In the book the Dragon War, the author states that some people believe the ancient Nords actually worshiped the eight divines and that the animals they portrayed were merely totems of the eight. If true, which animal was a totem for which god? Below I list my guesses and the association I see between the animal and the god.

Dragons - Akatosh - obvious association
Bear - Stendarr - might/power
Eagle - Kynareth - wind
Fox - Julianos - clever/smart
Snake - Dibella - seducer
Wolf - Zenithar - just a guess, process of elimination
Owl - Mara - reminds me of Athena
Whale - Arkay - the deeps

Dragon = Alduin/Akatosh
Snake = Shor/Lorkhan
Hawke = Kyne/Kynareth
Whale = Tsun/Zenithar

-The snake the whale and the hawk appear in Nordic tomb frequently, Lorkhan known as Shor to the Nords, is the leader of the Nordic pantheon, and is refereed to as a snake by many, the snake being a symbol of trickery, and Lorkhan being the trickster god.
-Kyne, the goddess of air, is Shor's wife, being the ruler of air, the symbol of the Hawk/Eagle fits her
-Tsun is Shor's Shield thane, his bodyguard, and died defending Shor against foreign gods. In Sovengarde, Tsun defends the whalebone bridge, the bridge of his own corpse.

This also explains why these three symbols appears so frequency in Nordic tombs, the symbols of the leader of the gods, his wife, and his bodyguard, are placed in tombs to honor the dead.