Groups of animals were often named after their attributes, and as a result, the names of groups of animals is quite fascinating:
Creature |
Group name |
Creature |
Group name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antelope | Herd, cluster or tribe | Ants | Army, bike colony of swarm |
| Apes | Shrewdness or troop | Asses | Pace, drove, coffle or herd |
| Baboons | Flange, congress, troop or tribe | Badgers | Colony or cete |
| Barracuda | Battery | Bass | Fleet or shoal |
| Bats | Cloud or colony | Bears | Sleuth, sloth |
| Bears, Polar | Pack or aurora | Beavers | Colony, family or lodge |
| Bees | Bike, cast, cluster, drift, erst, game, rabble, stand, flight, grist, hive or swarm | Bison | Herd or gang |
| Bloodhounds | Sute | Boars | Herd or sounder (large wild group) |
| Buffalo | Herd, gang or obstinacy | Bullfinches | Bellowing |
| Bullocks | Drove | Butterflies | Kaleidoscope, flight, rabble or swarm |
| Buzzards | Wake | Camels | Flock, caravan, herd or train |
| Caterpillars | Army | Cats (adult) | Clowder, cluster, clutter, glaring, pounce dout or nuisance |
| Cats (kittens) | Kendle, kindle or litter | Cats (wild) | Destruction, dout or dowt |
| Cattle | Herd, drove, mob, team or kine or when only two – a yoke | Cheetahs | Coalition |
| Chickens | Flock, brood, cletch, clutch or peep | Chicks | Brood, clutch or chattering |
| Chimpanzees | Cartload | Chinchillas | Herd or colony |
| Clams or cockles | Bed | Cobras | Quiver |
| Cockroaches | Intrusion | Cormorants | Flight or gulp |
| Cows | Flink – when more than 12 | Coyotes | Band, route or pack |
| Cranes | Herd, sedge or siege | Crocodiles | Congregation, float or bask |
| Crows | Murder, hover, muster, parcel or storytelling | Curlews | Herd |
| Deer | Herd, bunch, mob, rangale, leash or parcel | Deer (Roe) | Bevy |
| Dinosaur | Pack or herd | Dogs | Kennel or pack |
| Dogs (puppies) | Litter | Dolphins | Pod, flock, school or team |
| Donkies | Drove, pace or herd | Doves | Bevy, cote, flight, piteousness, pitying, prettying, dule or dole |
| Dragons |
Flight, weyr or wing |
Ducks | Brace, flock, flush, paddling, raft, badelynge, bunch, dopping, plump, skein, sord, string or team |
| Eagles | Aerie or convocation | Eels | Swarm |
| Elephants | Herd, memory or parade | Elk |
Gang or herd |
| Emus | Mob | Falcons | Cast |
| Ferrets | Business, cast of fesnying | Finches | Charm, chirm, trembling or trimming |
| Fish | Catch, draught, fray, haul, run, school or shoal | Flamingos | Stand |
| Flies | Swarm, business, cloud, grist or hatch | Flying Fish | Glide |
| Foxes | Lead, leash, earth, troop or skulk | Frogs | Army, colony, froggery or knot |
| Geese | Flock, plump, skein, team, wedge or gaggle | Geese (flying in a V) | Wedge |
| Geese (in flight) | Skein | Gerbils | Horde |
| Giraffes | Corps, group, herd, or tower | Gnats | Cloud, horde, rabble or swarm |
| Gnus | Herd or implausibility | Goats | Flock, drove, herd, tribe or trip |
| Goldfinches | Charm, chattering, drum or troubling | Goldfish | Glint or troubling |
| Gorillas | Band or whoop | Goshawks | Flight |
| Grasshoppers | Cloud, cluster or swarm | Greyhounds | Leash |
| Guinea Pigs | Group | Gulls | Colony |
| Hamsters | Horde | Hares | Drove, down, herd, kindle, husk, leash, trace, trip or warren |
| Hawks | Aerie, cast, kettle, mew, mews, moulting, screw or stream | Hedgehogs | Array or prickle |
| Hens | Brood | Herons | Hedge, flight, rookery, sedge or siege |
| Herrings | Shoal, glean or army | Hippopotami | Crash, herd, pod, school, thunder or bloat |
| Hogs | Drift, drove, parcel, passel or drift | Hornets | Nest, bike or swarm |
| Horses | Herd, stable, team, troop, remuda, string, stud or harras | Hounds | Cry, hunt, kennel, leash, meet, stable, sute, mute or pack |
| Hummingbirds | Charm, chattering, drum or troubling | Hyenas | Clan |
| Iguanas | Mess | Impalas | Couple |
