I don't think they'd all have to be completely on top of each other all of the time to be considered to live in large family groups.
My interpretation of family groups anyway would never really be above 4/5 animals either.
There's more than enough reports out there that will lead you to believe that they are not just all nomads for the majority of the time, these things communicate and I'd dare say at times, work together, probably to get food.
I'm completely at ease with suggesting that that's a reasonable possibility of how they live.