“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.
And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ” (Genesis 1:24-25)
Genesis mentions God created the birds of the air, but there are also birds of the ground whose creation is not mentioned in the beginning of the Bible. But then the Bible does not mention everything that exists, and in fact does not tell us everything we can know about creation.
“So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the human to see what he would call them; and whatever the human called every living creature, that was its name. The human gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field…” (Genesis 2:19-20)
According to Genesis, Adam got to name the animals and God who created the animals seems to have been interested in seeing what names the human might create for these newly formed creatures. Was Adam more of the “Indian rhinoceros” mind or of the “Rhinoceros unicornis” mind or of the “greater one-horned rhinoceros” mind? The Bible again doesn’t tell us, so we can imagine what we like. Did he think “scimitar horned oryx” or was he more of a “Oryx dammah” man? “Sichuan takin” or “Budorcas taxicolor tibetana“? God found joy and goodness not only in the animals God created but also in this human and in the names Adam created for God’s animals. Humans were created to be creative – to share in God’s joy and to give God joy.
Genesis 30:40 mentions “the faces of the flock” which Jacob cleverly uses to take advantage of his deceptive father-in-law Laban. I think God’s flocks include all the animals God has made on earth – some of their faces are below:
All of the photos were taken in September 2019 at The Wilds of Ohio as I took time to visit and see the animals in the wild, though not in their native lands. All look to God wherever they may be.
You can see all my photos from my 2 hour visit at The Wilds 2019 Photos.
Fraternized 