The Jaredite animals are briefly discussed above, but the topic deserves fuller consideration. When the Jaredites began their journey at the great tower they gathered their flocks and laid snares to “catch fowls of the air; and they did also prepare a vessel, in which they did carry with them the fish of the waters. And they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honey bee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees, and all manner of that which was upon the face of the land, seeds of every kind” (Ether 2:1-3). As we have noted, all of these items are primary sources of portable food—fowls, fish, honey bees, flocks, and seeds. The gathering and moving of these food sources and domesticated animals appear to have been a necessary exercise for providing and continuing their consumption and utilization among the Jaredites, and not an exercise for propagating a vast wild-animal kingdom along their journey or in their new homeland. It was commonplace for similar traveling groups to carry dried fish or fish in salt brine within vessels (containers) for portable food. The use of vessels for fish does not need to imply that the fish were kept alive in transportable aquariums.

There is no mention of the specific kinds of animals that arrived in the new land, but before beginning their ocean voyage, the Jaredites prepared “food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with them” (Ether 6:4). The term “flock” in old English meant an assemblage of one kind of any domesticated animal, feeding or traveling in company—from horses to swine to sheep to geese or even elephants. The term “herd” meant a collection of flocks. Thus the sometimes-questioned Book of Mormon phrase, “flocks of herds,” is appropriate, when referring to the several flocks that comprise a combined entity called a herd. One, therefore, can have “flocks of herds,” meaning the flocks within a herd (Enos 1:21). The term “fowl” meant a bird, a feathered vertebrate animal.

Unlike the Jaredites, the family of Lehi did not carry animals aboard their sailing vessel, but they found upon the land “beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of men” (1 Ne. 18:25). The animals found by Lehi’s family, “in the wilderness,” ostensibly were progeny of the animals brought to the promised land by the Jaredites. Later in the Book of Ether the record mentions that the Jaredite people had prospered and had become exceedingly rich in “all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:17-19). The people also went into “land southward, to hunt food for the people of the land, for the land was covered with animals of the forest” (Ether 10:19). There is no further mention of fish or honey bees in the Jaredite record after beginning their journey at the great tower.

We, like others, would want to know the animals represented by the names, cureloms and cumoms. Camels would be a valuable addition to the collection and top our list of potential animals. These unknown animals, like the horses, asses and elephants, “were useful unto man.” This implies they were domesticated. Camels can be domesticated, but some animals, such as the American bison, resist domestication. Camel bones, and bones of the named animals in the Book of Ether, have been found in various locations of Baja California and southern California, and especially the La Brea tar pits in the urban center of Los Angeles. The tar pits were often covered with water, and over many centuries, animals came to drink and were trapped in the tar and their bones preserved.

Because of iniquity among the people, a widespread catastrophe beset the Jaredites. The unforeseen calamity was of such a magnitude that it was deemed worthy of placement in Moroni’s highly abridged record. There was a great dearth (shortage of food) “upon the land, and the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceedingly fast because of the dearth, for there was no rain upon the face of the earth” (Ether 9:30). Iniquity was the cause, and no rain (a drought) was the heaven-sent retribution. “And there came forth poisonous serpents [large snakes] also upon the face of the land, and did poison many people. And it came to pass that their flocks began to flee before the poisonous serpents, towards the land southward, which was called by the Nephites Zarahemla. And it came to pass that there were many of them which did perish by the way; nevertheless, there were some which fled into the land southward” (Ether 9:31-32). The land southward comprised the contiguous Nephite lands of Bountiful and Zarahemla located south of the narrow neck of land. The narrow neck of land was situated between the land Bountiful on the south and the land Desolation on the north. The land Desolation was an integral part of the Jaredite lands and later became a Nephite land (Ether 7:6; Alma 22:29-34). Today, the corresponding area of Baja California is rife with snakes of many kinds in a conducive environment.

The Lord caused “the serpents that they should pursue them no more, but that they should hedge up the way that the people could not pass, that whoso should attempt to pass might fall by the poisonous serpents” (Ether 9:33). The people followed “the course of the beasts, and did devour the carcasses of them which fell by the way, until they had devoured them all. Now when the people saw that they must perish they began to repent of their iniquities and cry unto the Lord” (Ether 9:34). The term “beast” in old English referred to any four-legged animal, either wild or domesticated.

The people humbled themselves and the Lord sent “rain upon the face of the earth; and the people began to revive again, and there began to be fruit in the north countries, and in all the countries round about. And the Lord did show forth his power unto them in preserving them from famine” (Ether 9:35). These calamitous events of drought, famine and a plague of snakes occurred where the southern lands of the Jaredites and the later northern lands of the Nephites spatially overlapped. The “north countries” mentioned by Moroni are the lands to the north of the narrow neck of land—the land Desolation and the adjoining lands to the north. (See our topic article, From the Sea West to the Sea East)

Some years later, in the days of Lib, a Jaredite king, “the poisonous serpents were destroyed. Wherefore they did go into the land southward, to hunt food for the people of the land, for the land was covered with animals of the forest. And Lib also himself became a great hunter. And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land. And they did preserve the land southward for a wilderness, to get game. And the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants” (Ether 10:18-21). The “land southward,” where the Jaredite hunters went “to hunt food for people,” could not have been too far from the “land northward” which was “covered with inhabitants.” The meat from game animals would be difficult to haul long distances and would spoil beyond a short time. The Nephites called this area the land of Bountiful, a wilderness “filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind, a part of which had come from the land northward for food” (Alma 22:31). Today, the corresponding area of Baja California continues to be a highly favorable habitat for wild game, such as deer, pronghorns, wild goats, game birds and rabbits.