Thoth, god of the moon, writing, and magic, had two sacred animals: the ibis and the baboon. Ancient Egyptians were familiar with at least three species of ibis, but they chose the white one for embodying Thoth. They knew two species of baboon and three of ibis, and each time they deified only one of each. “Sacred ibises and hamadryas baboons are different in many ways, but one thing that unites them is their moon-like colour,” Hobaiter said. Egyptians kept baboons in their temples partly to watch them, because the animals seemed to answer to the moon.