Wild animals as viewed from a mountain camp—Camille Grant, October 2011

Through my binoculars, I viewed a group of wild animals in action. A pride of lions was sleeping when a small, yellow bus pulled up beside them. Tourists on a safari were packed into the bus like sardines in a can. Armed with cameras, they invaded the lions' territory, hoping to capture the perfect photograph. The crowd leaned out the windows, hooting and hollering, until the lions awoke. When the lions moved away, the bus rolled after them, relentlessly stalking the pride. One of the lions turned and roared to protect the young. This was greeted with cheers and a celebratory honk of the bus horn. The curious visitors observed the lions' routine for an hour before moving on. Leaving a cloud of dust, the bus headed away, taking the wild animals off to disturb someone else's home.

Review the following line from the text:

The crowd leaned out the windows, hooting and hollering, until the lions awoke.

To create a more negative connotation, the author could have replaced the word crowd with which of the following synonyms?

Assembly
Gathering
Group
Mob