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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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Shark or Whale?


Please can anyone identify this shark-like animal, washed ashore in New Zealand IN 1901? I have permission from the Sir George Grey Special Collections,Central City Library,Auckland. Ref: AWNS 19011031-7-2  Darren Naish wrote about 2 finned cetaceans in Animals & Men no. 11 but I saw no mention of this animal there

Flying Snake 5 should be out ,(available £3.99 via Pay Pal on the longer link below,) in about 3 weeks.




60 MINUTES REBROADCASTs PROFILE ON TURTLE CONSERVANCY

NEW YORK, New York— July 11, 2013— Sunday, July 14th, CBS will rebroadcast ‘The Race To Save The Tortoise’, a 60 Minutes segment that profiles the work of Eric Goode and the Turtle Conservancy.  Originally broadcast on December 9, 2012, it shed light on the plight of turtles and tortoises that have existed over 200 million years and now find themselves on the brink of extinction due to illegal trade and poaching. The re-airing of The Race To Save the Tortoise will broadcast on CBS stations on Sunday, July 14th, 7pm EST/ 8pm CST. In the ensuing seven months the Turtle Conservancy has made broad strides in its mission to save endangered turtles and tortoises.  Some highlights include:

Since the first airing of 60 Minutes on December 9th 2012, the Turtle Conservancy’s renowned captive breeding center in California has hatched 261 turtles and tortoises. These hatchlings include 82 Critically Endangered Burmese Star Tortoises (Geochelone platynota), 72 Critically Endangered Radiated Tortoises (Astrochelys radiata), 46 Endangered Asian Forest Tortoises (Manouria emys phayrei), 38 Vulnerable Black Pond Turtles (Geoclemys hamiltonii), 5 Vulnerable Pancake Tortoises (Malacochersus tornieri), 4 Endangered Spiny Turtles (Heosemys spinosa), 4 Endangered Forsten’s Tortoises (Indotestudo forstenii), 2 Critically Endangered Flat-tailed Tortoises (Pyxis planicauda), and 1 Critically Endangered Spider Tortoise (Pyxis arachnoides)among others.
The Turtle Conservancy runs the worlds most successful ex situ breeding program for endangered chelonians.  The organization breeds more individuals from more endangered taxa than any other institution in the world.  Its captive breeding center currently manages assurance colonies representing over 1/3 of the world’s most Critically Endangered turtle and tortoise taxa.  In addition, the Turtle Conservancy is one of the few institutions that have had success breeding a variety of species including the Chaco Tortoise (Chelonoidis chilensis), Parrot-beaked Padloper (Homopus areolatus), Speckled Padloper (Homopus signatus), Assam Roofed Turtle (Pangshura sylhetensis), Ryukyu Black-breasted Leaf Turtle (Geoemyda japonica), and the Impressed Tortoise (Manouria impressa).  In early 2013, the TC returned five Critically Endangered Golden Coin Turtles hatched at the TC back to their native land in Hong Kong. This historic accomplishment represents the first repatriation of captive-bred turtles from the U.S. to a native country.  

This year the TC is supporting projects on the ground to protect endangered turtles and tortoises in China, Guyana, India, Mexico, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Africa, and the USA, and has conducted fieldwork around the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, investigating the turtle and tortoise trade.  In South Africa, the TC has partnered with the Cape Province wildlife agency Cape Nature and well-known turtle biologist Dr. Margaretha Hofmeyr on two projects related to the Critically Endangered Geometric Tortoise (Psammobates geometricus) and the little-known Karoo Padloper(Homopus boulengeri).

In the Carribean, the TC has partnered with entrepreneur and conservationist Sir Richard Branson to create additional captive assurance colonies for the endangered Madagascar Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata), the Burmese Star Tortoise (Geochelone platynota) and the Burmese Mountain Black Tortoise (Manouria emys phayrei), on Branson’s private Necker and Moskito Islands in the British Virgin Islands. Tortoises from the TC’s captive breeding colony, the Behler Chelonian Center, are being transferred to enclosures on this Caribbean island where environmental conditions closely mimic the tortoises’ natural habitat.
With the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Thai Professor and Veterinarian Dr. Nantarika Chansue, the TC completed an emergency rescue effort to provide proper care and management for a large confiscation of Critically Endangered Ploughshare Tortoises recovered by authorities in Bangkok during March 2013. 
The Turtle Conservancy is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to protecting the most endangered turtles and tortoises and their habitats worldwide. The Conservancy's Behler Chelonian Center is the premiere facility for breeding Critically Endangered turtles and tortoises in the United States. Since 2005 the Conservancy has combined this highly successful breeding program with conservation efforts in the wild.

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.



CRYPTOLINK: SquatchIt Bigfoot Call Maker Responds to 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty Offered By Reality TV Show

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.


SquatchIt Bigfoot call device inventors respond to 10 million dollar Bigfoot bounty by upcoming Spike TV reality show with Sasquatch luring device offer to contestants. The inventors of SquatchIt are inviting contestants to use their Bigfoot luring device to bolster their chances of capturing proof of the existence of Sasquatch.
James Villepigue, co-inventor of SquatchIt, says, “We couldn’t be more excited about Spike TV's 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty reality show. This unprecedented $10,000,000.00 cash prize is the largest cash prize in television history. What’s so exciting about this news for us, is that we believe that our Bigfoot luring device, SquatchIt, can be the very tool that ultimately helps one of the shows contestants collect the necessary evidence needed to stake their claim to the 10 million dollar cash prize!”

DALE DRINNON: Goblin footprints, living dinosaurs or large lizards?, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
 
New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
 
New at Benny's Other blog, the Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
 
Best Wishes, Dale D

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HAS A SHOE FIXATION

Last night I stayed up late watching Ian Glasper's YouTube documentary about Anarchopunk. Like his book it is called 'The Day the Country Died', and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, and at how high the production values were. If you are even slightly into this stuff I sincerely recommend that you check it out. I also did interviews with Billy James, and with Merrell Fankhauser yesterday, and will be interviewing Jack Lancaster tonight. I am going to be getting the Gonzo magazine out early this week, but it's gonna be a good'un.
 

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_24.html
 
 
 
 
 
"Yestival" featuring progressive rock legends Yes comes to Camden
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/07/yestival-featuring-progressive-rock.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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's Shoes Today