100 Fun Facts About Groups of Animals

What is a group of crows called?

The term dates back centuries but ornithologists rarely use it; a big flock of crows roosting together can number in the tens of thousands.

What is a group of owls called?

Owls are mostly solitary hunters, so a real 'parliament' is a rare sight outside the breeding season.

What is a group of lions called?

A pride is built around related females; the same list also gives the much older term 'sawt'.

What is a group of geese on the ground called?

The word changes once they take off, when a whole different set of flight terms applies.

What is a group of geese in flight called?

Skein originally meant a length of coiled yarn, a nod to the long trailing lines geese fly in.

What is a group of flamingos called?

The alternative, duller term is simply a stand; wild flocks in East Africa can exceed a million birds.

What is a group of ravens called?

The list gives ravens a second, equally sinister term too, both reflecting the bird's dark reputation in folklore.

What is a group of larks called?

The phrase appears in a 15th-century hunting treatise and was borrowed as the title of James Lipton's 1968 book on collective nouns.

What is a group of ferrets called?

The older spelling 'busyness' makes the sense clearer: ferrets are relentlessly active when awake.

What is a group of rhinoceroses called?

Adult rhinos are largely solitary, so a crash is usually a mother with calves or a loose group at a waterhole.

What is a group of hippopotamuses called?

Hippos spend their days packed together in rivers and lakes and come ashore at night to graze.

What is a group of giraffes called?

Giraffe groups are loose and change membership constantly, which is why 'herd' is used just as often.

What is a group of zebras called?

The name plays on the theory that massed stripes make it hard for a predator to pick out one animal; 'zeal' is another option.

What is a group of jellyfish called?

Marine biologists tend to say bloom for a sudden population explosion; smack, fluther and smuth are the folk terms.

What is a group of porcupines called?

Porcupines are mostly solitary, so a prickle is usually a family sharing a den in winter.

What is a group of hedgehogs called?

Hedgehogs are solitary too, so the term gets far more use in quizzes than in hedgerows.

What is a group of penguins on land called?

In the water the same birds become a raft; emperor penguins famously huddle to survive Antarctic winds.

What is a group of wombats called?

A birding-magazine writer who interviewed wombat researchers found none of them had ever heard the term used at work.

What is a group of cheetah males called?

Male cheetahs, often brothers, band together for life to hold territory; females are solitary.

What is a group of tigers called?

Tigers are solitary, so the term is almost purely literary; the alternative is a streak.

What is a group of cockroaches called?

The word fits: cockroaches are among the most common household pests on every inhabited continent.

What is a group of ladybugs called?

Ladybugs cluster in huge numbers to overwinter, sometimes coating whole walls and tree trunks.

What is a group of turkeys called?

Rafter is the traditional term, though 'flock' is what most farmers actually say.

What is a group of turtles called?

Sea turtles gather in numbers only at nesting beaches, where thousands of females can come ashore at once.

What is a group of toads called?

Toads gather in writhing tangles during spring breeding, which is exactly what the term describes.

What is a group of foxes called?

Skulk captures the fox's reputation for slinking; leash and earth are the other listed terms.

What is a group of hyenas called?

Spotted hyenas really do produce a laughing call, and their social groups are also called clans.

What is a group of lemurs called?

Ring-tailed lemur groups can number more than 20 and are dominated by females.

What is a group of apes called?

Gorillas specifically get their own extra term, a whoop, alongside band and troop.

What is a group of otters called?

Sea otters, however, are described as a raft when they float together holding paws.

What is a group of sharks called?

Shiver is the term that stuck for sharks; the same list gives rays their own, quite different word.

What is a group of stingrays called?

Rays gather by the hundreds in migrations off the Yucatán coast, a spectacle that has helped popularise the term.

What is a group of rats called?

Colony and horde are also listed; a wild rat colony can hold hundreds of animals in one burrow system.

What is a group of squirrels called?

Squirrels are mostly solitary except when several chase one female in late winter, which is when a scurry is easiest to spot.

What is a group of polar bears called?

Aurora and pack are also listed; polar bears do gather in numbers on the Hudson Bay coast waiting for sea ice.

