[js1138]

Depends on who you read or listen to. According to other classical sources, people survived here and there on mountains and anything which could float for the better part of a year. Nobody else (aside from Noah) saved a large sampling of animals.

So animals are descended from the populations saved by Noah?

[tamalejoe]

>So animals are descended from the populations saved by Noah?

The overwhelming vast bulk of them. There might have been a few to survive on mountains and high places.