WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

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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Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Tuesday, July 23, 2013

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Strange animal in China

Strange animal in China – it looks a bit like a coati to me, but it`s not got a stripped tail and it`s in completely the wrong place.






DOUG SHOOP: Dispatches from North Carolina

I’ll let the images speak for themselves our largest Sunflower hit 13.5 feet and then flowered. We’ve now gathered an abundance of tomatoes in excess of 40 lbs The humidity and mosquitoes can’t be beat this year in North Carolina…sigh




FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out-of-place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.




TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS ROUNDUP



The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.





  • TERATOLOGY: Polydactyl Cats: The Felines With Extr...
  • NEWSLINK: The World's Most Endangered Big Cat Coul...
  • US SIGHTINGS: Louisiana 'Black Panther' Mystery So...
  • UK SIGHTINGS: BIG BLACK CATS IN BRITAIN | More Int...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HAS A DIFFICULT TIME OF IT

    It is, I am sure, too much to expect, but wouldn't it be lovely if the summer was always like this? I love this weather even if it is not conducive to productivity, because it makes me even more soporific than usual. There are more butterflies in the garden than there have been for years: I saw six species the other afternoon. Much to Richard's chagrin, the larger moths are also flying - we had a visit from a female oak eggar that terrified the poor lad. Preparations for next weekend at the Summer of Love festie are well underway. It is actually the first festival I have been to in 20 years, since I saw African Headcharge (who were brilliant, the On U sound system, John Martyn, The Manic Steet Preachers (who were awful) and Steve Harley at a three dayer in Milton Keynes back in 1993. Golly I am getting old. 

    So... What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com
     
     
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_23.html
     
     
     
    Helen McCookerybook at the Performing Prejudice Symposium
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/helen-mccookerybook-performing.html
     
     
     
    *  The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at  jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

    *  The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
     
    * We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

    *  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

    NIGEL WRIGHT FOUND ME THIS: Abduction Of Baby Orca Whale




    A baby Orca Killer Whale has been found on the side of a mountain in Ireland. It is at least 500 yards to the nearest dirt road and over three miles inland off the Donegal coastline in Ireland. Some local men came upon the baby Orca whale laying up on the side of a mountain and it appeared the estimated 1800 pound whale had been dropped on its head. It was still alive and in distress when the men found it. It died shortly after they discovered it. How did a Killer Whale get up on the side of a mountain in Ireland three miles inland from the coast.

    Local police who investigated the incident say that there were no type of tire tracks or human tracks anywhere near the baby Orca Whale even though it had been raining in the area for several days.
    However several people who live in the area told of seeing strange orbs of light up in the air over the mountain for several nights in a row before the young whale was discovered laying up on the side of the mountain.

    Read on...

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



    On this day in 1888 Raymond Chandler was born. Chandler is best known as the greatest of all hard-boiled detective writers primarily for his Philip Marlow stories including the Long Goodbye, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, the Little Sister and the Big Sleep. He was also a top notch screen writer, Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train and Double Indemnity being examples of his work.
    And now the news:
  • Deciphering Butterflies' Designer Colors: Findings...
  • Second year of Basking shark tagging gets underway...
  • Lizards Show Evolution Is Predictable
  • Large group of Minke whales spotted in the Irish S...
  • Study confirms wealth of primates in Tanzania

  • The trailer of Strangers on a Train: