Veronika, a cow living in an idyllic mountain village in the Austrian countryside, has spent years perfecting the art of scratching herself with sticks, rakes, and deck brushes. Now that scientists have discovered her, she has the distinction of the first cow known to use tools.

A pet cow named Veronika can scratch her own back with a broom — the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows, researchers say.

Austrian researchers say they've found the first known example of tool use by cattle, courtesy of a Swiss-Brown cow named Veronika.

The unexpected observation of a cow using a broom to scratch herself isn't necessarily surprising, but it expands our knowledge about the biodiversity of tooling.

Scientists investigating video of a cow using tools say their findings could expand the list of animals capable of tool use.

The smartest cow ever lives in Austria and uses tools to solve problems, challenging what we know about cattle intelligence.

The 13-year-old Swiss Brown is the first cow to show the ability to use tools, scratching itself with a deck brush and even switching from the bristled end to the smooth end for sensitive areas.

In 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a now-iconic "Far Side" comic titled "Cow Tools." In it, a cow stands proudly beside a jumble of bizarre, useless objects that are "tools" in name only. The joke hinged on a simple assumption: cows are not intelligent enough to make or use tools.