Noun

Wikipedia

Singular herd

Plural herds

herd (plural herds)

1. A number of beasts assembled together; as, a herd of horses, oxen, cattle, rabbits, camels, elephants, deer, or swine; a particular stock or family of cattle.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,

     The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea.

   • 2007, J. Michael Fay, Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma, National Geographic (March 2007), 47,

     Zakouma is the last place on Earth where you can see more than a thousand elephants on the move in a single, compact herd.

2. A crowd of low people; a rabble.

   But far more numerous was the herd of such Who think too little and who talk too much. Dryden.

   You can never interest the common herd in the abstract question. Coleridge.

3. One who herds or assembles domestic animals; a herdsman; -- much used in composition; as, a shepherd; a goatherd, and the like.

A herd is a large group of animals and is a form of collective animal behavior. The term is usually applied to mammals, particularly ungulates. Other terms are used for similar phenomena in other types of animal. For example, a large group of birds is usually called a flock (this may also refer to certain mammals as well) and a large group of carnivores is usually called a pack. In addition, special collective nouns may be used for particular taxa: for example a flock of geese, if not in flight, is sometimes called a gaggle. However, in theoretical discussions in behavioural ecology, the generic term "herd" is used for all these kinds of assemblage. A herd may also refer to one that tends and cares for such groups (i.e. shepherds tend to sheep, and goatherds tend to goats, etc.).

When an association of animals (or, by extension, people) is described as a "herd", the implication is that the group tends to act together (for example, all moving in the same direction at a given time), but that this does not occur as a result of planning or co-ordination. Rather, each individual is choosing behaviour that corresponds to that of the majority of other members, possibly through imitation or possibly because all are responding to the same external circumstances. A herd can be contrasted with a co-ordinated group where individuals have distinct roles. Many human groupings, such as an army detachments or sports teams, show such co-ordination and differentiation of roles, but so do some animal groupings such as those of eusocial insects, which are co-ordinated through pheromones and other forms of animal communication. Conversely, some human groupings may behave more like herds.