Exhibit Highlight: How Many Animals Went on the Ark?

Today for my blog post, I want to highlight one of the fascinating exhibits at the Ark that helps dispel a myth many people believe about Noah’s ark—that since there are millions of species on earth today, Noah needed to take two of each of the millions of species on the ark with him. And because they think there’s no way Noah could have fit that many animals on the ark, they conclude that the “story” of Noah and the ark is just a fairy tale.

Noah didn’t need to take millions of animals on the ark with him.

But Noah didn’t need to take millions of animals on the ark with him. Estimates of how many animals Noah needed on the ark have “evolved” over the years as more research has been done from a best-case scenario of about 2,000 animals to a worst-case scenario of about 16,000. But if there are millions of species, where do these seemingly low numbers come from? Well, consider a few clues Scripture gives us about which animals were on the ark.

First, only land animals, not sea creatures, were required to go on the ark, dramatically reducing the number of animals on the ark.

Second, kinds—not species—were told to go on the ark. The biblical term kind is different from our modern species, with the defining factor being the ability to breed. If two organisms can breed (such as tigers, lions, and cougars), they must be in the same kind (though some animals in the same kind have lost the ability to breed due to mutations and other factors). According to research, kinds mostly correspond to the family level in the classification system used today.

Third, insects don’t breathe through their nostrils, so Noah probably didn’t take them on the ark (intentionally, at least—though if he did, the insect kinds would have easily fit on the ark because they are so small). They could have easily survived outside the ark in their various forms.

Taking all of this into consideration, research estimates show that about 1,400 kinds at most (including now-extinct kinds) were taken on the ark. That’s only about 6,700 individual animals (remember, seven pairs of each clean animal kind came in)—and that’s a generous number that will likely go down further as more research is conducted on which organisms belong to which kinds. In fact, it’s possible it could be as low as around 1,000 kinds.

There was plenty of room on the ark.

Enjoy these exhibit photos and make plans to come and visit the Ark Encounter and learn about kinds in the special exhibit on the second deck.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.