cow-indicating-livestock-might-be-smarter-than-thought/
They only just noticed the tool use by a cow. That doesn't mean cows haven't been using tools. It means we haven't noticed.
Maybe cows have been using tools all along. Maybe a lot of other animals use tools and we haven't noticed. We need to expand our thinking and really look at the animals around us. We tend to see what we expect to see. It is time we looked at what is really happening.