Commentary: Time to wise up about animals' intelligence

A cow named Veronika recently made headlines around the world, reportedly leaving scientists "stunned." But Veronika was simply doing the same thing she'd done for years: scratching. Specifically, she was choosing the best scratcher for each itch, be it a stick, broom or rake, and holding it in her mouth to savor a satisfying rubdown. When researchers visited Veronika at her family's home in Austria and gave her a deck brush, she promptly used the bristles on her coat and the smooth handle to scratch her stomach. The discovery has made many scientists arrive at the same conclusion: The reason humans haven't documented that cows use tools until now isn't that they can't. It's because few cows have had the opportunity.

Instead of being confined to a barren feedlot for what would have been a short life, Veronika is a valued family member living in a comfortable, interesting environment full of objects she can explore. So, she does. And she's far from the only animal to disprove humans' assumptions about other species' intelligence.

Take Merlin, who recently received a Guinness World Record for being the pig with the most Instagram followers. Fans watch him press buttons to communicate in English - far more words than we have mastered in Vietnamese potbellied pig. Merlin announces when he's happy, angry, grateful or in need of applause. He also makes his feelings clear in other ways, from slamming doors to giving his guardian a withering side-eye. He surprises and delights followers just by demonstrating what anyone who has spent time with pigs knows: They are deeply emotional, curious, eager to learn, full of personality and devoted to their loved ones. Brainy pigs have saved their guardians from house fires and medical emergencies and fended off intruders.

I'm reminded of Lulu, whose guardian, JoAnn, suffered a sudden heart attack. Thinking quickly, Lulu broke out of the yard-scraping and cutting herself on the fence-and dashed into the road, lying down to stop traffic. When a driver pulled over and shouted that he needed help for an injured pig, JoAnn managed to shout back. He called an ambulance, saving her life. And brave Lulu got the recognition she deserved. How many other Merlins and Lulus would we hail as geniuses and heroes if we allowed pigs to lead more than brief, barren lives?

Every day, all around us, other animals are accomplishing feats we once insisted belonged to humans alone-and plenty we could never hope to match.

Not long ago, a cormorant with a triple fishing hook painfully lodged in her beak walked up to the glass door of a hospital emergency room in Germany and knocked. The beautiful black waterbird seemed to understand where the injured could find help. Yellow-naped Amazons-stunning birds who are critically endangered due to the pet trade, habitat loss and the climate catastrophe-communicate with a large lexicon complete with syntactic rules. A parrot called Bruce uses a rock to create his own prosthetic beak. Bonobos play pretend. Tiny reef fish called cleaner wrasse can groom themselves in a mirror as humans do. They also recognize themselves in pictures (but no word yet on whether they also try to make edits).

Desert mice roll a stone in front of their burrow to catch dew, birds fly thousands of miles to the same nesting place each year and octopuses learn to unscrew jars by observation alone. Without shopping centers, hospitals, schools or GPS, our fellow animals build lives in what's left of nature: They find natural medicines, teach their children, navigate and weave homes with their beaks or dig them with their claws.

Each new discovery leads us to the same inescapable conclusion: We share this planet with remarkable individuals who are not some things but some ones. And that means each one deserves protection and respect.

____

Ingrid Newkirk is the coauthor of "Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion" and the founder of PETA, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.

___

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 3:42 AM.