Animal Migration

Animals have a powerful urge to go where God hardwired them to go.

  From "Time Magazine"

Animal navigation has long been something of a black box for scientists. The mystery of how nonhumans—without benefit of maps, language or GPS—manage to find their way from place to place, often over very great distances, presented itself anew recently when a dog walked 11 miles from its new home to return to a former foster owner. The feat was especially remarkable because the dog had been taken to its new location by car and had to find its way back on foot—meaning it hadn’t had a chance to learn the route. Even more impressive was the 2013 tale of the geolocating cat that had been lost and found its way home after a journey of two months and 200 miles. So how do animals manage such prodigious—and precise—feats of travel? 

The kind of natural map any animal follows depends largely on the species. As TIME has reported, seabirds are believed to steer mostly by the sun and the stars, since if the animals are ever going to get lost, it tends to happen when the skies are overcast. The same is true of the unglamorous dung beetle. While naturalists have not extensively tracked the species’ perambulations in the wild, they’ve studied them in—yes—planetariums. As long as the artificial Milky Way was in view, the beetle and its dung ball rolled right along. Throw the switch and change the stars, however, and the little critter was completely flummoxed.

Many more animals navigate via magnetism—orienting themselves along the north-south lines of Earth’s magnetic fields. In one study of baby sea turtles, which typically migrate east after hatching, changing the orientation of magnetic generators around a swimming pool changed the direction in which the hatchlings swam too. 

Cats, like other animals, might rely more on magnetic fields—a faculty that could turn out to be quite common in mammals. “There are some studies that show that the ears of most mammals contain iron,” Beaver says. “That may cue them into the magnetic direction in the ground. There’s work showing that cattle, deer and voles tend to orient in a north-south direction.”

From Genesis and Genetics.org

Why are the kangaroos in Australia, and only in Australia?

It is not just the kangaroos who migrated to Australia, but also the zebras to Africa, the American buffalo to North America, tigers to Siberia, and the jaguar to South America, etc.

 One can observe the present-day migration of hummingbirds, geese, salmon, butterflies, and many other migratory animals and insects: they have a powerful urge to go where God hardwired them to go. It appears that this hardwired mechanism uses magnetic flux, or scent, or celestial markers, etc., but, science has yet to identify the exact mechanism. It really doesn’t matter, we know that migration happens, and we know it is hardwired.

Just recently the Nobel Prize for physiology/medicine was awarded to three scientists (J. O’Keefe, M.B. Moser and E. Moser) who discovered that the brain has a built-in GPS system. They discovered that the brain has grid cells that are similar to lines of longitude and latitude. This allows the brain to have access to its own nautical chart. Modern science is converging with the Bible by showing the complexity and perfection of the creation.

So, in conclusion, the kangaroo migrated to Australia twice: once after he was given a name by Adam and once after his journey on the Ark. For each of these migrations, the kangaroo journeyed to his destination; he had everything he needed including a guidance system and a strong desire to be where he belonged: in his Australian home.

Note: It is generally accepted that the sea level after the creation and also after the flood, during the ice age, was significantly lower than present sea level; this allowed passage to and from Australia on dry land. We believe that both the physical evidence (elevations of ancient civilizations) and Biblical evidence (Genesis 10:25, 1 Chronicles 1:19) support this idea.