| Insects | Flight, horde, plague, rabble or swarm | Jellyfish | Smack, stuck, fluther or smuth |
| Kangaroos | Herd, mob or troop | Kittens | Kendle, kindle or litter |
| Lambs | Fall | Lapwings | Deceit |
| Larks | Ascension or exaltation | Leopards | Leap, leep or lepe | Lice | Flock, colony or infestation | Lions | Pride, flock, sawt, sault, sowse or troop |
| Lizards | Lounge | Llamas | Herd |
| Locusts | Plague, cloud or swarm | Mackeral | Shoal |
| Magpies | Tidings | Mares | Stud |
| Mice | Horde, mischief, trip or nest | Minnows | Shoal, steam, stream or swarm |
| Moles | Company, labour or movement | Mongooses | Band or pack |
| Monkeys | Cartload, mission, wilderness tribe, troup or troop | Moorhens | Plump |
| Moose | Herd | Mosquitoes | Scourge or swarm |
| Mules | Barren, pack, rake or span | Mussels | Bed |
| Nightingales | Watch , match or pray | Ostriches | Pride |
| Otter | Bevy, family, raft or romp | Owl |
Parliament or stare |
| Oxen | Drove, herd, meinie, span or team | Oxen (two) | Yoke |
| Oysters | Bed or hive | Parrots | Company, flock, pandemonium or psittacosis |
| Partridges | Covey, bevy, bew, clutch or warren | Peacocks | Muster, pride or ostentation |
| Pekingese | Pomp | Pelicans | Pod or scoop |
| Penguins | Colony, crèche, huddle, parcel or rookery | Perch | Pack |
| Pheasants | Nest, nide, nye, bouquet, head or warren | Pigeons | Flight, kit, passel or flock |
| Pigs | Drove, flock, drift, doylt, herd, litter | Pigs (piglets) | Farrow or litter |
| Pigs (wild) | Sounder | Pilchards | Shoal or school |
| Plovers | Congregation, band, flight, leash, stand or wing | Polar Bears | Pack or aurora |
| Polecats | Chine | Ponies | String or herd |
| Porcupine | Cluster | Porpoises | Pod, herd, gam, turmoil or school |
| Possum | Passel | Poultry | Run |
| Prairies Dogs | Coterie or town | Quail | Bevy, drift or covey |
| Rabbits | Bury, colony, down, drove, flick, kindle, husk, leash, trace, trip or warren | Rabbits (young) | Nest or wrack |
| Raccoons | Gaze or nursery | Racehorses | Field or string |
| Rats | Colony, horde, mischief, pack, plague or swarm | Rattlesnakes | Rhumba |
| Ravens | Storytelling, aerie, conspiracy or unkindness | Rhinoceri | Crash, herd or stubbornness |
| Salmon |
Run, bind, draught, leap, school or shoal |
Sandpipers | Fling |
| Sardines | Family | Seagulls | Squabble |
| Seahorses | Herd | Seals | Bob, colony, crash, harem, pod, rookery, spring, team or herd |
| Shark | School, shoal or shiver | Sheep | Down, drove, flock, fold, hurtle or trip |
| Shrimps | Troup | Skunks | Surfeit |
| Snails | Escargatoire, rout or walk | Snakes | Bed, den, knot, trogle, nest or pit |
| Sparrows | Host, meinie, quarrel, tribe or ubiquity | Spiders | Clutter or cluster |
| Squirrels | Dray, colony or scurry | Starlings | Murmuration, chattering, cloud, congregation or clutter |
| Storks | Flight, phalanx, muster or mustering | Swallows |
Flight or guld |
| Swans | Bank, bevy, drift, eyrar, game, herd, lamentation, sownder, squadron, team, whiteness, whiting or wedge | Swordfish | Flotilla |
| Termites | Colony or swarm | Thrushes | Mutation |
| Tigers | Ambush or streak | Toads | Knot, knob or nest |
| Trout | Hover or shoal | Tuna | Float or troup |
| Turkeys | Flock, dole, dule, raffle, raft, rafter or posse | Turkeys (young) | Brood |
| Turtledoves | Pitying | Turtles | Bale, dule or turn |
| Unicorns | Blessing | Vipers | Generation or nest |
| Vultures | Colony, wake | Wallabies | Mob |
| Walruses | Herd, pod, huddle or ugly | Wasps | Colony, bike or nest |
| Waterfowl | Plump, bunch, knob or raft | Weasels | Pack, gang or sneak |
| Whales | Gam, float, mob, run, herd, pod, troup, shoal or school | Whales (bottle-nosed) | Grind |
| Whiting | Pod | Wildcats | Destruction or dout |
| Wildebeest | Herd | Wolves | Herd, pack, route or rout |
| Wombats | Warren or mob | Woodpeckers | Descent |
| Worms | Clew | Wren | Herd |
| Yaks | Herd | Zebras | Herd, cohort or zeal |