August 25, 2008

What Do You Call A Group Of Hippos?

So, like they said, you are stuck on 15 down... When it comes to a group of animals, I always get stuck.. Well almost. There are a few good lists for the names of animal groups. For example, did you know that a group of Giraffes is a Tower?! and that a group of Grasshoppers is a cloud? How about a group of Flamingos? It's a Stand. The groups names are interesting. I wonder who came up with all those names? Most of them make sense.

USGS: Animal Congregations, or What Do You Call a Group of..?
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm

Here is another source that I really like. They have additional animals not named in the first link, such as the Baboon and the Bison.

Christchurch City Libraries
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/Animals/Groups/

The Christchurch Libraries (New Zealand) site also has an additional section for male, female and baby animal names. This list is weird. A male alligator is a bull, aand a female is a cow. I always thought a cow is a cow and a bull is a bull. Period. As a matter of fact I see a lot of "cows", "hens" and a few "jills". As for the males, I see quite a bit of "bucks" and "cocks". Also a jill for a male Ferret.

Not very creative, eh?

Christchurch City Libraries
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/Animals/MaleFemaleChild/

But when I saw that a male ferret is a jill, I thought to myself it has got to be a mistake. How can it be? So I googled. I came across a site with an interesting article about adopting and fixing (ouch!) ferrets, by Erika Matulich, Ph.D. It confirmed that jill is indeed a female ferret.

Pets. Com: Fixing Your Ferret
http://www.cypresskeep.com/Ferretfiles/Fixing.htm

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