Animal worship is the practice of worshiping or honoring animals. Many societies worship animals because they believe that everything in nature has a soul. This belief is called animism. A hunting society may worship an animal to gain its good will, to apologize for killing it, or to acquire the animal’s qualities, such as speed or strength.
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Many Indians of northern North America worshiped animals as part of a belief known as totemism. Each group had its own sacred symbol called a totem. Most totems were animals. Many groups considered themselves descendants of their totem animal. Some people worship a god believed to have taken the form of an animal. For example, the ancient Egyptian god Thoth sometimes appeared as a baboon and sometimes as a wading bird called an ibis.
