Evolutionists have long challenged creationists with explaining how animals migrated all over the world once they exited Noah’s ark following the global flood in Genesis. They assume animals in Australia, for example, evolved there and couldn’t have swam from the mainland. They mock such ideas because they can’t imagine animals surviving such a journey.

However, if we apply practical science and common sense, it’s not that hard to understand. I covered this topic once before on an article titled, Animal Distribution, so this adds more evidence to the case.

An article from Science News resolves the mystery of how iguanas crossed the Pacific Ocean from North America to Fiji- a distance of 8,000 kilometers (4,9701 miles). This is an important discovery because scientists concede that these animals didn’t evolve in Fiji. So how did they get there? Well, according to scientists, they floated across the ocean by clinging to vegetation. Simple. Elegant. Creationists have proposed this idea for decades now.

Ocean-crossing events like this are certainly dangerous and improbable, but not impossible. Most animals trapped on vegetation mats obviously don’t survive such long journeys. But, rarely, some do. They would need to avoid falling off and drowning or being eaten at sea, and they would have to avoid dehydration and succumbing to the heat. Herbivores could eat part of the vegetation, and some animals, like iguanas, can go without food for longer periods of time. Others might improvise their diet to avoid starvation. Further, a species could drift from island to island over decades or centuries; it wouldn’t necessarily have to be one straight trip by one animal.

The article even mentions that some iguanas have been observed floating on vegetation rafts and colonizing new islands, so there is observational evidence for these ideas.

But what about kangaroos and other marsupials? How did they get to Australia after the flood? Aside from vegetation and log rafts, perhaps some walked across natural land bridges.

Darwin proposed that some animals may have crossed the oceans on icebergs, or by hitching rides on birds. Other animals could have crossed ice bridges during the ice age. Some scientists have proposed that dinosaurs and other animals swam to unlikely regions. In some cases, animals could have hitched a ride on boats. Or, maybe people transported animals with them on purpose.

There are all kinds of ideas to explain how animals populated land all around the world. This means we don’t have to resort to evolution. Instead, we can believe what the Bible says, right from the beginning.