You probably won't get a whole bunch of responses from traditionalists.
The truth is, IMHO, that Noah DIDN'T have EVERY animal in the Ark. Just the ones NEEDED to create a basic ecosystem in the area which was flooded. Food animals and the basic animals needed to 'start over' until the surrounding area could 'come back'.
It is rediculous to think that he had EVERY animal on the ark. The logistics of a ship containing EVERY animal that exists is unfathomable even TODAY. Just the concept of keeping enough FRESH food to feed them all for A YEAR is more than we could accomplish TODAY.
I know, I know, the traditionalists will be yelling, "off with his head. Don't you know that NOTHING is impossible with God". Yes, I DO KNOW that.
But, if one reads the Bible and the story of Noah, it is pretty easy to see that there were PARTICULAR people that God destroyed. And those people would most likely have not spread over more than a few hundreds of miles from where they started at the time of the flood.
And not only would the question of the different animals on different continents have to be answered, so TOO would one have to explain the DIFFERENT races. For if ALL came from Noah, then we would ALL share common characteristics. This does not account for different RACES of people.
Traditionalists will state that the division of races and languages took place at the tower of Babel. Funny, but HOW did these different races spread out over the entire planet BEFORE they had the MEANS to DO SO? I mean, before there was the means of oceanic navigation and such?
The aboriginies of the different islands for example. You know, Like Hawaiians, Maori, heck, the American Indians?
So, the answer is that there was obviously a LOCALIZED FLOOD. How large we don't know. Large enough to appear to those that witnessed it to 'cover the earth'.
Blessings,
MEC