Are Owl's and Fox's really intelligent (compared to other animals), or is this just a myth?

Question

Some cultures suggest that Owls are wise and Foxes are clever. Any truth to this?

And does anyone know what science suggests about this subject?

Thanks! :)

Answer 1

In India calling someone an owl is an insult suggesting they're stupid, akin to "bird-brain" in the US. The notion that they are smart is inherited from Greek mythology, where the owl was the totem of Athena, goddess of wisdom, but has no basis in reality. The notion of foxes being clever probably stems from the fact that they were frequently hunted and so were often observed making clever escapes. Like most dogs, I would say they are on the higher end of the animal intelligence scale, but their intelligence is probably greatly exaggerated by the desire to romanticize the chase.

Answer 2

All canids (including foxes) are fairly intelligent.  Owls aren't stupid, but their intelligence has been overstated.

They look intelligent - they have large eyes that face forward and sometimes appear to have serious, studious eyebrows (though they're not true eyebrows).  This has more to do with their powerful visual acuity.

EDIT:  Random trivia - the answer from Arrowswift is correct in that owls cannot move their eyes in their sockets, forcing them to have highly mobile head-neck joints.  But, it isn't because of the size of the eyeballs per se - it's because of their enormous sclerotic ossicles.  Basically, most vertebrates have little bony plates in the iris.  They fit together, and work, just like the parts of a camera iris.  (They don't become bone in most mammals.)  The sclerotic ossicles in owls are HUGE - an owl skeleton including the sclerotic ring almost looks as though it has a tube sticking out of its eye socket.

Answer 3

Science suggests that owls, at least, are not wise at all.  The stories about the wise owl were based on their serious looking faces.  As for intelligence, there's really not much of a brain in an owl's skull.  Most of the space is taken up by the eyes (which are so huge there is no room for muscles to rotate the eyes, this is why owls have to turn their entire head to look at anything).  There are a lot of bird families that outclass the owls in "wisdom", like the crow and parrot families for example.  Owls aren't stupid though.  They are exactly as smart as they need to be successful birds of prey.

On foxes;  I would suspect they are simply smart canines.  They probably outclass any domestic dog (domestication has resulted in smaller brain sizes since the domestic dog doesn't need smarts to keep itself alive, they have humans for that).  But as for how foxes compare to other wild canines like wolves and coyotes, that I can't guess.