Saturday, December 31, 2011
CFZ PEOPLE: Dale Drinnon
Happy Birthday mate, and thank you for all the hard work you put in. I really do appreciate it all....
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
Happy New Year!
And now the news:
Hellbender Salamander Study Seeks Answers for Glob...
2011 Was A ‘Horrible Year For Elephants’
Lone Gray Wolf On The Move
42 million turtles born in 2010-11 nesting season ...
Wildlife Conservation Society Video Advises Depart...
Elephant poaching: 'Record year' for ivory seizure...
This happened 12 years ago now… if you were around then you officially feel old now I’ve said that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8cxEzoHEk
DALE DRINNON: New at 'Frontiers of Anthropology'
I have been having problems getting blogs up lately but I finally did get the two pending Frontiers of Anthropology blogs up. The first one is about revising the Ancient Egyptian chronology, by Immanuel Velikovsky and others:http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/12/ages-in-chaos.html
And the second is another guest blog by Jayasree, which speaks about ancient relationships between Russia and Veddic India (Includes reference to woolly mammoths):
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/12/guest-blogger-jayasree-saranathan.html
Two blog entries are pendng at Cedar And Willow and I should be passing those through next, which shall make a total of 28 postings for the month of December out of the three blogs. Plus the two on CFZ Canada makes 30. Not quite one a day but, hey, it's a 31-day month.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Friday, December 30, 2011
ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier
From Nick Redfern's "There's Something in the Woods...":
- The Lone Star State Bigfoot — An article about the search for Bigfoot in Texas...
- The Terror Tower — A comms tower that seems to be a magnet for cryptids...
- Profiling Stan Gordon — A new piece about the author of Silent Invasion...
- Croc cuts lawnmower's grass — Elvis the crocodile attacks a lawnmower...
- More devils join mainland Ark project — Another 50 Tasmanian devils arrive at the sanctuary...
- Ayers Rock (Uluru) dingoes under the microscope — Another inquest on the death of Azaria Chamberlain...
- UPDATE — Dale Drinnon with more information about North American water monsters...
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
On this day in 2004 Taipai 101, at the time the world’s tallest structure at 509m in height, was officially opened. It lost the record in 2010 when the Burj Khalifa tower was built in Dubai.
And now the news:
Anti-whaling ship stranded off the coast of Austra...
Deep-sea creatures at volcanic vent
Rested & Recovered, Globe-Trotting Turtle Returns ...
Monster from the deep... on the Norfolk coast: 40f...
Before Sounding an Alarm, Chimps Consider Informat...
New Theory Emerges for Where Some Fish Became Four...
Bark beetles, climate change and our future
It may not be the world’s tallest building anymore but it is one of the most impressive, especially when they launch fireworks from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rUsZMHwC4I
DALE DRINNON: Flying Creature reports
The latest addition to the Frontiers of Zoology blog has just gone up, a guest posting referring to some followup Flying creature reports sebnt in from the Global Warming and Terraforming site:http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/12/chilean-gargoyles-and-maryland.html
BTW, the FOZ blog has averaged a new posting every other day for the month of December, and this does not count any other posting on any of the other blogs.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
SEA SERPENT SONNET COURTESY OF ROBERT SCHNECK
This sonnet by John G. Brainard first appeared in the Connecticut Mirror on July 21, 1823. Read more about it at:http://spenserianjon@eclipse.co.uks.cath.vt.edu/TextRecord.php?action=GET&textsid=37114,
but in the meantime, enjoy.
Welter upon the waters mighty one—
And stretch thee in the ocean's trough of brine;
Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun,
And toss the billow from thy flashing fin;
Heave thy deep breathings to the ocean's din,
And bound upon its ridges in thy pride,
Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in
The caverns where its unknown monsters hide,
Measure thy length beneath the gulf stream's tide,
Or rest thee on the naval of that sea
Where floating on the Maelstrom, abide
The krakens sheltering under Norway's lee;
But go not to Nahant, lest men should swear,
You are a great deal bigger than you are.
RETRIEVERMAN'S MYSTERY CAT (no, I don't know either)
The answer is positively shocking.
I'll reveal it in a day or two.
