Ark Encounter Blog

What did Noah and his family do about fresh water and waste disposal while aboard the ark? There are some surprisingly simple solutions!

Rainwater collected from the roof could be funneled to large, strategically placed storage tanks to provide fresh water on the ark. A system of spigots and bamboo, or even copper pipes, could have delivered water throughout the ark.

The large animal cages could have been connected to a valved drainage system, which would prevent backflow and channel urine into a central liquid waste container spanning all three decks. There are at least two ways the liquid waste could have been lifted and dumped into the sea through the vertical shaft.

First, a bucket system powered by the animal treadmill could scoop and dump the waste. The second option would be to use high pressure created by waves in the moon pool to force the liquid waste through a pipe and dump it into the sea.

After mucking large animal stalls and scraping droppings from the small animal collection troughs, solid waste could have been placed into wheelbarrows and moved to a vertical conveyor system. Powered by an animal on a treadmill, this device would dump the waste into a vertical shaft that opened to the sea.

Start planning your trip to the Ark Encounter, and see for yourself how Noah and his family could have cared for each of the animals aboard the ark.

Over the past few months, we have introduced several new animals to the Ararat Ridge Zoo. Meet and learn more about them below!

Who’s new at the zoo? Say hello to Chewlius Caesar! He’s a northern caiman lizard, a species within the whiptail lizard kind from South America.

Similar to caimans, these lizards have a semiaquatic lifestyle, powerful jaws for hunting, and strong tails for swimming and defense. They are also excellent climbers. He’s a baby now, but he may grow up to four feet long!

Look for Chewlius basking on a branch or submerged underwater during your visit. He is joined in his habitat by anole lizards.

Wrangler the green anaconda is officially in habitat!

These snakes are slow on land but fast in the water, and they spend much of their time submerged with only their nostrils and eyes exposed. Our herptile staff worked diligently to mimic his South American habitat. He may grow to over 10 feet long.

Several species of colorful poison dart frogs join Wrangler in his habitat.

The Ararat Ridge Zoo is now home to the largest living members of the stork kind.

Meet Nzuri (ZUR-ee) and Mrembo (REM-boh), our new female marabou (MARE-ah-boo) storks! Their names both mean “pretty” or “beautiful” in Swahili.

Native to sub-Saharan Africa, these storks weigh up to 20 pounds, grow 4–5 feet tall, and have wingspans approaching 10 feet. They are often called “undertaker birds” because their coloration resembles that of funeral directors and because they act as important scavengers in our fallen world. Their bald heads help them keep clean while eating carcasses, just like vultures.

They will also opportunistically hunt anything they can catch, often waiting at the edge of grass fires to grab fleeing animals. The pink sacs on their necks are called gular (GOO-lar) sacs and help them vocalize, but they usually communicate through bill clattering. Did you know that stork bills can snap shut in 25 milliseconds, one of the fastest reactions of any vertebrate?

Nzuri and Mrembo live in a habitat with Munch, our 150-pound African spurred tortoise.

Do you give a hoot about animals? Do you want to learn about animals that live in your backyard? Then come to our zoo programs at the Ark Encounter, where you can meet unique animals like Sunny, our new American barn owl!

His primary trainer, Brittany, has been teaching him how to step up onto her gloved arm, put on his equipment, and sit still on the glove. He’s doing great but is still learning the concept of facing forward! You may see him out and about on adventures in the zoo and performing in our daily animal programs.

Peekaboo! Meet Michael the sugar glider, who joined the zoo in April.

Native to Australia and the surrounding islands, these adorable marsupials spend most of their lives gliding from tree to tree. Michael will join Gabriel, our other sugar glider, as an animal ambassador appearing in our daily animal programs.

We are thrilled to welcome these two exciting new arrivals: both giant anteaters! The male is named Douglas, and the female is named Quinn—after Cosequin, the #1 veterinarian recommended joint supplement for animals. Cosequin is produced by Nutramax Laboratories, who has donated a generous amount of funding to improve the Ark Encounter’s Ararat Ridge Zoo and to help build the new Eden Zoo at the Creation Museum.

Giant anteaters are the largest members of the anteater kind, growing up to seven feet long and 140 pounds. Native to Central and South America, they use their two-foot-long spiny tongues to consume over 30,000 insects per day! Their sense of smell is 40 times stronger than a human’s, and they can identify each other by the scent of their saliva.

The male will remain at Ark Encounter’s Ararat Ridge Zoo, but the female will eventually transfer to the renovated Eden Zoo at the Creation Museum. They are solitary animals, so they appreciate their own space. Be sure to stop by and see these amazing new additions soon!

Say hello to Eclipse! Eclipse is a great horned owl who was rescued in Ohio after being found with a broken wing. Because of this injury, Eclipse cannot fly and could not be released into the wild after rehabilitation.

Zoo staff are happy to provide this owl with a permanent home in Junior’s Zoo Adventure! Be aware that as Eclipse acclimates to its new home, it may not always be visible to guests.

Zookeepers are not yet sure whether Eclipse is a boy or a girl; it will need genetic testing. Since we already have owls named Luna and Sunny, the zoo staff kept with the celestial theme and highlighted this year’s solar eclipse with its name.

If you’d like to stay up to date with what is happening in the zoo and learn even more about our animals, follow the Ark Encounter’s Ararat Ridge Zoo page on Facebook!

Start planning your trip to the Ark Encounter today, and make sure you visit the Ararat Ridge Zoo, located behind our life-size Noah’s Ark, during your visit.

We’re already sailing through summer at the Ark Encounter and have a lot of fun events scheduled throughout these warm months and beyond! Check out what we have planned for the rest of the year!

Our Gospel Music Weekends are off to a great start and continue through July 27. These outdoor concerts occur every Friday and Saturday and will bring over 20 gospel and faith country music artists to Noah’s Village Stage.

Our Faith Country and Bluegrass Music Festival is happening Wednesday through Saturday this week, so there’s still time to make it! Each day of this festival features an outdoor concert at noon and a headline band that performs inside at the Answers Center at 4 p.m.

Our final music event of the summer is huge—it’s the world’s largest Christian music festival and it kicks off July 30. Our 40 Days and 40 Nights of Christian Music features 120+ concerts from contemporary, praise & worship, faith country, and other music genres. Sought-after speakers will also take to the stage to deliver inspirational, biblical messages. This festival runs July 30–September 7, 2024, and features big names like Casting Crowns, Crowder, Mac Powell, Gold City, Legacy Five, and more!

Best of all, these music events are included with the price of admission.

This annual event to connect with our Hispanic community will take place October 18–19, 2024, at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter. As we dive into the controversial topic of identity, we’ll discover what God has to say about who we are—because while the world is confused about identity, the Bible is clear about who each of us is as one of God’s image bearers.

A great lineup of speakers will share the clarity offered in the Bible and the hope we have in Christ. Attendees will have the opportunity to tour both attractions and explore all there is to see and do!

For more information on Día Latino, visit ArkEncounter.com/latino.

The Horse and His Boy will return to the Ark Encounter this fall. This Broadway-level production will transform the Answers Center into the world of Narnia with stunning sets, lifelike puppetry, and mesmerizing costumes. All this, along with the incredible cast, will transport the audience into this captivating story and the creative mind of C. S. Lewis.

The show will run November 12–16 and November 19–23. Tickets are now available for purchase and include a show-only ticket to allow guests to enjoy the program without also having to purchase Ark Encounter admission. Get your tickets today!

This past April, we broke ground on a new location for our popular Truth Traveler attraction. We are expanding into the Pigeon Forge area, and we’re so excited to bring the truth of God’s Word to an even larger audience.

Truth Traveler transports guests back in time, immersing them in pivotal moments in biblical history with a custom animated 5D Virtual Reality ride, complete with motion benches and haptics for a full sensory experience.

The Truth Traveler venue in Pigeon Forge will be located at 2860 Parkway, conveniently situated across from the Pirates Voyage Dinner Show and The Island. In addition to the Truth Traveler virtual reality attraction, the Pigeon Forge location will also feature a state-of-art planetarium with laser projectors and a 30-meter-diameter tilted dome.

Guests will travel deep into the far reaches of the universe with spectacular digital imagery of the solar system and the galaxies beyond it. It is projected to open in early 2025.

With so much going on at the Ark Encounter, we’re hiring for both seasonal and regular positions!

Open interviews for seasonal positions will be held at Mt. Olivet Christian Church on the dates listed below. Stop by to apply, be interviewed, and possibly be offered a position all on the same day! For regular ongoing needs, be sure to check our employment page.

• Thursday, June 13, 2024: 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Saturday, July 27, 2024: 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
• Thursday, October 10, 2024: 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Saturday, November 9, 2024: 12:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

If you are interested in applying for a position at the Ark Encounter but cannot join us for our open interviews, please apply online! A complete list of open positions is available on our jobs page.

The Babel event in Genesis 11 gives us the proper foundation for understanding so much of what we observe in our world today.

The biblical account explains the origin of our language families, but it also helps us understand the variations in people groups and that there is no biblical justification for racism.

After the flood, Noah’s descendants spoke one language. The Lord told them to multiply and fill the earth. They filled the first part of this command as the world’s population quickly grew. Unlike the animals that spread out to every corner of the globe, the people stayed together, refusing to fill the earth.

In direct rebellion of God’s command to spread throughout the earth, the people gathered in the plain of Shinar. They desired to make a name for themselves and decided to build a city with a tower whose top reached into the heavens.

Since the people refused to scatter, God put an end to their rebellion and accomplished his purpose by confusing their language. No longer able to communicate with each other, the people abandoned their efforts and departed from Babel.

Learn more about this significant event on the third deck of our life-size Noah’s Ark. Start planning your visit to the Ark Encounter today!

We’re all part of the human race, so how can we sometimes appear so different? A look back to the days of Noah can help us understand what is really a simple explanation to this question.

Because all of mankind was destroyed in the global flood except Noah and his family, everyone born after the flood descended from Noah’s three sons. During these early post-flood days, God commanded that the people multiply and fill the earth. While the people did multiply, in their rebellion toward God, they did not spread out to fill the earth. So God confused their language at a place that became known as Babel and scattered them to fulfill his command.

Within just a few generations of that time, distinct people groups (based on superficial differences such as skin tone and eye shape) could have developed due to the varying combinations of existing genetic information present in each group.

Skin tone, for example, is controlled by more than one gene. If Noah and his wife had middle-brown skin, their children could have exhibited the whole range of skin tones from light to dark. The genetic variability possible can easily explain the diversity in skin tones we see today.

Every single person alive today is descended from Adam. We all belong to one human race, and from a biblical perspective there’s absolutely no basis for racism. God created all of mankind in his image, and all of us belong to one race—the human race.

Want to learn more about the history of Babel? Visit our Babel exhibit during your trip to the Ark Encounter. For more in-depth discovery on humans as God’s image bearers and the biblical answer to racism, a great resource is One Race, One Blood by Ken Ham and A. Charles Ware.