Group names of animals should fit the characteristics of the animal. If you don’t like the name given to a particular group of animals, then make up one of your own that fits the animal like a glove. Maybe the name you make up in your work of fiction will catch on. Remember, new words are being added to the English language all the time.

Bamboo - Pandas are usually solitary creatures, but a group of them is a bamboo. To be honest, I only found one site that said bamboo was the group name for pandas, but the other group names I found for them just were not as fitting. Pandas and bamboo go together. A cupboard of pandas or a sloth of pandas does not have the same ring of truth as does a bamboo of pandas. In the world of fiction, it is your choice. My vote goes for a bamboo of pandas.

Band - The coati, a relative of the raccoon, has multiple rings up and down its tail. A group of them is called a band. They share this group name with coyotes, gorillas, and blue jays.

Bank - Bank is the name given to a group of swans. I have also read that a group of swans can be called a ballet, a term I feel is much more fitting, possibly because of the ballet Swan Lake.

Barrel - I remember playing a game as a child called “Barrel of Monkeys”. Only recently did I discover that barrel is the collective noun for a group of monkeys. A barrel of monkeys could be used in a murder mystery with a zoo or a collector of children’s games involved.

Barren - Appropriately, this group name belongs to the mule, an animal that is sterile or barren. Mules, the offspring of a stallion and jenny (female donkey), are known for their orneriness. Despite their ornery attitude, they are extremely intelligent.

Bask - Crocodiles are known to lay and bask in the sun. An adventure story that takes place in the deepest, darkest jungle or in the bayous of Louisiana could have a character, running for his life, interrupt the leisure time of a bask of crocodiles.

Battery - Battery is the collective name given to a group of barracudas. My first thought was, what does a battery have to do with barracudas? A battery gives charge to things. I was thinking of the wrong definition for battery, though. Some synonyms for battery are attack, assault, beating, and violence. On second thought, battery is quite a fitting name for a group of fish that will even attack and eat its own offspring.

Bazaar - A guillemot is a black and white seabird. Bazaar is the name for a group of guillemots. Since some synonyms for bazaar are spectacle, exhibit, and show, the name makes sense. A bazaar of guillemots gathered on the shore look as though they are putting on a show or are on exhibit.

Bed - Clams, eels, oysters, scorpions, snakes, and worms share this collective name. I would not want to find any of them, especially a bed of scorpions, in my bed.

Bellowing - Believe it or not, bellowing is one of the collective names for bullfinches, beautiful birds whose calls do not resemble a bellow at all. Maybe if a bullfinch is having a bad day or is in a foul mood, his call would be more like a bellow.

Bevy - Bevy means a large group or collection, so it would be appropriate for any animal to be blessed with this word for its collective noun. Doves, otters, quail, roebucks, and swans are the animals chosen to have their groups called a bevy.

Bew - The collective noun for a group of partridges is bew. There is no other definition for the word, but it is an acronym for ‘business engineering workbench’.

Bike - Besides being short for bicycle, bike is the collective noun for a group of bees, wasps, or hornets. A criminal breaking into a house accidentally has his plans ruined by tripping over an old bicycle with a bike of hornets in one of the wheels. The residents, alerted by the intruder's screams, call the police and the criminal is apprehended.

Bite - Midges are often mistaken for mosquitoes, but they are very small two-winged flies. It is kind of fitting that a group of them would be called a bite. A bite of midges would definitely not be welcome anywhere around me.