Animal Trivia Quiz

First topic message reminder :

Without gooooogling! Can you name these groups of animals?

Example: a group of fish is a school of fish.


Your first one:

A group of chickens.

Could always flip the question and suggest some collective nouns instead, and see who knows the animals...

For example :

Colony   (there are several answers for this one..)

Congregation

Congress

Convocation

(These were just some of the words floating around in the 'back of my mind' after the original question was asked..).

nicko wrote:Considering I'V been "Wildfowling" for 65 odd years I know what a raft of Duck is !

Tell me, what is a group of Geese on the ground called,
and what is a group of Geese flying called ?

A skein of geese in flight; a gaggle of geese on ground, or in grandma's barnyard.

This isn't about 'wildfowling'; it's called etymology (the study of the origins of words). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etymology

No need to get all Technical, that spoils things !

Just looking at those two words, I tend to agree with nicko's side of the argument :

A "raft" brings to mind the image of those ducks simply milling about towards the waters edge, or lazing in the shade under an overhanging tree, not doing much but simply floating around;

Whereas, a "paddling" of ducks gives the image of those ducks once they're on the move, paddling along somewhere with a purpose..

Correct Wolfie, The" raft" is mostly ducks resting on the water, a lot have their heads tucked under their wings getting some kip. when they start moving it COULD be called Paddling !

Just as an aside to this, when I was nine I went out with a "Punt Gunner" called McKenzie Thorpe on the Wash. The Punt gun was a massive weapon with a Bore of about 1 inch, firing 2oz of BB shot. There was about 1 inch of freeboard. We came upon a Raft of duck and he kicked the bottom of the Punt, as the duck rose he fired, we picked up 16 Duck.If anyone is interested, get a book called Kenzie, "The Wild Goose Man".

nicko wrote:A murder !

Yup. Who thinks up these descriptions ??
It's like the weird & wonderful names for some types of phobias (sorry about digressing)

Jules wrote:

nicko wrote:A murder !

Yup. Who thinks up these descriptions ??
It's like the weird & wonderful names for some types of phobias (sorry about digressing)

How about for a group of ravens...

Group of Ravens---------an unkindness, and I don't Google them, I learnt them for a quiz night in a pub in Belfast .

nicko wrote:
Group of Ravens---------an unkindness,      and I don't Google them,   I learnt them for a quiz night in a pub in Belfast .

I've heard a few over the years,  going right back to my school days...

Sometimes I will only remember the group  'collective nouns' --  as with words like congress, conference, congregation, and convocation  --  and then I have to find out again what those animals are after I've eventually forgotten them..


Here's one I reckon will trip a few people up :

The collective noun for 'social insects' such as ants, wasps and bees, (where it also applies to certain birds and mammals..).

(The first two nouns that many people will think of for bees aren't technically correct --  for reasons I can explain later..).

nicko wrote:Group of Ravens---------an unkindness,      and I don't Google them,   I learnt them for a quiz night in a pub in Belfast .

I knew that one as well - Ruth Rendell wrote a book called "An unkindness of ravens".

wolf wrote:The collective noun for 'social insects' such as ants, wasps and bees, (where it also applies to certain birds and mammals..).

A 'swarm' comes to mind.

Here's an unusual one, a group of Badgers----a cete !

Next...a group of apes.

eddie wrote:
Next...a group of apes.

A Rugby League team...

A shrewding?
No, a shrewdness ?

Apes are also called troup or a community.

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_group_of_apes_called

Original Quill wrote:

wolf wrote:
The collective noun for 'social insects' such as ants, wasps and bees, (where it also applies to certain birds and mammals..).

A 'swarm' comes to mind.

The correct collective noun for a group of social insects (e.g. ants, bees, termites, social wasps..) is a colony...

It also can be applied to some higher level animals such as penguins, seals, rabbits, some primates (e.g. apes - such as gorillas and baboons)..

With respect to Honeybees :

A swarm, technically, is used for a group of between a couple of thousand and several thousand worker bees and a small number of drones, who accompany the old queen as they leave/exit/abscond from their old hive/nest, looking for a new home;  leaving most of the existing colony behind with a new young queen (who will hopefully mate successfully and start laying in the next couple of days)  --  once the swarm has established a new home, it will become a colony again..

A Hive is probably the second-most common name suggested, but correctly speaking "hive" describes the place where the bees set up home, rather than the colony itself --  whether that be a man-made beehive, or somewhere like a tree hollow or a wall cavity that they select for themselves.

Likewise, the term "nest" used for ants, bees, wasps and termites refers to where the colony has set up home, rather than simply the colony by itself..

Could Wolfie's descriptions also be used to describe the living conditions of Human Beings ?