Best animal collective names ever
A grumble of pugs, an embarrassment of pandas, a kindle of kittens! A Compendium of Collective Nouns by Woop Studios offers the accurate but wild word for every animal pack under the sun… the baboon one is a classic! Here’s our guide to remembering which is which.
A grumble of pugs
How to remember: “I hate work,” one pug grumbled to the grumble of pugs. “The boss treats us like dogs.”
A kindle of kittens
How to remember: Our daughter browsed LOLCats on her tablet, cooing over a kindle of kittens on her Kindle.
An embarrassment of pandas
How to remember: The newlywed embarrassment of pandas could not mate on command – much to their embarrassment.
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A congress of baboons
How to remember: Q: What’s the difference between the U.S. Congress and a congress of baboons? A: One is a pack of rowdy primates – and the other is a group of baboons. (Hey-oh!)
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A prickle of hedgehogs
How to remember: Snoozing in the sun, I woke to a prickle on my cheek – it was a prickle of hedgehogs scampering all over my face.
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A bloat of hippopotamuses
How to remember: The bloat of hippopotamuses felt bloated after lunch, but thankfully it was a short walk back to the swamp from the drive-through.
A mischief of mice
How to remember: A mischief of mice discussed how they might scam more cheese. “What if we pretend to be blind?” one said, mischievously.
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A dropping of ducks
How to remember: After slipping in a puddle of duck droppings, Father angrily stormed around looking for the dropping of ducks that dropped it.
A waddle of penguins
How to remember: After he ate all of his krill, the penguin waddled back to the waddle of penguins to try to score some more.
A memory of elephants
How to remember: They say an elephant never forgets. But a memory of elephants never forgets to smell awful.
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A flamboyance of flamingos
How to remember: Flamboyantly, the flamboyance of flamingos fluttered into the fairgrounds, flopping their feet and flipping their feathers.
A bouquet of hummingbirds
How to remember: My wife thought she was getting a bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s Day, but I’m much more creative than that. When she unwrapped her gift – boom! – a bouquet of hummingbirds. Nailed it.
A whoop of gorillas
How to remember: We had front-row seats, but unfortunately we were near an annoying whoop of gorillas whooping for the other team.
A dazzle of zebras
How to remember: “Dazzle me!” Britney told the dazzle of zebra dancers as they unpacked their sequins and clomped on the stage behind her.
A raft of otters
How to remember: We were rafting downriver when a raft of otters capsized our boat. “You otter know we don’t take kindly to strangers,” their tiny chief barked at us. Even while wet, it was hard not to laugh.
A concerto of crickets
How to remember: It was a beautiful July night, perfect for a concert by a concerto of crickets. Unfortunately, they were too tiny to lift their heavy instruments, so we demanded our money back.
A blessing of unicorns
How to remember: A blessing of unicorns pranced across the rainbow, until one sneezed pixie dust all over his friends. “Bless you,” the blessing brayed.
A wisdom of wombats
How to remember: I once stumbled upon a whole wisdom of wombats in the woods. They were quietly puffing on homemade corncob pipes and discussing Walden.
An aurora of polar bears
How to remember: We weren’t able to see the aurora borealis in Alaska, but at dawn, an aurora of polar bears gave us a kiss good morning. So that was almost as special.
A scurry of squirrels
How to remember: First, just the one squirrel scurried onto our blanket. But then an entire scurry of squirrels scurried up to us. We never got to finish our picnic because we ran away.
A husk of hares
How to remember: The husk of hares ate corn husks at dusk, wondering whether a colony of rabbits would join them.
A troubling of goldfish
How to remember: Upon learning his species had an average attention span of eight seconds, the troubled goldfish returned to his troubling of goldfish, only to forget what he was troubled about.
A journey of giraffes
How to remember: If giraffes are journeying across the land together, they are called a journey of giraffe. Once they reach their destination and stand still, observing the surroundings they tower over, they become a tower of giraffe.
A cackle of hyenas
How to remember: A cackle of hyenas will always cackle until a lion approaches – especially if that lion is named Scar or Mufasa.
A walk of snails
How to remember: No matter how slow you walk, you will always walk faster than a walk of snails.
A rhumba of rattlesnakes
How to remember: Once Rue turned on the rumba radio station, the whole rhumba of rattlesnakes started dancing the rhumba with their Roomba Robot.
