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Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

DEREK GREBNER: Out of place Hognose..

While my father and I were working on a grain bin, we ran the auger that pushes corn out of the bin into the truck. Two snakes were expelled giving us a big shock. I attempted to get a closer look at one and identified it as a hognose snake because of its imitation of the rattlesnake and its upturned snout. I recovered the other snake, but it appeared to be dead, so thinking nothing of it at the time, I tossed the 4 foot, apparently dead, snake into the cornfield.

When I returned home, I checked the Illinois Reptiles and even though the hognose snake is a native, this colour morph was not so. I am 90% sure that this pair of hognose snakes belonged to the western species, which is much lighter in colour than the eastern hognose snake and much larger. The western species has only been reported so far east in Illinois once and is regarded as being exclusive to the western side of the Mississippi River. I returned today to attempt to recover the body for measurements and examination, but the ‘apparently dead’ snake had revived and disappeared. I cannot say 100% that it was a western hognose snake, but I can say that it was a hognose snake by its markings and colouration, but did not look at all like the eastern hognose snake.

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