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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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Monday, June 21, 2010

AN ALTRUISTIC TORTOISE?






This is one of the most controversial videos to have surfaced in a long time. Is it for real? Or are the tortoises somehow trained to perform this as a party piece? What do you folk think?

2 comments:

Syd said...

From personal experiences, I would say that it is for real. It is not the only 'you-tube' video that shows such behaviour, although in the other one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8yZ66LJ5I near the end, the critter that helps its friend, does seem to have what may be termed 'an ulterior motive'.

However, I have seen this type of behaviour in both sheep and fish.
Some years ago, I was touring in Scotland and saw a sheep that had got on its back and was struggling to get up. As I walked across the field to help it, another sheep went up to it and using its head, pushed it onto its side so it could get up.

Two years ago, one of the fish (a Shubunkin) in my pond became ill and could not stay afloat in a proper position, it was on its side and was gasping for air on the surface. Before I could catch and treat it, two of the other fish (another Shubunkin and a Comet) came to the surface on each side of it, trapped it between their bodies in a normal position and began slowly swimming around the pond with it. This went on for about 3 hours as I wanted to see what would happen, before I intervened. Unfortunately the fish did not survive, it seemed to get a bit better with treatment in a small tank but died a week later shortly after being returned to the pond.

Syd said...

From personal experiences, I would say that it is for real. It is not the only 'you-tube' video that shows such behaviour, although in the other one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8yZ66LJ5I near the end, the critter that helps its friend, does seem to have an ulterior motive.

However, I have seen this type of behaviour in both sheep and fish.
Some years ago, I was touring in Scotland and saw a sheep that had got on its back and was struggling to get up. As I walked across the field to help it, another sheep went up to it and using its head, pushed it onto its side so it could get up.

Two years ago, one of the fish (a Shubunkin) in my pond became ill and could not stay afloat in a proper position, it was on its side and was gasping for air on the surface. Before I could catch and treat it, two of the other fish (another Shubunkin and a Comet) came to the surface on each side of it, trapped it between their bodies in a normal position and began slowly swimming around the pond with it. This went on for about 3 hours as I wanted to see what would happen, before I intervened. Unfortunately the fish did not survive, it seemed to get a bit better with treatment in a small tank but died a week later shortly after being returned to the pond.