What is a group of bears (in general) called?

Sleuth is the other traditional term; both are used for brown and black bears, which are largely solitary.

What is a group of pugs called?

Pugs get their own entry separate from other dogs, whose group terms include kennel and pack.

What is a group of hummingbirds or, more traditionally, goldfinches called?

The list gives charm for both finches and goldfinches, from the Old English cirm meaning a chattering noise.

What is a group of cardinals called?

The bird's name comes from the red robes of Catholic cardinals, and all its listed group names run with the joke, including college and conclave.

What is a group of peafowl called?

Only males (peacocks) carry the famous train; the group term covers peacocks and peahens together.

What is a group of wild pigs numbering twelve or more called?

Smaller groups are a drift or drove; feral pigs travel in family units led by sows.

What is a group of hawks soaring together on thermals called?

Boil and cauldron are also used for soaring hawks; cast refers to hawks flown together in falconry.

What is a group of horses used for racing called?

String is used for ponies, rag for colts and team for working horses.

What is a group of ducks on the water called?

Bunch and raft are also used on the water; on land the same birds become a badling, sord or waddling.

What is a group of wildebeest called?

The Serengeti migration involves more than a million of them crossing the Mara River each year.

What is a group of skunks called?

Surfeit means an excess, which is roughly how most people feel about more than one skunk.

What is a group of moles called?

Moles are aggressively solitary, so the term is fanciful; a single mole can dig around 20 metres of tunnel in a day.

What is a group of nightingales called?

The bird sings at night, and the group name refers to keeping the night watch.

What is a group of lapwings called?

Lapwings feign a broken wing to lure predators away from the nest, hence the name.

What is a group of lobsters called?

Lobsters do gather in numbers during migrations, marching single-file across the seabed.

What is a group of caterpillars called?

Butterflies get flight, flutter and kaleidoscope, but their larvae share the martial term with frogs.

What is a group of salamanders called?

Salamanders congregate in vernal pools on wet spring nights to breed, sometimes by the hundreds.

What is a group of starfish called?

Asteroid is the other listed term, both playing on the animal's star shape.

What is a group of platypuses called?

Platypuses are solitary in the wild, so a paddle would be an unusual sight outside a zoo.

What is a group of prairie dogs called?

One Texas prairie dog town in the 1900s was estimated to cover 25,000 square miles and hold 400 million animals.

What is a group of toucans called?

The name is a joke on Jimmy Durante, the comedian famous for his enormous nose.

What is a group of baboons called?

The word was coined in a Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch and has since been picked up by dictionaries.

What is a group of camels called?

Flock, herd and train are also listed; caravan came into English from Persian via the Silk Road trade routes.

What is a group of alligators called?

Crocodiles get the extra terms bask, float and menace; alligators only the churchy one.

What is a group of eagles called?

Convocation is also the word for a formal assembly of clergy or academics.

What is a group of swans in flight called?

On the water they are a bevy or, more poetically, a lamentation.

What is a group of kangaroos called?

Court, herd and troop are also listed; mob is also used for emus and wallabies.

What is a group of jays called?

Blue jays harass owls and hawks with harsh calls, which is exactly what the term describes.

What is a group of mongooses called?

Delegation and troop are also listed; banded mongooses live in groups of about 20.

What is a group of woodpeckers called?

The term appears in the 15th-century hunting treatise that coined many of these words; woodpeckers are usually seen alone or in pairs.

Which bird gathers in a 'murmuration'?

Winter starling murmurations over Britain and Denmark can involve hundreds of thousands of birds twisting in unison.

Which animal is grouped as an 'embarrassment'?

Sleuth is the other listed term; wild pandas are solitary, so an embarrassment is mostly a zoo phenomenon.

Which animal is grouped as an 'implausibility'?

The gnu is the same animal as the wildebeest, which also gets its own separate entry on the list.

Which insects gather in an 'eclipse'?

Swarm is the other listed term; the poetic one plays on moths blotting out a light.

Which sea creature is grouped as an 'escargatoire'?

Rout and walk are also listed; the word borrows from the French escargot.

Which animal is grouped as a 'passel'?

Passel is a variant of parcel and is used in the American South for a large number of anything.

