Rafting (ecology)

Rafting is a model of bio-dispersion proposed by ecologists to explain how some flora and terrestrial fauna came to, and continue to, colonize and populate islands and other lands isolated by water. In this model, floatable mats of vegetation ("rafts") from a populated land are displaced by storms or flooding and washed out onto a body of water. In some instances, animals get trapped on these rafts and are carried along. When the raft is washed ashore on an island or other isolated body, the accidental passengers disembark and may colonize the land. Seeds and other living plant matter may also be transported in this manner.

Rafting is also almost certainly one of the main means of global species redistribution which took place at the end of the Great Flood and as part of the Post-Diluvian Diasporas. Species such as the Sloth were probably moved in this way.