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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, December 09, 2009

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: "GIANT SPIDERS"AND A YORKSHIRE CAVE

Today I take a look at a story that appeared in the British media last week and caught my eye. For those of you who missed it, it`s about a colony of spiders from a cave in the Yorkshire Dales; more specifically, Chapel Fell cave. If you are an arachnophobe look away now.

'Huge UK cave spiders `sent` home. A colony of huge cave spiders are finally heading home after 10 years. The spiders have been squatting in a disused building in the Yorkshire Dales after escaping from a nearby cave, hidden in scientists` equipment. Volunteers and staff from the National Trust`s Malham Tarn estate in North Yorkshire are now transporting the spiders back to their natural home. Measuring seven centimetres across, the cave spiders are amongst the largest spiders found in the UK. “The time has come for the cave spiders to be relocated back to their natural homes,” says Martin Davies,National Trust property manager for the Yorkshire Dales in the UK. The old house is due to be renovated for use by visiting schoolchildren and walkers, Mr Davies explains.' (1)

The Guardian commented on the same day: 'More than 150 of the cave-dwelling species Meta menardi and Meta bourneti are being collected individually and taken in plastic bags to a pothole in the Yorkshire Dales. The journay returns them to their original home, which they left -unnoticed - 10 years ago on the clothes and equipment of a party of university scientists.

'"Exceptionally for cave spiders, which have adapted to live underground, they resettled and flourished in a derelict orchid house which the scientists were using as their base… They clearly took to it [the orchard house] immediately, although we only realised that they were there a couple of years ago,” said Mike Collins of the National Trust, which runs the former mansion of Malham Tarn House, North Yorkshire, as a field centre. The big move follows the trust`s decision to convert the orchid house into a classroom,with facilities such as warmth and light, which the spiders loathe. Familiar from their cave roof cocoons,from which they sally to find prey, they measure up to 8cm (3.1in) across and will nip if repeatedly provoked. [So a bit bigger than the BBC`s measurement.]

'…Visitors will be able to learn about spiders generally, the Meta species and the story of Malham migration, while the descendants of the original travellers get on with life in the dark back at Chapel Fell'
(2)

I visited Malham Tarn House in the 1980s on a geography field trip; it`s a lovely place.

1. J.Bourton. Huge UK cave spiders` sent home. BBC Earth News Dec.5th 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newisd_8393000/8393757.stm [accessed Dec.8th 2009]
2. M.Wainwright. Spiders to be sent back to their cave 10 years after their great escape. Guardian December 5th 2009

Devo-Too Much Paranoias

Think I got your dial tone
Think I got Billy Baxter`s Bone
Think I got a bubble sac
Think I got a Big Mac Attack
Hold the pickles hold the lettuce
Special orders don`t upset us
All we ask is that you let us
Serve it your way
Too much paranoias
My momma`s afraid to tell me
The things she`s afraid of
I been dipped in double meaning
I been stuck with static cling
Think I got a rupto-pac
Think I got a big mac attack

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