KOREAN GIANT
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/29/north-korea-giant-man_n_1175175.html
Although as far as cryptozoology is concerned this story is almost completely off-topic, there is something ridiculously intriguing about it. Why would anyone spend ages scrutinising press photographs of Kim Jong Il's funeral? If, indeed the Huffington Post person is correct writing: "In the photo above, one man appears to be nearly twice as tall as the gentlemen on his left and right," then unless the rest of the crowd are midgets, this person is between 9-10ft tall!
This is all very odd.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1924 Edwin Hubble announced the presence of other galaxies.
And now the news:
Scientific Discovery: Long-legged Buzzard Migrates...
'Elusive' brainless fish discovered in waters off ...
Belize protected area boosting predatory fish popu...
Turtles Show Way to Prosperity (Via Herp Digest)
Cranky croc steals Aussie zoo worker's lawn mower ...
Turtles conviscated from poachers (Via Herp Digest...
Ever wondered how they make colour images from the Hubble Space Telescope? No? Oh well, this video will show you how it’s done, more work goes into it than you might have thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5c1XoL1KFs
PINK HEADED DUCK NEWS
There has been a reported sighting in the Bhamo wetlands in Mynmar from last December. Richard Thorns' expedition leaves the UK today. We wish him all the luck in the world, and wish that we were going with him...
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
MARKUS HEMMLER: Cape May-Globster of 1921
Cape May-Globster 1921
There is "a lesson about tusked sea-serpent carcasses", as the Canadian (crypto-) zoologist Ben Speers-Roesch outlined on the basis of some example cases of reports of globsters. Because "eyewitnesses of strange sea animal carcasses are rarely adequately trained to identify them correctly and reports are often sparse in detail and emphasize features which remind the witness of other animals, rather than to specific anatomical features." Generally speaking cases like that of the carcass of Ataka for example, show certain descriptive trends or characteristics which can be helpful for identification. One of the better known of such descriptive tendencies is the assumed plesiosaur-like form of certain basking shark carcasses, which ultimately has led to the coining of the term "pseudo-plesiosaur." The mentioning of "tusks" is another feature of this kind, because usually the broken lower jaw bones of a baleen whale are responsible for such a description. One such case is that of the Cape May-carcass of 1921.
The Cape May-Globster
Cape May is a city and also a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located at the southern tip of Cape May, a peninsula between Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Two Globsters had washed ashore at Cape May in the past, both of which are mentioned in the literature. The first in October or November 1887 but although - according to the Boston Courier on the 6th November 1887 - a survey of scientists investigated the case so far had no concrete identification. The English author, traveller and adventurer Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges described the second corpse in his 1923 book "Battles with Giant Fish":
“[…] in November 1921, off Cape May, a great beast was washed ashore. This mammal, whose weight was estimated at over 15 tons, which – to give a comparison of size – is almost as large as five fully grown elephants, was visited by many scientists, who were unable to place it, and positively stated that nothing yet known to Science could in any way compare with it.
The photographs which were published in many newspapers showed that this modern leviathan somewhat resembled the elephant – in fact, it could best be described as a sea-elephant, but of huge proportions.”
This case in addition to several others is used from Mitchell-Hedges as proof of his assertion that the "big beasts of the Mesozoic period" still exist. A letter to his book published in 1922 by a certain C H Fraser in The New York Times confirmed this opinion, that it was probably a recently still living, prehistoric creature. However both writers were wrong as the research of the American author and pioneer of unexplained phenomena research, Charles Hoy Fort, revealed. Fort wrote in his 1931 book "Lo!”:
“Somebody in Cape May wrote to me that the thing was a highly undesirable carcass of a whale, which had been towed out to sea. Somebody else wrote to me that it was a monster with a tusk twelve feet long, which he had seen. He said that, if I’d like to have it, he’d send me a photograph of the monster. After writing of having seen something with a tusk twelve feet long, he sent me a photograph of something with two tusks, each six feet long. But only one of the seeming tusks is clear in the picture, and it could be, not a tusk, but part of the jaw bone of a whale, propped up tusk-wise.”
Subsequent authors like Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans continued to follow this assessment. Recent research into this case from the author shows once again the correctness of the identification.
