English can be a strangely creative language, and a great example is how we refer to different groups of animals. These names often have a connection to the personality, or the social ideas of these animals, so they can give some really interesting descriptive power to the expressions.
Read on to find out more about colonies, pods, thunders, crashes and more!
A Colony of Ants
This name for a group of ants is perfect, as they really do live in a colony, sending out workers, soldiers and queen ants to take new land and build new cities.
Ant colonies can be as small as 500 ants, or get as large as 360 million ants, in the case of the red wood ant. The word ‘colony’ gives a sense of unity and joint ideas, as well as telling you about the way they live in one fixed place too.
A Pod of Dolphins
Dolphins are some of the most intelligent animals around, and they have really strong and complicated social relationships with other dolphins in their group. Calling them a pod, which is something grouped together, is a great description.
Dolphin babies generally stay with their parents, although the male dolphins often leave to make big male only pods. Common Dolphins can even form ‘superpods’ that can have more than 1,000 individual dolphins in one group.
A Thunder of Hippos
Considered to be the most dangerous animal in Africa, hippos kill more people than lions, leopards, buffalo or any other animal. They are very territorial, and if you get between them and water, you should expect trouble!
They can weigh more than 3,000 kg and if you’re thinking “Well at least I could run away”, think again. They can reach 45 kp/h - faster than Usain Bolt!
A thunder is a good description, as they are noisy, enormous, and dangerous! It sounds like a storm when a thunder of hippos are moving nearby.
A Pandemonium of Parrots
Pandemonium is a great word to describe something chaotic and without clear organisation. It can also mean something hectic, loud and crazy. This is a good description of a group of squawking and shouting parrots as they sit in a tree.
They fight, scream and chat, always moving around and shaking the tree as they find a good place to sit.
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