Animals are referred to in the biblical creation account with the term nephesh which is spelled exactly the same way as the nephesh which is the human soul. Rocks, oceans, trees, &c. never get honored with the term nephesh. Never.
Yes, and there’s a good reason for that: nephesh literally means “living” or “breathing,” and according to Strong’s it’s used in the OT “very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental).” One commentary suggests that a more accurate translation would be “creature” or “being,” as in Numbers 9:6 it’s translated as “dead body” and refers metaphorically to death in Job 11:20 and Jeremiah 15:9. (For further references, see http://www.angelfire.com/nv/TheOliveBranch/append13.html.)