Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Everyone loves animals. Whether they are cute pets that give you unconditional love back, birds to spot in nature, or fantasy animals like unicorns. The animal kingdom is full of surprises. Every child has a favorite animal, and it usually stays that way when we are long and wide into adulthood. We even have an international animal day, when many an owner pampers their pet quite a bit.
Because of our close relationship with animals, animals are also a favorite theme for slots in the casino world. For example, there are golden wolves, super lions and buffaloes that will give you up to 10,000 your deposit back. There are slots with wolves, online slots with birds and many more beasties.
That’s why we thought it more than appropriate to dedicate a theme page to animals, from cute and tame to wild and dangerous. Read on here for fine animal facts and the cutest and best slot machines starring animals.
Why do people keep (domestic) animals?
A majority of households keep a pet. Animals have lived with humans for more than 12,000. Dogs were the first domesticated animals to help in hunting, and later as guardians of chickens, sheep or pigs. Cats kept food free of mice, birds (falcons & hawks) were used from the 8th century B.C. to help in hunting, and horses were tamed from 2000 B.C. as beasts of burden and later riding animals.
Animals originally served as labor or food but soon they also took on the role of companion animals. In addition to being useful and sociable, animals also appear to have positive effects on physical and mental health …
Pets: which is your favorite?
There are more people with a pet in this country than without. In fact, there are more pets in our country than inhabitants. The two most popular pets are of course cats and dogs. Of course there are many more species to love. Below are the most popular pets, with the reasons why they are likely to be loved.
Cats
The cat is the number one pet. And that’s cat-owning, of course; usually they are the boss in the house and you are their staff. A cat does what it wants, and that is mainly sleeping. Kittens actually sleep all day: newborn kittens spend as much as 20 to 24 hours a day in dreamland. After a month, this is “only” 13 to 16 hours.
Once they are awake, they know how to expend their energy vigorously. Your curtains, couch and phone charger are probably the main victims of this. If your cat is an adult, they will be a little more sociable and stay awake for you about 9 hours a day. As they get older you will find that they can comfortably sleep 20 hours in a day. It would almost make you jealous!
Dogs
Dogs are almost as popular as pets as cats. However, they were the first pet that started keeping humans company as wolves. Dogs and cats also often share a home and can become real buddies. Contrary to what movies often lead us to believe, where cats and dogs often clash. Yet dogs are completely different, and you can teach them all sorts of things.
Sitting, waiting, pawing – right down to talking through a special keyboard. Dogs are also trained as assistance dogs or police or drug dogs. It is in their nature that they are happy to help and compliment us – in exchange for the occasional dog cookie, of course.
On the other hand, a dog is much more work than a cat or goldfish. Taking them out several times a day and an intensive puppyhood with lots of accidents and frustration are just part of the job. If you do it right, you will have a faithful companion for as long as he is allowed to live with you.
Rodents
Guinea pigs and rabbits are also typical pets. Almost every child dreams of such a cute and fluffy animal to take care of and often gets to do so. Did you know that guinea pigs by nature are real survival experts? You can hardly imagine it if you’ve had a guinea pig yourself, but in the wild they live in the most rugged areas.
You can run into guinea pigs in South America while rock climbing in the mountains, in the forest and swamp, and on the dry savannah. Pretty unimaginable when you look at the average house guinea pig, which usually can’t do anything particularly special. Fortunately, the high cuteness factor makes up for everything.
Other rodents are also popular in our households. A rabbit or two in a hutch in the garden, sweet little hamsters in a tube cage, the rat that can be incredibly tame and affectionate or exotic and eye-catching rodents like degu and ferrets. You can just find them at the hardware store or pet store around the corner.
Wild animals
Against all those cute cuddly creatures we have at home, there are, of course, wild animals that live their entire lives in the great outdoors. Or should say ‘survive’, because in the brutal wild it is eat or be eaten. Fortunately, most of the animals you find outdoors are no threat to us. Except for the adder and sporadic wolf.
In other continents, on the other hand, poisonous and aggressive animals seem to abound. Bird spiders, sharks, crocodiles, lions, tigers, monkeys, hippos or a neon green frog: one unfortunate encounter can be fatal. By the way, the deadliest animal on earth is … the mosquito. This one has about 1 million deaths to its name, per year.
Stray animals
Then there are animals that cannot be called wild, but are not pets either: stray animals. In very urban countries they are not so common, compared to most other countries. Abroad, you will have noticed that dogs and cats live on the streets in large numbers. They regularly form a veritable plague.
Stray animals actually only occur in the form of cats and rabbits. Stray dogs are actually rare, thanks to shelters and sterilization policy. There are probably more stray cats than you think.
They may survive slightly better on the streets than a dog, but they are fortunately still taken in as much as possible and placed in a shelter. Now sometimes cats can run off on their own or get lost, but stray rabbits are actually always dumped by their former owners.
World Animal Day
Margret Ford, the president of the World Association of Animal Welfare, received a letter in May 1927 suggesting that one day a year be dedicated to animals. She was immediately enthusiastic about the idea and the day the Catholic Church dedicated St. Francis (who cared about the fate of the poor, sick but also of animals and once preached a sermon on the subject) turned out to be an excellent date for Animal Day.
At an international congress of animal protectors in 1929, Oct. 4 was proclaimed World Animal Day. After which the first official animal day was October 4, 1930. On that day there was extra media attention for the relationship between humans and animals.
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ASKED QUESTIONS
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For a game set in a farm with domesticated animals we have Animal Madness. For a game focused on sea-life we have the famous Big Bass Bonanza and its various spin-off titles. For more exotic animals we have Jaguar Gold, Cats of the Caribbean, and Monkey Bonanza.
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The most famous ones are of course the idea that whales and dolphins are fish, when in fact, they are mammals. Additionally, dogs are not completely colour blind, and can see blue and yellow. Most surprising of all is probably the fact that bats and moles are not actually blind. Bats have sight similar to humans, and while moles may be near-sighted and colourblind, they are exceptional at detecting light.
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Famously it is thought that there are more tigers in captivity in Texas than there are in the wild. Tigers seem to be easy pets to own for the rich as lack of laws and consistent regulations mean that there is little oversight on their ownership. In more recent years, a famous pet seems to be the fox. Fox breeders around the world have taken up the challenge to create foxes that exhibit similar friendliness levels to dogs. If they succeed, foxes may become common pets in the future.