Animals
From Curious Pastimes Wiki
The Beast Empathy and Beast Command skills are limited to “living animals,” but what does that mean, exactly?
The short answer is, if it’s not undead, a demon, a construct or a spirit, it’s living. And if it looks and acts like an animal and doesn’t attempt to communicate, it’s an animal. This includes the likes of joinings, werewolves in wolf form, magical basilisks or other exotic or extraordinary creatures.
If uncertain, note that the Ranger skill includes the ability to identify animals!