What Do You Call a Group of Wild Pigs? 95 Names for Animal Groups

Posted by Craig Raleigh

March 22, 2021

What are the different groups of animals called? We've covered the terms you may or may not have heard about.

Here it is, your great big list of 95 animal group names.

Of course, 95 might seem like a lot, but when they're gathered together en masse, we can make best use of them as sportsmen.

For our purposes, we'll try to stick to our favorite wild game species, but we may stray just a bit to try and name a few. Mainly because no one can figure out where they came up with such odd names!

For instance, a group of hogs is typically called a sounder.

There may not be a serious need to know these words, and it won't make a difference in your hunting success. But for those slow moments in the blind or in the treestand when we want to show our outdoor knowledge to the person sitting next to us, they can come in handy.

We've been following, studying, and pursuing wild game species since we were young, but it still seems like we learn new terms like these every year. Some groups of critters go by more than one name, too!

Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom

Simply put, collective nouns are the words used to represent a group of people, animals, or things. Think about terms like a band of musicians or a gang of thieves.

Another name for collective nouns that describe a specific group of animals are called "terms of venery," or "nouns of assembly." In fact, it is said that the tradition of using unique names for animal groups stems from an English hunting tradition of the latter half Middle Ages. It was fashionable to develop an extensive hunter's language, even reaching the points of exaggeration for style points.

One of the common mistakes in identifying the different terms of venery for certain animals that we know well is when they have more than one term. For instance, a group of crows is called a murder, but some call them a rookery.

This is indeed a mistake, and probably due to the fact that a rook is a noisy member of the crow family that nests in the tops of trees, and a large group of those birds is called a

Coyotes - Band

Rabbits - Fluffle

A group of rabbits lives in a Warren.

Turkeys - Flock, rafter, or gang

Squirrels - Scurry or dray

Lobsters - Pod

Crabs - Consortium

Crayfish, crawdads, crawfish are just called crayfish.

Crows - Murder or congress

Rooks - Rookery

Also called a clamor.

Trees - Clump

Wolves - Pack

Baitfish - Shoal or school

Ants - Army

Also colony or swarm.

Tigers - Ambush

Eagles - Convocation

Alligators - Congregation

Remember that when they pass the plate on Sunday.

Bats - Cloud

Frogs - Army

Herons - Siege or hedge

Owls - Parliament

We feel smarter already.

Leopards - Leap

Eels - Bed

Badgers - Cete

Bears - Sloth or sleuth

Beavers - Family or colony

Wild Pigs and Boars - Sounder

Buffalo - Obstinacy

Also herd, troop, and sometimes gang.

Buzzards - Wake

Whitetail Deer, Caribou, Moose, Elk - Herd 

Groups of elk are sometimes referred to as a gang.

Cormorants - Gulp

Crocodiles - Bask or float

Doves - Flight, arc, dule, or pitying

Ducks - Flock, raft, or block

Flies - Swarm, sometimes cloud or business

Foxes - Leash, skulk, or troop

Geese - Gaggle

Skein is a term for a group of flying geese.

Hawks - Boil, cast, or kettle

Hounds - Pack, mute, or brace

Lizards - Lounge

Moles - Labor

Otters - Romp

Horses - Team

Oysters - Bed

Pheasants - Bouquet or nye

Porcupines - Prickle

Quail - Covey or bevy

Raccoons - Gaze

Rattlesnakes - Rhumba

Sharks - School or shiver

Sheep - Flock or fold

Snakes - Den, nest, or knot

Trout - Hover

Turtles - Bale or turn

Weasels - Colony, pack, sneak, or gang

Woodpeckers - Descent

Woodcocks - Cord, fall, flight, or plump

Grouse - Chorus, covey, drumming, grumbling, or leash

Loons - Asylum or cry

Woodchucks - Troop

Partridge - Bevy or covey

Bison - Herd

Now, going back to the Middle Ages when the men that hunted (and it was certainly mostly men at that time) decided to become more fashionable and increase their vocabulary of terms for the animals that they hunted, they must have gotten a little full of themselves because they just couldn't stop.

The amount of exaggeration in the following terms of venery will show you what we mean, but I think it comes down to the fact that they were a bunch of showoffs that just wanted to see who could come up with the most outrageous names.

Other Terms of Venery

Rhinos - Crash

Ferrets - Business

Lions - Pride

Baboons - Troop

Camels - Caravan or train

Cheetahs - Coalition

Cockroaches - Intrusion (how fitting)

Mules - Barren or pack

Giraffes - Tower

Grasshoppers - Cloud

Goldfish - Troubling

Hares - Down

Hippos - Bloat

Hyenas - Cackle

Jellyfish - Smack

Spiders - Clutter

Toads - Knot

Walruses - Huddle

Wombats - Wisdom

Zebras - Cohort

Now we'll touch on the birds, which sends the silliness of this list into overdrive.

Emus - Mob

Finches - Charm

Flamingos - Flamboyance or stand

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Larks - Exaltation

Magpies - Tiding

Parrots - Company

Peacocks - Ostentation

Pelicans - Pod

Sparrows - Host

Starlings - Murmuration

Storks - Mustering

Jays - Band or scold

Swans - Bevy

Gulls - Colony

Whether you call it a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks, or a barrel of monkeys, the English language dictates that these group names and collective terms are the proper terminology for animals that hang out together. It's just that we sort of have to roll our eyes at many of them.

It doesn't matter if you're from the 15th century or 15th Avenue, it's hard to say a flamboyance of flamingos or a rhumba of rattlesnakes without laughing.

Hopefully you'll consider this a little more than totally useless trivia, but in any case, now you know!

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