A Bloat of Hippopotamuses

In this article, I share sixteen more group names for animals. From a bloat of hippopotamuses to a chain of bobolinks, allow them to open up your imagination. Try and use at least one of them in your story.

Bloat - When I think of hippopotamuses, I think of animals that are grey, big, and ugly. I’ve never even seen a picture of a cute hippopotamus. A bloat of hippopotamuses is a group of these ugly brutes. This may be reaching a bit, but couldn’t a bloat of hippopotamuses also refer to a group of extremely obese men, women, or children?

Bob - When a person bobs his head, he moves it up and down repeatedly. Since seals tend to bob their heads, bob is an appropriate collective name for these sea animals.

Bouquet - A bouquet is a bunch of flowers or a distinctive, usually pleasing, aroma. A bouquet of pheasants roasting in the kitchen would emit a pleasing aroma. In the wild, the fragrance of a bouquet of pheasants, if not pleasant, would be distinctive.

Brace - One of the definitions of brace is a pair or couple. Brace is also the collective name for several different groups of animals - bucks, ducks, game birds, and mallards.

Brood - Birds, chickens, jellyfish, and termites share the collective name of brood. A character could swim into a brood of jellyfish, walk unknowingly over a brood of termites, or attempt to hide in a brood of chickens.

Building - Building is the collective noun for rooks. A building of rooks sounds more like the name of a card game or a rock band to me, rather than a group of birds.

Bunch - Bunch is a term that I think should apply to any group of animals, but worms are the ones blessed with this collective noun.

Bury - Rabbits live in a burrow dug into the side of a hill or down in the ground, so it is somewhat fitting that a group of them is known as a bury of rabbits.

Business - Both a group of ferrets and a group of flies is called a business. A business meeting interrupted by a business of flies planning to overtake the building would be an interesting scenario. Why do the flies want control of the building? Are they, perhaps, against the business itself?

Cackle - Cackle is not the zoologically accepted term for a group of hyenas, but I believe it is the most fitting one. The dictionary says that to cackle is to laugh in a shrill, broken manner or to chatter noisily. Search YouTube for the video footage of hyenas laughing. It is well worth watching and shows how appropriate cackle is for the collective noun of this animal.

Caravan - When I think about a caravan of camels, I think of royalty riding across the desert, their mainly white clothing flapping in the arid winds. What would happen if a caravan of camels was caught out in a ferocious, unexpected and rare storm in the middle of the desert with no shelter in sight?

Carload, Cartload - These two group names are similar and they both describe a group of monkeys.

Cast - A person can encounter a cast of crabs, a cast of falcons, a cast of ferrets, or a cast of hawks. Cast makes me think of the characters in a play, movie, or book. What about a cast of hawks putting on a play for a cast of ferrets?

Catch - Catch is another collective noun used to describe a group of fish. Fish are not brainless and they can be trained. The catch of fish silently gliding through the huge aquarium were the only witnesses to the brutal murder of their trainer.

Cete - The collective noun for a badgers is cete. Your character could possibly encounter a cete of badgers, but could the badgers be human? A badger could be the mascot for a basketball or football team and the players be known as badgers.

Chain is the collective noun give to boblinks. The bobolink is a merium-sized songbird. The breeding male bobolink is the only American bird that is black underneath and white on his back; when he isn’t breeding, he is yellowish brown with bold, black stripes on his head and back. Why are a group of them called a chain? I don’t know why this is, but a good writing project would be to come up with a reason and make a story out of it.