How Did Animals Spread After Noah’s Ark? Explaining Different Species on Different Continents

Since Noah came out of the Ark and the animals spread across the earth, a question arises: how is it that certain animals or birds exist only on one continent and not on others? For example, kangaroos are found only in Australia, while horses are widespread around the globe. Elephants are native to Africa and parts of Asia, but were never found in the Americas (before Europeans arrived there).

* * *

Apart from Australia and certain isolated islands, the continents of the world are actually interconnected. Throughout history, land bridges and natural connections allowed both humans and animals to migrate without the need for ships. This explains how civilizations like the Inca and Maya could emerge in the Americas, even though they were geographically far from Asia and Europe.

We also must remember that the shifting of continents is a slow, ongoing process that spans thousands of years and continues even today. It’s reasonable to assume that 4,000 years ago, during or shortly after the time of the Flood, the continents were closer together, or the land bridges connecting them were broader, making migration between regions easier and more direct than it is now.

Biblical Sources on the Splitting of the Earth

The Torah itself suggests that the separation of continents happened after the Flood, sometime around the era of the Tower of Babel. This may have been a gradual process, beginning during the Flood and continuing for centuries afterward.

In the creation narrative (Bereishit 1:9), the Torah describes one single landmass: “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth.”

Later, after the Flood, we read of the son of Eber: “And to Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided” (Bereishit 10:25).

The Zohar, written over 700 years ago, echoes this idea: “From one single land came forth the waters, and from it were formed seven lands” (Zohar, Bereishit 21a).

A Spiritual Perspective on Animal Diversity

This framework helps explain why animals are found in such distinct regions of the world. According to Jewish tradition, each species may have been divinely guided to a particular area of the earth when it was still one single landmass. Then, as the earth slowly divided into the continents we know today, these animals remained in their respective regions.

Thus, kangaroos ended up in Australia, elephants in Africa and Asia, and so forth — not by chance, but as part of a divine plan woven into the history of creation.