Don't talk about bovine gaze!

We read in the ARA A news story by Cristina Sáez that steals our heartsScientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna have found that a cow is capable of "using a tool flexibly for specific purposes." The photograph shows the animal, named Veronika, with a stick in her mouth. They say that "this is an action that had not been previously described in cattle, only in some primates and corvids."

See how domestic animals learn It's very stimulating. At home, I haven't seen my fellow sufferers using tools, but I have seen them using their claws like primates. One of my cats, for example, when I put down a single bowl of food, uses his paw (always the right one) to grab it and pull it towards him, thus annoying the others. They hang onto door handles with the noble aim of opening them. Needless to say, they know—and it's fascinating—the wrappers of different cans of food and know, of all of them, which one they like best. My neighbors' dog chooses, from among all the humans, the one who seems weakest, and places a stick in their lap with the noble aim of getting them to throw it to him. One day, I was the chosen one. And since I ignored him, he pulled at my pants with his mouth until he lifted me up. He took the stick in his mouth and threw it down. Then they barked. He wanted teach me Let's do it.

My surprise at observing animal behavior, with its rules (who gets offended if their spot is taken, who eats first...), is especially when, overcome with wonder, I see that they have, in their brains, just like us, the concept of play. They play hide-and-seek, they play races, they play at fighting, they play at surprising each other.