We’ve all heard of a pack of wolves, a colony of bats and a herd of deer, but other collective animal names are less well known and much more evocative. How about a tower of giraffes, a bloat of hippos, and a cackle of hyenas? And what do you think of a leap of leopards, a crash of rhinos and a prickle of porcupines? I long to write a story about a romp of otters, an unkindness of ravens, or a shiver of sharks. But I think you’ll agree I’ve saved the best for last: a murmurat

This is a modest little poem I was moved to write one day after witnessing, what seemed to me, nothing short of a miracle at a place called Kasanka, in Zambia... One day, the termite hill was bare The next, covered with tiny mushrooms Thousands of them, bright, fragile, exuberant My heart sang.