Meditation is a mental exercise that strengthens the mind. With the more thorough examination of shifts through meditation, it may help you identify a species of animal. Shifts can give clues about the physical characteristics of theriosides such as size (you may feel larger or smaller), what kind of fur (texture, length, thickness [not colour as you can not feel colour]), what kind of skin (maybe it's actually scales or feathers), how many limbs, toes, and so much more. The level of detail that you want to try and sense is up to you.
Mental shifts can reveal behaviors and instincts such as the urge to build a dam if you are a beaver. During meditation, once you notice one of these behaviors or urges, that can become the object of the mediation. How is wanting to build a dam beaver-like? Are there any other animals that build dwellings? You may need to take mental notes and research later (see meditation is only one tool of many in the toolbox). Can this behavior be human in any way? Meditation can lead you to more and more subtle and refined questions about yourself if you keep up the practice.
Always pick only one main question, shift, sensation (mediation object) at a time. For example if you have a phantom shift and feel tails, ears, and paws, pick one area of the body to examine in detail. Focus in on the ears. What does the shape feel like? Rounded or pointed? Wide or narrow? Long fur or short fur? No fur at all? Maybe it just feels like an opening which birds and some reptiles and fish have. If you are splitting your attention between different areas of the body and different sensations, that is being distracted and can easily cause confusion and mistakes about what you are really feeling.