Here is the third installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The charm charmed me again with their singing.
A huge cloud clouded the sky, and ruined any chance of a good photo.
The band banded together, hoping no one would notice.
A blue fluther fluthered in the tide. [1]
A mob mobbed Uluru.
The squadron flew off in a squadron. [2]
Answers:
Charm or chirm of finches
Cloud of gnats
Band of gorillas [3]
Fluther of jellyfish [4]
Mob of kangaroos [5]
Squadron of pelicans
Fluther, Loro Parque, TenerifaSquadron
NOTES: [1] There are 3 wonderful names for jellyfish groups. Fluther is the second [2] A military flight formation [3] Status: Endangered to Critically Endangered WWF [4] Using fluther in a sentence even allowed me to make up a verb! [5] According to the IUCN Red List, tree kangaroos range from near threatened to critically endangered across the various species. Intl Fund for Animal Welfare
Band, Loro Parque, Tenerifa
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. Speak up! Write letters, make phone calls, donate to organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. My most recent book The Taste of Your Name was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
Today is the anniversary of the creation of The Endangered Species Act.
President Nixon signed The Endangered Species Act into law on December 28, 1973. The Endangered Species Act requires the federal government to protect threatened and endangered species and their critical habitat areas. According to the WWF website, “[t]he US Endangered Species Act (ESA) is our nation’s most effective law to protect at-risk species from extinction, with a stellar success rate: 99% of species listed on it have avoided extinction.”
Loss of habitat and genetic variation are the top reasons why a species becomes extinct.
The ICUN (the World Conservation Union) advises governments, scientists, academics, and conservation groups on when to designate a species as endangered. They maintain a Red List of Threatened Species with 9 levels of concern: not evaluated, data deficient, least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild, and extinct.
Why protect species? The National Wildlife Federation’s explanation is worth repeating verbatim. Once gone, they’re gone forever, and there’s no going back. Losing even a single species can have disastrous impacts on the rest of the ecosystem, because the effects will be felt throughout the food chain. From providing cures to deadly diseases to maintaining natural ecosystems and improving overall quality of life, the benefits of preserving threatened and endangered species are invaluable.
Last year Uwe and I took a trip in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. We got to view animals in their natural habitats. Many of them are listed as endangered.
Among the species on the endangered list: The African elephant.
Loxodonta africana. Moremi Game Reserve, Bostwana
Both black and white rhinos.
Rhinoceros. Endangered. Etosha National Park, Namibia
The African wild dog.
Lycaon pictus. Endangered. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana
The Southern right whale.
Eubalaena australis. Endangered. Walvis Bay, Namibia
The cheetah.
Acinonyx jubatus. Endangered. Etosha National Park, Namibia
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. My most recent book The Taste of Your Name was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
Jim Henson was born September 24, 1936 in Greenville, Mississippi. Henson created the Muppets and transformed children’s educational television with Sesame Street. He was a puppeteer, composer, inventor, filmmaker and screenwriter. His creations include the eerily lifelike Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Miss Piggy, and the world’s greatest frog: Kermit. In honor of Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog (who – I kid you not – received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd – ) I am reprinting a post I wrote after visiting the frogs at Kubah National Park on Borneo. – Jadi
Ah, Kubah National Park on Borneo…. froggie paradise.
