A Fluffle of Bunnies! And Other Strange and Funny Collective Animal Names...
I found out recently that a group of rabbits or hares is sometimes referred to as a “fluffle”. How adorable is that?! It got me thinking about all the strange names we have in the English language for animal groups and where they originate from. It has been said that many of these names date back to the fifteenth century and an essay on hunting entitled ‘The Book of St Albans’, written by Juliana Berners. I think that she must have had a great sense of humour!
Some of them are amusing (“A Cauldron of Bats”), some spot-on (“A Prickle of Porcupines) and some downright bizarre (“A Smack of Jellyfish”)! I’m not convinced many of these actually get used very often in everyday conversation but maybe they’d be useful to know for a pub quiz or something!
Here are some of my favourites…
A Cauldron of Bats
A Flutter of Butterflies
An Intrusion of Cockroaches
A Murder of Crows
A Parade of Elephants
A Business of Ferrets
A School of Fish
A Flamboyance of Flamingoes
An Army of Frogs
A Gaggle of Geese
A Tower of Giraffes
A Bloat or Thunder of Hippopotamuses
A Cackle of Hyenas
A Smack of Jellyfish
A Conspiracy of Lemurs
A Watch of Nightingales
A Romp of Otters
A Parliament of Owls
A Prickle of Porcupines
A Fluffle of Rabbits or hares
An Unkindness of Ravens
A Crash of Rhinoceroses
A Maelstrom of Salamanders
A Squabble of Seagulls
A Shiver of Sharks
A Mustering of Stalks
A Knot of Toads
Sources:
McLendon, Russell: “99 strange collective animal names”: [http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/99-strange-collective-animal-names]
Messenger, Stephen: “A 'Shrewdness' of Apes and Other Odd Group Names”: [https://www.treehugger.com/author/stephen-messenger/]
Anon: “What do you call a group of Safari animalsand how did they get their name?”: [https://www.zambezi.com/blog/2014/what-do-you-call/]
Images courtesy of Pixabay
Leave a comment