I recently entered an online cryptic clue-writing competition. The challenge? ‘Schoolboy error’. The start of my clue? ‘Group of whales’. No-one else had done it yet, and it helped the rest of my clue make some sort of sense. Double tick.
Someone pointed out that they thought a group of whales was called a ‘pod’ rather than a ‘school’, and I was so embarrassed. How did I not know that? I was about to write a laugh-it-off post about the adventures of Batman’s new sidekick Podboy when I thought I’d check just to be certain. Quickly, to the Bat-Macquarie Fifth Edition Dictionary:
school2 noun 1. a large number of fish, porpoises, whales, or the like, feeding or migrating together.
Woohoo! Dictionary, I forgive you for the octopus incident. But what of pod? Time to google, and here are the results: a group of whales is commonly referred to as a pod, school or herd of whales, or less commonly (or, in some cases, breed-specifically) as a gam, float, mob, run, troop or shoal of whales.
I thought it was a herd, so I’m pleased to see that at least got a mention! You’d be handy to have on a team at trivia 🙂
Herd sounds more appropriate given the size of them!
Well there you go. You learn something new every day!
Visiting via the Rewind.
I think I like a ‘gam’of whales! x
Hmmm, interesting. I also like herd and also, mob. Visiting from Weekend Rewind. xx
I thought it was a pod so happy that is at least one option lol. Thanks for joining the Weekend Rewind. I love a collective noun x
Everyone’s voting differently! It makes me wonder what other things have a range of acceptable collective nouns… I guess we all know what I’ll be researching this afternoon. Thanks for visiting.
I’m pretty sure it’s a “Whopper” of Whales!
Cranky Old MAn
haha ‘mob of whales’ sounds so bogan!
I like that a group of crows is called a murder…
Lol! Pod. It has to be pod…
Thanks for the giggle and linking with The Lounge.