Noah didn’t take two of every species on the Ark—only two of each “kind” of animal. The biblical “kind” is actually more like the “family” level of classification. That’s a lot fewer animals!

How Many Animals Were on the Ark?

Recent studies have estimated that Noah may have cared for roughly 1,500 kinds of land-dwelling animals and flying creatures. This includes all living and known extinct animals. Using a “worst-case scenario” approach in our calculations, there would have been just over 7,000 land animals and flying creatures on the Ark.