this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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There are useful group names, but they differentiate between some general types of animals, or by their collective movement. A pack of wolves acts very different from a herd of zebras, but much the same as a pack of hyenas. So if you're looking at a group of dog-like hunters from a large distance, you could call it a pack without knowing whether they're wolves or hyenas. That makes it a word with a proper function, communicating exactly as much information as you need and no more.
Species-specific is just a meme, no one in their right mind would ever use them in real conversation, because "a parliament of chimps" would technically be redundant if "parliament" already meant "group of chimps". But it doesn't, obviously, so you're forced to specify "chimps" anyway, making "parliament" useless and confusing.
Absolutely, there are useful group names that were intelligently thought out, and there are ones where somebody said ooooh, "a stitch of knitters" would be cute.