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Animals & Wildlife Easy ⚡ 10 Questions ⏱️ ~6 Mins +100 XP

Animal Names and Groups

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English has an oddly specific vocabulary for animals, most of it inherited from medieval hunting manuals. Ten of the terms that are still in everyday use.

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Questions

~6m

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Easy

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+100

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About this topic

Most of the strange collective nouns come from fifteenth-century books of courtesy that taught gentlemen the correct term for every animal they might chase. Some of those inventions stuck, some are still repeated only in quizzes, and a few were probably jokes at the time. The terms for males, females and young are older and more practical, because farmers needed them. This quiz mixes the two: a handful of collective nouns that are genuinely current, and a handful of words for individual animals that anyone who has kept livestock uses without thinking.

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Animal Names and Groups: all 10 questions and answers

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1What is a group of geese on the ground called?
- A A skein
- B A covey
- C A colony
- D A gaggle Correct
Answer: D. A gaggle

Why: On land they are a gaggle. The same birds flying in formation are called a skein, which is a rare case of a collective noun changing with what the animal is doing.
2What is a baby goat called?
- A A lamb
- B A foal
- C A kid Correct
- D A calf
Answer: C. A kid

Why: A kid, which is where the slang for a child comes from. Adult females are does or nannies and males are bucks or billies.
3What is the usual word for fish swimming together in coordinated formation?
- A A herd
- B A school Correct
- C A pod
- D A colony
Answer: B. A school

Why: Biologists use shoal for fish loosely gathered together and school for a group moving in the same direction in unison. Schooling makes it much harder for a predator to lock onto any one fish.
4What is a group of dolphins called?
- A A pod Correct
- B A pack
- C A gaggle
- D A troop
Answer: A. A pod

Why: A pod, which can be a stable family group or a loose gathering depending on the species. Some species form temporary superpods of several hundred animals when food is plentiful.
5What is the swirling evening flock of starlings called?
- A A murder
- B A gaggle
- C A clutch
- D A murmuration Correct
Answer: D. A murmuration

Why: A murmuration, named for the sound of thousands of wingbeats. Each bird appears to track only about seven of its neighbours, which is enough to keep the whole flock turning as one.
6What is a male swan called?
- A A cygnet
- B A drake
- C A cob Correct
- D A pen
Answer: C. A cob

Why: The male is a cob and the female is a pen. A cygnet is a young swan, and a drake is a male duck.
7What is a male red deer called?
- A A tom
- B A stag Correct
- C A colt
- D A gander
Answer: B. A stag

Why: A stag, with the female called a hind. Buck and doe are used instead for the smaller deer such as roe and fallow.
8What is an adult female horse called?
- A A mare Correct
- B A doe
- C A sow
- D A ewe
Answer: A. A mare

Why: A mare, against a stallion for an entire male. A horse of either sex is a foal in its first year, then a colt or a filly.
9What is a group of kangaroos called?
- A A troop
- B A pack
- C A flock
- D A mob Correct
Answer: D. A mob

Why: A mob, which in Australia can run to dozens of animals. Kangaroos are marsupials, and a young one carried in the pouch is a joey.
10What is a group of owls traditionally called?
- A A council
- B A cabinet
- C A parliament Correct
- D A congress
Answer: C. A parliament

Why: A parliament, a term popularised in the twentieth century by C. S. Lewis in the Narnia books. Wild owls are mostly solitary, so the name describes a gathering that rarely happens.

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