New but old information’s
The Warsaw Daily Times and the northern Indianan reported on November 26, 1921 about the carcass. In addition to the more concrete indication of a size of 23 meters, one finds that even not "the oldest sailor on the coast could say what manner of fish it was." They rather thought "it looked like a cross between a whale and a sea cow." The same newspaper article also includes a photo - albeit in very poor quality. The extremely friendly and competent help of the Reference Department at the Cape May County Library has succeeded in a qualitatively somewhat better photograph found in the Idaho Statesman on September 19, 1921. The library staff also found some other newspaper articles so not only a relatively good picture of the sea monster can be presented but also the given date of November 1921 must be questioned.
 Cape May-Globster of 1921 |
The tusks of the... "giant fish"
Most striking is certainly the left "tusk" of the severely decomposed and destroyed "sea elephant" found on the right side of the picture. On the left, just below the observing persons, probably his counterpart, the right "tusk", can be located (as Fort already noted this is very indistinctly). A corresponding skeleton makes clear that the tusks are nothing more than the mandibular arches of a baleen whale (Mysticeti).
As a counterpart to the upper jaw equipped with long horn plates (the so-called baleen), the lower jaw consists of two long, rounded and outwardly curved edentulous bony arches. In the symphyseal area (the anterior region made of a flexible pad of fibrous cartilage where the two bones meet) they are not firmly connected to each other. If a baleen whale for example suffers a serious accident in which this region is affected, the separated mandibular arches of a washed up carcass can leave the impression of protruding tusks.
 Lower jawbones / „Tusked“ whale carcass |
After the “tusks” of the carcass indicating to the suborder of baleen whales the tapered shape of the head (and, consequently, of course, the below listed specific characteristics) suggests that it belongs to the rorquals (family Balaenoptiidae). Furthermore there is the typical central ridge running from the tip of the rostrum to the blowhole. And directly behind the left arch probably even the also characteristic skin furrows can be recognized. The eponymous longitudinal ridges are folds of skin extending from the tip of the lower jaw to nearly the mid-abdomen. This feature takes off the Balaenoptiidae from all other whales.
 Head shape and furrows |
Two "tusked sea monsters” at Cape May?
While the identification of Fort can be viewed without a doubt as correct, it’s a bit differently with the month of the incident. As quoted a second resident of Cape May wrote to Fort that the carcass of a whale had been towed out to sea. Indeed there are at least two relevant reports from Cape May in the New York Times including such an incident.
According to the first article from September 4, 1921 a dead whale forty-five feet long washed ashore during the night at the beach upon the foot of Queen Street, Cape May. It was thought that the mammal was injured by an aircraft bomb during a manever of the Navy in Virginia Capes and later was killed by shark attacks. This was the first whale in 20 years to “visit” Cape May; so many spectators came from afar to look at the dead animal. Some have assumed that it was the same whale which beached earlier in the town of Lewes, Delaware, and was pulled back there to sea. It was the third whale washed ashore on the Jersey Shore this summer; the others were stranded in Wildwood and Sea girt.
The New York Times continued the fate of the animal's body on September 5, 1921. After three attempts had failed to lead the carcass to the water it was drawn to sea by ship from a Captain Howard Smith of the Schellenger Landing fishing fleet. A Captain Olsen, a north-sea whaler visiting Cape May, believes that the whale was probably attacked by a school of sharks which have eaten small pieces from its sides. Finally one of the larger sharks attacked the whale from below and disembowelling him. Particularly interesting in this report is the finding that the sharks "had eaten it down to the bone in some places, and the two long bones near the head were mistaken for tusks."
This raises the question, whether within a few months (September and November), two whale carcasses were found in Cape May – in both the lower jaw bones were mistaken as "tusks"? Or whether these reports belong to one and the same animal? And there are even more questions because do the different lengths of 76 and 45 feet speak for two individuals? Or are they comparable to other cases of Globsters, which also show comparable differences, and one length is simply wrong or inaccurate? And if there were really two whales washed ashore why there is no press report in November mentioning the sensational and identical event in September?
One “tusked sea monster” at Cape May!