March 2019 Journal entry: Just returned from an exhilarating 2 and ½ hours night tour with nature guide and tour guide at Kubah National Park. We saw frogs on trees, leaves, vines, boles, the sides of the road…. Two rare horned frogs! Mahogany frogs! A teeny pitcher plant frog – just one – it jumped away before we could look more closely but I did see the tiny thing leap (the narrow-mouth frog first described in 2010). Three different lizards. White-lipped frogs. Cinnamon frogs. Firebelly toads. Harlequin tree frogs. We had to head up to 1,000 feet up a road in the dark, the ranger with a head light. Unreal how he could spot the frogs. Glorious sounds of running water and night sounds of the jungle all around, my glasses fogging over with the heat and humidity, a large frog pond formed by wild pigs’ rutting. The frogs surprisingly calm, not jumping at our presence, just hanging out in their domain. I was in the moment, totally blissed out, just there, present with each frog we spotted. The guide and ranger and I backlighting each critter with our flashlights so Uwe could photograph it. The deep jungle trees and vegetation and clicks and buzzes and calls of frogs all around us. Nature’s Symphony. Glorious. An Australian recorded just this place and won an international competition for the most beautiful sounds in the world. Borneo’s really promoting sustainable growth, they recognize what they have here. The Malaysian part of Borneo, that is. I feel hopeful about a corner of the planet for the first time in a very, very, very long and sad time. Man, I like Borneo.
But with this frog tour tonight: I’m blissed out.
Mahogany frog (Abavorana luctuosa)white-lipped frog (Chalcorana raniceps)I think this is a cinnamon frog (Nyctixalus pictus)
file eared tree frog (Polypedates otilophus)
Borneo horned frog (Megophrys nasuta)
In memory of Jim Henson, 24 September, 1936 – 16 May, 1990
My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, and The Trail Back Out.
Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Award. Broken In: A Novel in Stories was semifinalist for the international 2020 Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection Award from Hidden River Arts and Finalist for Greece’s 2021 Eyelands Book of the Year Award (Short Stories). The Trail Back Out was American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist for the Independent Author Network, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.
Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.
And it’s the last post in this blog thread for Bobbo! I present the Grande Finale: Installment # 42! describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
Well-hidden knot member. Back trails, Cranberry Lake, Adirondacks
This herd wasn’t on a leash.
The obstinate gang ganged up on the humans.
It’s not easy to find this knot.
The cluster clustered on blossoms.
I’m troubled by the trouble brought on by a troubling.
A mute is anything but!
A gargle really has necks to gargle.
After reading this wonderful blog thread I hope you all now worship the worship!
Answers:
Herd member, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, India
Herd of deer [1]
Herd, gang AND obstinacy of water buffalo [2]
Knot of toads
Cluster of dragonflies [3]
Troubling of goldfish
Mute of hound dogs
Gargle of swans
Worship of writers [4]
Herd, aka Leash, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, IndiaCluster member, Cranberry Lake, AdirondacksGang, Inle Lake, MyanmarHerd, Inle Lake, Myanmar
NOTES: [1] Also known as a leash of deer [2] Herd, gang and obstinacy of water buffalo National Geographic [3] Cluster, swarm or flight of dragonflies [4] Australian Geographic and An Exaltation of Larks by James Lipton.
Worshipper of words….
NOTES on NOTES: I almost never put myself in my posts. For this final hurrah a photo and the final, special definition are called for. Thanks and much love to all my readers for sticking with this thread and sharing your feedback. — Jadi
And it’s the first half of the last post in this blog thread for Bobbo! I present the Grande Finale: Installment # 41! describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page. Happy Easter, everyone. May the world be reborn.
A colony’s done some serious colonizing in here. Back trails, Cranberry Lake, Adirondacks
The host hosted a seed hunt.
The storytelling is storytelling.
The colony colonized the waters with colonies.
She feverishly watched the fever.
The road teemed with teams.
No way to hide from this hive’s hive!
The scoop scoops with scoops.
Answers:
Scoop!
Host of sparrows
Storytelling of crows
Colony of beavers
Fever of sting rays
Team of oxen
Hive of bees [1]
Scoop of pelicans [2]
Fever, Kagoshima Aquarium, Japan
NOTES: [1] A hive is the physical location. Bee status: Endangered [2] Remember the squadron of pelicans from Installment #3?
NOTES on NOTES: I almost never put myself in my posts. For this final hurrah a photo and a final, special definition are called for. Thanks and much love to all my readers for sticking with this thread and sharing your feedback. — Jadi
I give you Installment #31 from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
An armoury has hides like armor.
