How did Noah feed the animals?

Question

4. Caring for the Animals
Special diets. Many animals, especially insects, require special diets. Koalas, for example, require eucalyptus leaves, and silkworms eat nothing but mulberry leaves. For thousands of plant species (perhaps even most plants), there is at least one animal that eats only that one kind of plant. How did Noah gather all those plants aboard, and where did he put them?

Other animals are strict carnivores, and some of those specialize on certain kinds of foods, such as small mammals, insects, fish, or aquatic invertebrates. How did Noah determine and provide for all those special diets?

Fresh foods. Many animals require their food to be fresh. Many snakes, for example, will eat only live foods (or at least warm and moving). Parasitoid wasps only attack living prey. Most spiders locate their prey by the vibrations it produces. [Foelix, 1996] Most herbivorous insects require fresh food. Aphids, in fact, are physically incapable of sucking from wilted leaves. How did Noah keep all these food supplies fresh?

Food preservation/Pest control. Food spoilage is a major concern on long voyages; it was especially thus before the inventions of canning and refrigeration. The large quantities of food aboard would have invited infestations of any of hundreds of stored product pests (especially since all of those pests would have been aboard), and the humidity one would expect aboard the Ark would have provided an ideal environment for molds. How did Noah keep pests from consuming most of the food?

Ventilation. The ark would need to be well ventilated to disperse the heat, humidity, and waste products (including methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia) from the many thousands of animals which were crowded aboard. Woodmorappe (pp. 37-42) interprets Genesis 6:16 to mean there was an 18-inch opening all around the top, and says that this, with slight breezes, would have been enough to provide adequate ventilation. However, the ark was divided into separate rooms and decks (Gen. 6:14,16). How was fresh air circulated throughout the structure?

Sanitation. The ungulates alone would have produced tons of manure a day. The waste on the lowest deck at least (and possibly the middle deck) could not simply be pushed overboard, since the deck was below the water line; the waste would have to be carried up a deck or two. Vermicomposting could reduce the rate of waste accumulation, but it requires maintenance of its own. How did such a small crew dispose of so much waste?

Exercise/Animal handling. The animals aboard the ark would have been in very poor shape unless they got regular exercise. (Imagine if you had to stay in an area the size of a closet for a year.) How were several thousand diverse kinds of animals exercised regularly?

Manpower for feeding, watering, etc. How did a crew of eight manage a menagerie larger and more diverse than that found in zoos requiring many times that many employees? Woodmorappe claims that eight people could care for 16000 animals, but he makes many unrealistic and invalid assumptions. Here are a few things he didn't take into account:

Feeding the animals would take much longer if the food was in containers to protect it from pests.
Many animals would have to be hand-fed.
Watering several animals at once via troughs would not work aboard a ship. The water would be sloshed out by the ship's roll.
Many animals, in such an artificial environment, would have required additional special care. For example, all of the hoofed animals would need to have their hooves trimmed several times during the year. [Batten, 1976, pp. 39-42]
Not all manure could be simply pushed overboard; a third of it at least would have to be carried up at least one deck.
Corpses of the dead animals would have to be removed regularly.
Animals can't be expected to run laps and return to their cages without a lot of human supervision.

The reference is given in my previous question about the ark.

also see this site for answers like, God just did it...

one must wonder about a God who reportedly does one thing and then arranges every bit of evidence to make it look like something else happened. It's entirely possible that a global flood occurred 4000 years ago or even last Thursday, and that God subsequently erased all the evidence, including our memories of it. But even if such stories are true, what's the point?"

Blusapphire, I've a degree in Theology... , what about you, do you spend your time defending or do you think about the logistics of it?

Answer 1

DUDE! Are you a zookeeper? Damn, that is a long bunch of crap to have to read. I get your point and am an atheist, so I agree. But....damn......not too many people are going to read all that.

Answer 2

Excellent prrof for the fact that this story is nothing more than a myth.....

Furthermore, according to the Center for Creation Science, they claim that there was 30K speicies aboard Noah's ark. So, that in reality is 60K animals, allegedly placed on board and taken care of by eight humans, onto a boat that was less than one third the size of the Titanic - which held only 2200 people.... Logistically, the ark story can not have occcurred. It is physically impossible.
Oh, and since evolution is a "myth", perhaps they can explain how these 30K species seem to have turned into over 1.5 million species since that time.....

Answer 3

The Ark, according to the Bible was more than two football fields in size. The Bible does not say that they were in cages or not, or the sizes of the compartments, so no one can say for sure how much room they had to be able to exercise. It took over 100 years for Noah to prepare the Ark and the things in the Ark, so I would say that's enough time to prepare all of those things. Do you do equal research on proving that the Bible is God's Word, or do you only search for things to bash it? Also, have you ever even read the Bible in it's entirety? Or does the thought that something you can't directly see is able to be more powerful and intelligent than you insult you? Sounds a little like both egotism and egoism to me...

Answer 4

Dr. Kent Hovind answered this in a good and different way. He said, "Why does everyone think that Noah brought aboard adult animals. It would be a lot less room and simpler if he brought the smaller younger ones."

I also believe that all the animals were vegetarians before the flood. That is why God put a fear of man in them after the flood.

Go to wwwdrdino.com or wwwcreationevidence.org for more cool information.

Answer 5

Therefore the Noah Ark is full of manure

Answer 6

Muslix, he fed them all muslix

Dude, as convincing as your argument is you will never change the minds of those who believe the story because they use the F word - faith. With that all things are poossible, it's like magic.

You can't argue magic and faith with real evidence and logic. Let them have their fairy tales

Answer 7

Creationists simply invoke magic, er um, I mean miracles as necessary. You can't get through to them with reason.

You could fill a library with everything that makes no stinkin' sense in Genesis, and they will simply wave Elijah's magic wand to make it all go away.

Answer 8

How did the Isrealites survive 40 years in the wilderness? God sent manna. If God can create the universe and our complex bodies, don't you think He could take care of an ark full of animals? With God all things are possible.

Answer 9

I amnot christian, but here is a simple answer to your rediculously long question...

They believe in faith...

god warned noah, guided the animals to the ark, made the flood happen, etc...then he can feed them as well, slow their digestion, etc

Learn the religion before making futile attemps.
You can (and I have) argue with them, but it ultimately boils down to fait...end of argument.

If thats the way they want to see it...it's their perogative.

Answer 10

Ground-up unicorn.