When you find scenes involving the witches (Act I, Scene I; Act I, Scene III; Act IV, Scene I) animals are always present like:

• the cat
• the paddock
• the rat
• the hedge-pig

They are all night-animals that are often associated with the witches. As a matter of fact the black cat is consider all around the world an ill luck sign and the rat brought and spread the Black Death over Europe.

In Act I, Scene II the bleeding Captain tells that Macbeth and Banquo were scared by the enemies “as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion”. Sparrows and hares are quarries while eagles and lions are hunters. Sparrow and hares communicate the idea of scare and weakness, on the contrary the idea of strength and courage is associated with animals like eagles and lions.

In Act I, Scene V in the sentence “The raven himself is hoarse, that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan” the raven is associated with the idea of death probably because it eats corpes.