The One with Names of Groups of Animals


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

One time in high school we were playing trivia during homeroom and the question arose, "What is a group of crows called?" and a fellow classmate shouted out, "Oh! I know this! A murder of crows!" Interesting right? Turns out different groups of animals have all kinds of wacky names!

I was reminded of this tidbit when we were at the SeaTac airport in April perusing through a Fireworks store and came across a book called "Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish?"
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I just HAD to know more. So I googled "names of groups of animals" and found out the following:

An army of ants.
A shrewdness of apes.
A flange of baboons.
A battery of barracudas.
A sloth of bears.
A family of beavers.
A nest of bees.
A chatter of budgerigars.
A rainbow of butterflies.
A caravan of camels.
A mob of cattle.
A coalition of cheetahs.
A clutch of chicks.
A bed of clams.
An intrusion of cockroaches.
A pack of coyotes.
A float of crocodiles.
A murder of crows. (I knew that!)
A pod of dolphins.
A dole of doves.
A congregation of eagles.
A seething of eels.
A crash of elephants.
A gang of elk.
A mob of emus.
A business of ferrets.
A charm of finches.
A skulk of foxes.
A knot of frogs.
A journey of giraffes.
A tribe of goats.
A troubling of goldfish.
A band of gorillas.
A cloud of grasshoppers.
A confusion of guinea fowl.
A horde of hamsters.
A boil of hawks.
An array of hedgehogs.
A brood of hens.
A raft of hippopotami.
A stud of horses.
A cry of hounds.
A cackle of hyenas.
A husk of jackrabbits.
A party of jays.
A smack of jellyfish.
A mob of kangaroos.
An exaltation of larks.
A flock of lice.
A pride of lions.
A barrel of monkeys.
A barren of mules.
An enchantment of nightingales.
A family of otters.
A parliament of owls.
A yoke of oxen.
A bed of oysters.
A pandemonium of parrots. (lol. so true.)
A muster of peacocks.
A squadron of pelicans.
A rookery of penguins.
A prickle of porcupines.
A coterie of prairie dogs.
A colony of rabbits.
A mischief of rats.
A rhumba of rattlesnakes.
An unkindness of ravens.
A crash of rhinos.
A pungent of sasquatch.
A stench of Schnauzers.
A raft of sea otters.
A pod of seals.
A shiver of sharks.
A herd of sheep.
A surfeit of skunks.
A slither of snakes.
A walk of snails.
A scurry of squirrels.
A fever of stingrays.
A gulp of swallows.
A bank of swanks.
A cloud of tadpoles.
An ambush of tigers.
A knot of toads.
A creep of tortoises.
A rafter of turkeys.
A boogle of weasels.
A wisdom of wombats.
A fall of woodcocks.
A descent of woodpeckers.
A clew of worms.
A chime of wrens.
A zeal of zebras.

There you have it! You learn something new every day!

8 comments

  1. I wanna know who's in charge of making these up. Some of them are really crazy!

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  2. This is probably the greatest thing I've seen all day. I love it!

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  3. I used to teach English- I would get my classes to make up collective nouns for different things ( that's what we call them in the UK)

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  4. What a fun post! I've also heard "ostentation" for a group of peacocks. And what the heck is a swank?!

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  5. should capitalize on that and write a book about it just like the one above you saw that didn't have 'em all! that's so fun!

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  6. whaaa? i had no idea that they had names of groups of animals! this is ridiculous!
    Xo

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