Names for Animal Groups

What do you call a group of...

Feel free to email more suggestions (real or invented)


Ants:  colony, swarm, army
Apes:  shrewdness
Badgers:  colony
Barracuda:  battery
Bats:  colony
Beavers:  colony
Bees:  flight, grist, hive, swarm
Bitterns:  siege, sedge
Boar:  singular, herd, sounder
Budgerigars:  chatter
Buffalo:  obstinacy
Butterflies:  flutter
Buzzards:  wake
Capercaillies:  tok
Caterpillars:  army
Cats:  clowder, glaring, pounce, nuisance
Cows:  herd
Crocodiles:  float, congregation, bask
Crows:  murder
Dogfish:  troop
Dolphins:  pod
Donkeys:  pace, herd, drove
Eagles:  convocation
Ferrets:  business
Finches:  charm
Fish:  shoal, school
Flamingos:  stand, flamboyance
Fleas:  scratch
Foxes:  leash, skulk
Geese:  gaggle
Giraffes:  tower
Glow-Worms:  glimmer
Gnats:  nibbling, irritation
Goldfinches:  charm
Gorillas:  band
Guillemots:  bazaar
Hedgehogs:  prickle, snuffle, array
Herons:  siege
Hippopotami:  bloat
Hummingbirds:  shimmer
Jackdaws:  mob
Jays:  band, scold
Jellyfish:  smack
Kangaroos:  troop
Kittens:  kindle
Lapwings:  deceit
Larks:  ascension, exaltation
Lions:  pride
Magpies:  tiding, mob, murder
Monkeys:  troop, mischief, barrel
Moles:  movement, labour
Otters:  romp
Owls:  parliament
Pandas:  embarrassment
Peacocks:  ostentation
Penguins:  waddle
Pigs:  drift, drove, team
Polecats:  chine
Politicians:  scandal
Puffins:  circus
Sheep:  flock
Rattlesnakes:  rhumba
Rats:  colony, horde, pack, plague, swarm
Ravens:  unkindness
Reindeer:  herd
Rhinoceros:  crash
Rooks:  building
Seals:  bob, colony, harem, herd, spring, team
Sharks:  shiver
Shellfish:  bed
Sloths:  bed
Snakes:  slither, bed, den, nest, pit
Snipes:  walk, wisp
Squirrels:  scurry, drey
Starlings:  quarrel, murmuration
Storks:  muster
Swallows:  flight (even when they're not in flight!)
Swordfish:  flotilla
Tigers:  streak, ambush
Toads:  knot
Turkeys:  rafter
Weasels:  pack, sneak
Whales:  pod
Wildfowl:  plump
Wild Pigs:  sounder, passel
Wolves:  pack
Wombats:  warren
Woodpeckers:  descent
Yak:  herd
Zebra:  herd, stripe


This page was created with the help of: Mike Lucie, Jennifer Skillen, Valerie Camp, Sandra Taylor, Leigh Bosworth, Peter White, B J Smith, H. J. Bowden, Dot Carter, Alison Pollock, Tom Newman, Beryl Ladd, Matt May, Kirsten Tomlinson, Sheila Coppins