Where there any animals onboard Vasa?

There were at least two live animals aboard, a pair of cats, probably on board to control the rat population. Unfortunately, we know about them because they did not survive and some of their bones are in our collection. Both cats were not yet fully grown, but already much bigger than normal house cats, more like Norwegian forest cats in size.

We also have some chicken bones that include skulls, which suggest the chickens were whole, so there could have been live chickens on board to lay eggs. All of the other animal bones show marks from butchering, so they were provisions (salted meat).