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...




Wednesday, April 27, 2016

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: Lion kept at private farmhouse mauls man...
  • NEWSLINK: Florida keeper broke rules before tiger 


  • 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.

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Investigator Finds Large Tracks In Remote Wilderness Of Utah
    Utah Sasquatch on youtube would like to know how skeptics explain large tracks like this one found in the remote wilderness.

    News Channel Covers Ohio Bigfoot Sightings
    Ohio is one of the top states in terms of bigfoot sightings, and will host the annual Ohio Bigfoot Conference in a couple weeks. Henry May posted this ...

    BIGFOOT FILMED EATING A DEER – 2016 AMAZING FOOTAGE. WTF
    BIGFOOT FILMED EATING A DEER – 2016 AMAZING FOOTAGE. WTF. BIGFOOT FILMED EATING A DEER – 2016 AMAZING FOOTAGE. WTF.

    Could Bigfoot be living in Litchfield?
    One man in Litchfield says the mysterious creature itself scared both him and his dog. WMTW News 8's Aly Myles reports.

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS WAITING FOR THE MAN

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
     
    Apologies to anyone who is finding me more than usually elusive today. I have a bloody great abscess on my back and it hurts like crap and I am on hardcore antibiotics which make me feel peculiarly and unpleasantly stoned. However, I have achieved a few things: The CFZ 2016 Yearbook, for example is finished and available for preorder at this link: http://tinyurl.com/zkn3cju and features seventeen separate papers on a wide selection of subjects from British wombat sightings (honestly) to mystery South American elephants and a veterinary examination of some alleged chupacabras carcasses from the Ukraine, and features authors such as Dr Karl Shuker, Richard Muirhead, Richard Freeman, Ronan Coghlan and yours truly. And to preorder its less than a tenner. Go on boys and girls, you know it makes sense.
     
    Brand X interview with Phil Collins & John Goodsal...
    Interview: Barbara Dickson
    Dave Brock Interview
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Gong - Flying Teapot
     
    Gonzo Magazine #178
     
    Osibisa, Gregg Kofi Brown. Prince, Record Store Day, Harper Lee, Beatles, George Harrison, Ken Campbell, Robert Anton Wilson, Discordianism, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
     
    After what has been a long and peculiar week, this issue - dedicated to the memory of Poppy McGregor - features an interview with Osibisa star Gregg Kofi Brown, who also says
    goodbye to Prince, a long chat about George Harrison and  Beatles minutiae with author John Blaney, Doug goes to see Steve Hackett, John talks about Record  Store Day and Hawkwind,  Alan muses on Harper  Lee, and we visit a  festival of  Discordianism, and there  are radio shows from Strange Fruit and Mack Maloney, as well as the return of Friday Night Progressive, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons ouyside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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!!!
     
    This issue features:
    Prince, Paul McCartney, Ve, Brian May, Brian Johnson, Allen Toussaint, Tony Hawk, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Dave Bainbridge, Sally Minnear, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Floyd August "Gib" Guilbeau, Pete Zorn, Lonnie McIntosh “Lonnie Mack”, Phil Sayer, Gareth Daniel Thomas, Victoria Wood CBE, Captain Beefheart, Brand X, Osibisa, Pink Fairies, Gram Parson's The International Submarine Band, Gib Guilbeau, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Sons of Fred, Percy Jones, Norman Wisdom featuring Rick Wakeman,Gregg Kofi Brown, John Blaney, Steve Hackett, Alan Dearling, Harper Lee, Ken Campbell, Roy Weard, Record Store Day, John Brodie-Good, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Jill Calvert, Dierks Bentley, The Beatles, The Monkees, The Runaways, Neil Nixon, Tim Buckley, Dvalin
     
                                                                                        
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 177 (David Gilmour)
    Issue 176 (Joey Molland and The Raz Band)
    Issue 175 (Larry Sanders)
    Issue 174 (Keith Emerson)
    Issue 173 (Pink Fairies action figures)
    Issue 172 (4th Eden)
    Issue 171 (Keith Levene)
    Issue 170 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 169 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 168 (Wakeman/Bowie)
    Issue 167 (Paul Kantner)
    Issue 166 (Spirits Burning)
    Issue 165 (David Bowie)
    Issue 164 (Free Festivals)
    Issue 163 (Lemmy)
    Issue 161-2 (The Christmas Double Feature)
    Issue 160 (Frank Zappa)
    Issue 159 (Jon Anderson and Matt Malley)
    Issue 158 (Billy Sherwood)
    Issue 157 (Drones for Daevid)
    Issue 156 (Rick and Emmie)
    Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)
    Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)
    Issue 153 (Martin Barre)
    Issue 152 (4th Eden)
     
    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!
     
    You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
     
    SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
     
    * 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.co.uk
     
    * 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 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two small kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. 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 infantile orange cat, and the adventurous kittens?

    PREORDER THE 2016 CFZ YEARBOOK


    Proof, as if any were needed, that I always keep my promises in the end, the 2016 CFZ Yearbook is imminent, and we are now taking pre-orders at a special low price of £9.99. It is a particularly diverse and interesting volume, and we are very proud of it...


    Contents


    • Introduction              
    • British Wombats and related cryptozoology by Richard Muirhead           
    • Fire Beasts, Lightning Beasts, and the Elephant of Tiahunaco - Investigating a Crypto- Archaeological anomaly  by Dr Karl Shuker
    • Monsters and Cryptids of Classical Myth by Ronan Coghlan                            
    • Tiny Snakes and Giant Worms in Hong Kong by Jonathan Downes                  
    • A note on Giant Earthworms by Jonathan Downes                                              
    • Crocodile Cults; The worship, mythology and folklore of crocodilians by Richard Freeman
    • FROM THE ARCHIVES: Note on the Pterodactyl Tribe considered as Giant Bats by     Edward Newman (1843)
    • Is the Yowie an Australian Immigrant? By Tony Lucas
    • Orang Pendek in the Dutch Press by Loes Modderman                                       
    • FROM THE ARCHIVES: Water Beings in Shetland Folklore as remembered bShetlanders in British Columbia by J A Teit (1918)
    • FIELD REPORT 16.4.16 Was the Pershore Roe Deer Carcass Really Predated by a Large   Unknown Felid? by Carl Marshall
    • Mystery Animals of Arizona by David Weatherly and Richard Muirhead
    • On the 2016 “Chupacabras” carcasses from The Ukraine
    • Mystery animals in classic British pulp fiction by Jonathan Downes
    • CLASSIC CRYPTOFICTION: The Lake of the Devil by Edgar Wallace
    • 2015: a Year in the life of the CFZ                                                                    



    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Expedition captures animal selfies in Amazon Rainf...
  • Dinosaur families fled Europe during the Mesozoic ...
  • Unique coral reef system discovered at the mouth o...
  • Role of animals in mitigating climate change varie...

  • This new moth has an explosive way of fending off ...


  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)