Classify Me a Manatee

August 9, 2006 9:46 PM

How do you know when there's a manatee in your bed?

You can smell the mangrove leaves on its breath!

There's the pod of whales, gaggle of geese, crash of rhinos. In honor of the manatee in the hudson river, who must be terribly lonely without a few mates, what do you call a group unit of manatee(s)?

posted by marxfriedrice to pets & animals (16 comments total)

A hugeness?
posted by interrobang at 9:52 PM on August 9, 2006

A herd.

Not too surprising considering they're also called sea-cows.
posted by pompomtom at 9:52 PM on August 9, 2006

Another vote for herd.

So boring, though. I want something fun like "a bloat" or "a cliche."
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 9:57 PM on August 9, 2006

Thanks so much pompomtom. That site is an amazing resource . . . oh no! I'm being assaulted by an array of hedgehog!!
posted by marxfriedrice at 9:57 PM on August 9, 2006

No worries.

(and according the Beeb they're delicious!)
posted by pompomtom at 10:01 PM on August 9, 2006

Delicious, nutritious and highly versatile!

Yeah, can I get a manatee burger and some of that chicken fried polar bear?
posted by marxfriedrice at 10:12 PM on August 9, 2006

A mustache.
posted by rifflesby at 12:05 AM on August 10, 2006

Awesome, an aarmory of aardvarks!
posted by antifuse at 1:12 AM on August 10, 2006

A rash of dermatologists. Ha. Great page!
posted by painquale at 1:20 AM on August 10, 2006

What's the collective noun for a group of MeFites? A hive mind?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:59 AM on August 10, 2006

These group descriptions are also known as nouns of assemblage or, more accurately, terms of venery.

I would (non-authoratatively) describe a bunch of manatees as a "munch" or a "drift."

What's the collective noun for a group of MeFites? A hive mind?

A whinge. Or a wing (a left wing).
posted by bshort at 5:38 AM on August 10, 2006

Man, I was expecting something much more exciting from the front page.
posted by dagnyscott at 6:28 AM on August 10, 2006

Huge Manatee
posted by blue_beetle at 6:54 AM on August 10, 2006

The pic of the huge manatee is not as crazy as it looks. You know why you don't know the collective noun for manatees, marxfriedrice? Because they're like transformers, they meld together into a larger manatee when they are in close proximity, if I remember correctly.

Have you ever seen more than one manatee in one place at one time?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:15 AM on August 10, 2006

A "rash of dermatologists" is hilarious.
posted by borkingchikapa at 9:32 AM on August 10, 2006

Holy crap, there are SO many terms for a group of swans:

ballet, bank, bevy, flight, flock, game, herd, regatta, team, wedge
posted by orange swan at 8:05 AM on August 11, 2006