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...




Monday, June 02, 2014

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking. 


  • NEWSLINK: Big cat trainer who was MAULED by a tige...
  • NEWSLINK: Wild Siberian Tiger Caught on Video in C...
  • NEWSLINK: The big cat diary


  • VIDEO: 20. Tiger Menace - Nicholas Hooper ("Land o...
  • CRYPTOLINK: Stalking Altie: Does Georgia have its own Loch Ness Monster?

    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. 
    An alligator spies on my family as we stand on a midden heap on a muddy bank of the South Altamaha River. Our flip-flops crunch on the jagged oyster shells and pottery shards cast off by Native Americans a couple of centuries ago. Our guide points out their importance to the history of coastal Georgia, but I can’t pay proper attention. I’ve brought my family to Darien in search of a monster.

    Squinting in the midday sun, I can see the alligator’s eyes and snout protruding from the water about 50 yards away. Our guide, Danny Grissette, says it’s 8 to 9 feet long, making it no match for my potential prey, an aquatic beast alleged to be at least 20 feet in length. Wait, could that be the creature’s famed ridged hump? No, it’s just a stump sticking out of the brown river water. What about that mysterious turbulence about 25 yards away? It could be the wake of an unseen ship or a school of fish. But can we prove that it’s not the tell-tale sign of the legendary entity known as the Altamaha-ha?
    The Altamaha-ha, known more casually as “Altie,” defies scientific explanation. Even before European settlement, the Tama tribes people told stories of a giant, snake-like river animal that hissed and bellowed. Over the past century, fishermen, lumberjacks and boy scouts have reported sightings of a creature in the tributaries and marshes of the Altamaha River, which feeds one of the largest river basins on the Atlantic Coast. The eyewitness consensus holds that the Altamaha-ha has a dark, smooth hide, apart from the tire-tread-like ridges on its back, as well as a narrow neck, prominent snout and flat, porpoise-like tail.

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Are Any of These Things About Bigfoot Even True?
    Bigfoot Evidence Matt K.
    "Anyone who's ever watched Animal Planet knows the world of Bigfoot hunting (aka “Squatchin' ”) is a very weird world indeed. All Bigfoot believers

    Could Bigfoot be real?
    For nearly forty years, Krantz argued for the probable existence of Bigfoot,* but was unable to convince the majority of scientists. The evidence for 
    Want To Own a Piece of Bigfoot History?
    Bigfoot Evidence Matt K.
    Googz & Co. is a new online store that carries a variety of bigfoot and cryptid collectibles. Such as this awesome copy of the Patterson/Gimlin cast 

    Bigfoot in Puchong?
    A police report was lodged this morning upon the discovery of a 23-inch long footprint in Kampung Seri Aman Dalam, Puchong

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


    What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

    Well, everything actually!

    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. 




      THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SLINKS AROUND A BIT

      The Gonzo Daily - Monday
       
      We have sad news for you today. Lobby the lobster who arrived here in November has died at the grand old age of about two. He has been a bit secretive for a few weeks but was eating heartily and generally behaving relatively normally up to the end. I don't think I have ever been this upset over the death of an invertebrate. Mike is in the studio again later, but apart from that I have other things to attend to so will be out of action for the rest of the day.
       
       
       
      The YES Album – in 5.1 & Hi-Res Stereo – Remixed & Expanded by Stephen Wilson
      http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-yes-album-in-51-hi-res-stereo.html
       
       
       
       
      The next issue of Gonzo Weekly is here, and available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has Don Falcone from the mighty Spirits Burning on the front cover abd features an interview with the man himself by Dou Harr, an interview with Patrick Campbell-Lyons of the original Nirvana by me, a special dedication from Patrick to Twink, what happened when Erik Borlander met Corky Laing, and Keith Levene in Prague.
       
      There are also new shows from the peculiar multiverse of Sub Reality Sandwich, from Friday Night Progressive, and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and high heeled shoes (OK, no specialist footwear, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
       
      Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
       
       
      All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
       
      To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
      http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
       
       
      *  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: www.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 54 who - together with an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?

      OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

      Yesterday’s News Today

      On this day in 1835 P.T. Barnum started his first circus tour of the United States of America.
      And now the news:
    • Humpback whale strandings in WA: malnutrition a ma...
    • Chinese antique dealer gets nearly 6 years jail in...
    • Skin grafts from genetically modified pigs may off...
    • Fewer polar bear cubs are being born in the Arctic...
    • Namibia set to kill a third of remaining desert bu...
    • Bear In A Hammock: Hammock Later Removed By Owner
    • Amber discovery indicates Lyme disease is older th...
    • Former Kruger ranger and police arrested as rhino ...
    • Paul Esparza (who you may know as Dr Chilten in the TV series of Hannibal”) singing “There's A Sucker Born Every Minute” from the Barnum musical: