The dachshund's name is the German for badger hound. People keep all kinds of animals as pets besides dogs, cats and birds - from fleas to elephants. For almost every animal, it seems, there is someone willing to adopt it as a pet. Keeping an unusual pet, though, is not easy, for there are rarely any books to show how to look after it properly. Unusual pets are also generally wild creatures, and most would be far better off in their own natural environment.
Stick insects make fascinating pets.
When danger threatens they remain quite still and can be difficult to spot amongst foliage. Garter snakes like this one make much safer pets than boa constrictors and pythons, or poisonous snakes, such as cobras. Terrapins and tortoises used to be very popular pets in northern Europe and the USA, but there are now so few left in the wild that they are no longer imported. The first domestic cats were wild African bushcats, tamed by ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago. Yet cats show some of their wild ancestry even today.