Which animal is grouped as a 'protection'?

The name refers to the animal's bony armour; only the three-banded kinds can roll into a complete ball.

Which bird gathers in a 'gulp'?

Flight is the other listed term; cormorants swallow fish whole and are trained by Chinese fishermen to do so.

Which 1486 hunting essay is the best-known source of English collective nouns for animals?

The hunting essay is attributed to Juliana Berners and coined dozens of terms still quoted today.

According to Merriam-Webster, most 'terms of venery' fell out of use in which century?

The dictionary calls many of the terms 'rather fanciful' and says few are used consistently in running prose.

Which profession did the 1486 hunting treatise mockingly give the collective noun 'a poverty'?

The book extended collective nouns from animals to trades, a joke that lexicographers still cite.

For cetaceans, the word 'pod' is generally preferred over 'herd' for which group?

'Herd' is preferred for baleen whales, though the two words are used interchangeably in everyday speech.

Which magazine's Nicholas Lund found scientists had never heard terms like a 'bask' of crocodiles?

He conceded that a handful of the terms do have real currency in everyday speech.

What is the traditional name for collective nouns specific to certain animals, like a pride of lions?

They come from an English hunting tradition of the Late Middle Ages; a pride always means lions, never dogs or cows.

The fashion for an elaborate hunting vocabulary reached England from which country?

Elements of it were already part of French and English hunting terminology by the early 14th century.

What is a group of cats called?

Glaring, clutter and pounce are also in use; domestic cats that live together are usually related females and their young.

Besides 'herd', what is a group of elephants called?

A memory is the other listed term, a nod to the animal's famous recall; wild herds are led by the oldest female, the matriarch.

What is a group of partridges called?

Roost is the other term for partridges; a covey is typically one family party that stays together through autumn and winter.

What is a group of kittens called?

Kindle is an old verb for giving birth, still used of rabbits; litter and pillow are the other listed terms for kittens.

What is a group of herons called?

Sedge is the other traditional term; herons nest communally in treetop heronries but hunt alone, standing motionless in the shallows.

What is a group of goats called?

Tribe is the other traditional term; goats were among the first livestock, domesticated in the Near East around 10,000 years ago.

What is a group of hares called?

Down and drove are also used; unlike rabbits, hares do not burrow and their young are born fully furred with their eyes open.

What is a group of raccoons called?

Nursery and smack are also listed; adult raccoons are mostly solitary, so a group in the wild is usually a mother with her kits.

What is a group of boxer dogs called?

Curs get the less flattering 'cowardice' and hounds a 'cry'; the boxer breed was developed in Germany in the late 19th century.

What is a group of buffaloes called?

The name fits: African buffalo are notoriously unpredictable and are counted among the 'big five' dangerous game animals.

What is a group of donkeys called?

Coffle and drove are also used; a coffle originally meant a line of animals or people fastened together for a journey.

What is a group of badgers called?

Sett is the badger's burrow and brock its old country name; a single sett can be used by generations of badgers for decades.

What is a group of pheasants called?

Nye and nide are the older terms; a brace is just a pair of shot game birds.

Which bird gathers in a 'piteousness'?

Dule and pitying are variants; the soft, mournful cooing is the likely inspiration for the name.

What is a temporary cluster of migratory ants called?

These ants build the temporary nest out of their own linked bodies, sheltering the queen and brood between raids.

Besides 'swarm' and 'hive', what is a group of bees called?

Erst, drift and stand are also recorded; a cast is specifically a second swarm leaving the same hive.

What is a group of guinea fowl called?

The name suits their harsh, grating alarm call; helmeted guinea fowl are kept on farms partly as tick-eaters and watchdogs.

What is a group of lyrebirds called?

Male superb lyrebirds are famous mimics, copying other birds and even chainsaws and camera shutters.

What is a group of kinkajous called?

Kinkajous are nocturnal rainforest relatives of the raccoon, nicknamed honey bears for raiding hives with their long tongues.

Besides 'herd', what is a group of deer called?

Bunch and mob are also listed; the word survives from the medieval hunting vocabulary that also gave us 'hart' for a mature red deer stag.