What are the different groups of animals called? We've covered the terms you may or may not have heard about.
Here it is, your great big list of 95 animal group names.
Of course, 95 might seem like a lot, but when they're gathered together en masse, we can make best use of them as sportsmen.
For our purposes, we'll try to stick to our favorite wild game species, but we may stray just a bit to try and name a few. Mainly because no one can figure out where they came up with such odd names!
For instance, a group of hogs is typically called a sounder.
There may not be a serious need to know these words, and it won't make a difference in your hunting success. But for those slow moments in the blind or in the treestand when we want to show our outdoor knowledge to the person sitting next to us, they can come in handy.
We've been following, studying, and pursuing wild game species since we were young, but it still seems like we learn new terms like these every year. Some groups of critters go by more than one name, too!
Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom
Simply put, collective nouns are the words used to represent a group of people, animals, or things. Think about terms like a band of musicians or a gang of thieves.
Another name for collective nouns that describe a specific group of animals are called "terms of venery," or "nouns of assembly." In fact, it is said that the tradition of using unique names for animal groups stems from an English hunting tradition of the latter half Middle Ages. It was fashionable to develop an extensive hunter's language, even reaching the points of exaggeration for style points.
One of the common mistakes in identifying the different terms of venery for certain animals that we know well is when they have more than one term. For instance, a group of crows is called a murder, but some call them a rookery.
This is indeed a mistake, and probably due to the fact that a rook is a noisy member of the crow family that nests in the tops of trees, and a large group of those birds is called a
Coyotes - Band
Rabbits - Fluffle
A group of rabbits lives in a Warren.
Turkeys - Flock, rafter, or gang
Squirrels - Scurry or dray
Lobsters - Pod
Crabs - Consortium
Crayfish, crawdads, crawfish are just called crayfish.
Crows - Murder or congress
Rooks - Rookery
Also called a clamor.
Trees - Clump
Wolves - Pack
Baitfish - Shoal or school
Ants - Army
Also colony or swarm.
Tigers - Ambush
Eagles - Convocation
Alligators - Congregation
Remember that when they pass the plate on Sunday.
Bats - Cloud
Frogs - Army
Herons - Siege or hedge
Owls - Parliament
We feel smarter already.
Leopards - Leap
Eels - Bed
Badgers - Cete
Bears - Sloth or sleuth
Beavers - Family or colony
Wild Pigs and Boars - Sounder
Buffalo - Obstinacy
Also herd, troop, and sometimes gang.
Buzzards - Wake
Whitetail Deer, Caribou, Moose, Elk - Herd
Groups of elk are sometimes referred to as a gang.
Cormorants - Gulp
Crocodiles - Bask or float
Doves - Flight, arc, dule, or pitying
Ducks - Flock, raft, or block
Flies - Swarm, sometimes cloud or business
Foxes - Leash, skulk, or troop
Geese - Gaggle
Skein is a term for a group of flying geese.
Hawks - Boil, cast, or kettle
Hounds - Pack, mute, or brace
Lizards - Lounge
Moles - Labor
Otters - Romp
Horses - Team
Oysters - Bed
Pheasants - Bouquet or nye
Porcupines - Prickle
Quail - Covey or bevy
Raccoons - Gaze
Rattlesnakes - Rhumba
Sharks - School or shiver
Sheep - Flock or fold
Snakes - Den, nest, or knot
Trout - Hover
Turtles - Bale or turn
Weasels - Colony, pack, sneak, or gang
Woodpeckers - Descent
Woodcocks - Cord, fall, flight, or plump
Grouse - Chorus, covey, drumming, grumbling, or leash
Loons - Asylum or cry
Woodchucks - Troop
Partridge - Bevy or covey
Bison - Herd
Now, going back to the Middle Ages when the men that hunted (and it was certainly mostly men at that time) decided to become more fashionable and increase their vocabulary of terms for the animals that they hunted, they must have gotten a little full of themselves because they just couldn't stop.
The amount of exaggeration in the following terms of venery will show you what we mean, but I think it comes down to the fact that they were a bunch of showoffs that just wanted to see who could come up with the most outrageous names.
Other Terms of Venery
Rhinos - Crash
Ferrets - Business
Lions - Pride
Baboons - Troop
Camels - Caravan or train
Cheetahs - Coalition
Cockroaches - Intrusion (how fitting)
Mules - Barren or pack
Giraffes - Tower
Grasshoppers - Cloud
Goldfish - Troubling
Hares - Down
Hippos - Bloat
Hyenas - Cackle
Jellyfish - Smack
Spiders - Clutter
Toads - Knot
Walruses - Huddle
Wombats - Wisdom
Zebras - Cohort
Now we'll touch on the birds, which sends the silliness of this list into overdrive.
Emus - Mob
Finches - Charm
Flamingos - Flamboyance or stand
Larks - Exaltation
Magpies - Tiding
Parrots - Company
Peacocks - Ostentation
Pelicans - Pod
Sparrows - Host
Starlings - Murmuration
Storks - Mustering
Jays - Band or scold
Swans - Bevy
Gulls - Colony
Whether you call it a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks, or a barrel of monkeys, the English language dictates that these group names and collective terms are the proper terminology for animals that hang out together. It's just that we sort of have to roll our eyes at many of them.
It doesn't matter if you're from the 15th century or 15th Avenue, it's hard to say a flamboyance of flamingos or a rhumba of rattlesnakes without laughing.
Hopefully you'll consider this a little more than totally useless trivia, but in any case, now you know!
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