The sneak snuck around sneakily.
The shimmer had a shimmer as they shimmered in the air.
The prattle prattles on proudly.
The doom brought doom.
This moxie has plenty of moxie for something so low to the ground!
Ah, Kubah National Park on Borneo…. froggie paradise.
March 2019 Journal entry:
Just returned from an exhilarating 2 and ½ hours night tour with nature guide and tour guide at Kubah National Park. We saw frogs on trees, leaves, vines, boles, the sides of the road…. Two rare horned frogs! Mahogany frogs! A teeny pitcher plant frog – just one – it jumped away before we could look more closely but I did see the tiny thing leap (the narrow-mouth frog first described in 2010). Three different lizards. White-lipped frogs. Cinnamon frogs. Firebelly toads. Harlequin tree frogs. We had to head up to 1,000 feet up a road in the dark, the ranger with a head light. Unreal how he could spot the frogs. Glorious sounds of running water and night sounds of the jungle all around, my glasses fogging over with the heat and humidity, a large frog pond formed by wild pigs’ rutting. The frogs surprisingly calm, not jumping at our presence, just hanging out in their domain. I was in the moment, totally blissed out, just there, present with each frog we spotted. The guide and ranger and I backlighting each critter with our flashlights so Uwe could photograph it. The deep jungle trees and vegetation and clicks and buzzes and calls of frogs all around us. Nature’s Symphony. Glorious. An Australian recorded just this place and won an international competition for the most beautiful sounds in the world. Borneo’s really promoting sustainable growth, they recognize what they have here. The Malaysian part of Borneo, that is. I feel hopeful about a corner of the planet for the first time in a very, very, very long and sad time. Man, I like Borneo.
But with this frog tour tonight: I’m blissed out. It satisfied a deep soul place inside me. I am beyond happy. My heart feels filled.
Mahogany frog (Abavorana luctuosa)white-lipped frog (Chalcorana raniceps)I think this is a cinnamon frog (Nyctixalus pictus)
This is installment #29 in my blog thread for Bobbo, describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The lounge looked longingly.
The repetition repeated, over and over and over and….
This is no school for scholars.
The business busied itself sniffing out food.
Why hurt a herd?
The mustering masters moving through Munster.
I just had to repeat a lounge…. Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart, Germany
Answers:
Repetition member, Reid Park Zoo, Tucson, Arizona
Lounge of lizards
Repetition of ground hogs [1]
School of carp [2]
Business of ferrets
Herd of bulls
Mustering of storks [3]
Schools looking at schools, Xi’an, ChinaSchool kids crossing school, Nagasaki, JapanOne pissed-off herd member, Barcelona, SpainMustering home, Alsace rooftop, France
I’m amazed at how long this blog thread has grown! Each post describes what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
This tell could tell tales!
The glimmer glimmered in the dying light.
The last thing you want is this intrusion intruding!
The raft’s feet make it difficult to sit on a raft.
I want a kaleidoscope of this kaleidoscope.
Is there wisdom in thinking a wisdom wise?
Glimmer memberTell visit in Yangon, Myanmar home
Answers:
Tell of crows
Glimmer of dragonflies [1]
Intrusion of cockroaches
Raft of loons [2]
Kaleidoscope of butterflies
Wisdom of wombats
Perching on the top leftWisdom memberKaleidoscope, back trails, Cranberry Lake, Adirondacks
I present installment #27 from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
If you agitate the pandemonium you’ll create pandemonium!
He cast the cast free.
The murder murdered the afternoon quiet.
A memory has very long memories.
What a shock to find this nest nestled in the rocks.
A mischievous mischief causes so much mischief.
Memory, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Answers:
Pandemonium of parrots
Cast of falcons [1]
Murder of crows
Memory of elephants
Nest of snakes [2]
Mischief of mice
Nest member, Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart, GermanyA critter this smart could definitely cause pandemonium…. Loro Parque, Tenerifa