As already mentioned the Reference Department of the Cape May County Library found a picture and an accompanying article in the Idaho Statesman, dating to September 19, 1921! Photo and elements of formulation of this text - like for example the length of 76 foot or the “uninformed” old sailors – showing up verbatim in later reports. Hence and in view of all other facts must be suggested that the date of the discovery of the “tusked” Cape May-Globster has to be predated from November to September.
Nevertheless to secure this point even more research is needed. Like other cases show, however, it is not uncommon to find reports published days or weeks later in other newspapers. This raises the possibility that Mitchell-Hedges and Fort only used such later published reports as source.
Sources:
- Anonymous (1921) 45-ft. whale at Cape May
In: The New York Times, September 4, 1921 - Anonymous (1921) Cape May banishes whale
In: The New York Times, September 5, 1921 - Anonymous (1921) –
In: Idaho Statesman, September 19, 1921 - Anonymous (1921) What is the strange sea monster?
In: Warsaw Daily Times, November 26, 1921 - Fort, Charles H. (1975) Lo!. New York: Garland
- Fraser, C. H. (1922) Big fish
In: The New York Times, March 12, 1922 - Heuvelmans, B. (1968). In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. New York: Hill and Wang.
- Mitchell-Hedges, Frederick A. (1928) Battles with giant fish. London: Duckworth
- Nowak, R.M. (2003) Walker’s Marine Mammals of the World. Baltimore. The John Hopkins University Press.
- Roesch, Ben (2007). A lesson about tusked sea-serpent carcasses
URL: http://www.forteantimes.com/exclusive/roesch_01.shtml [Stand: 02.05.07] - Tinker, Spencer Wilkie (1988) Whales of the World. Bess Press Inc.
Pictures:
- Basking shark and pseudo-plesiosaur-process: Markus Bühler/Markus Hemmler
- Cape May carcass: Anonymous (1921)
In: Idaho Statesman, September 19, 1921 - Blue whale skeleton at Beaty Biodiversity Museum: Big Dave Diode
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/big-dave-diode/4803211199/in/set-72157624400436175, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) - Tusked whale carcass from California: ligthmatter
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightmatter/, CC BY 2.0) - Dead bryde’s whale: npwsnorthernmarine
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/26814718@N08/5267672463/)
Many thanks to Claire Bear-Jaycock, Lawrence "npwsnorthernmarine" and above all others especially to the Reference Department of the Cape May County Library for their help!
APOLOGIES...
HAVE WE ANY READERS IN HONG KONG...
GREBEMAGEDDON ON THE BIRDCHICK PODCAST
An article about song sparrows and how taped predator calls affect them. An interesting article, but how often is a bird like a song sparrow going to be exposed to predator calls 24 hours a day, four days in a row by birders?
A huge discussion was started on the American Birding Association’s group page about birders and why the uniform appears to be ill fitting khaki pants, vests and floppy hats. Why is this our uniform? Why the vest?
Remember the mystery hummingbird in Chicago (they one they tried to ID based on poop)? Well, they got a feather and they now know exactly what species it is based on DNA testing. Find out the id here (or listen to the podcast).
A hooded crane has been reported in Tennessee. Now the question is if this bird is truly a vagrant from another country or an escapee from a private collection.
http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2011/12/birdchick-podcast-84-grebmaggedon-taped-calls-a-hooded-crane/
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
On this day in 1170 Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury was assassinated under orders of the king, who he had managed to get a bit grumpy. Becket became a saint and a martyr as a result and the king managed to get away with it using a bit of good PR and spin, much like how everyone seems to have forgotten about the UK MP expenses scandal now while Cameron splutters out his empty platitudes about us “all being in this together” while he troughs down of caviar paid for by the tax payer and trys to dismantle the NHS that people who aren’t as rich as him depend on…. But I digress.
And now the news:
Crafty Caterpillars Mimic Each Other to Avoid Pred...
Dino-Chicken: Wacky But Serious Science Idea of 20...
Ohio Exotic Animal Owner Wasn't Drunk Or On Drugs
Goat flees nativity play
Cheetah, Tarzan's chimpanzee, dies
Bird flu - Hong Kong alert
GPS trackers find migrating cuckoos in same spot
Seychelles paradise-flycatcher - habitat danger
A nice long documentary on the murder of Becket and what happened next, may contain castley fields:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJX0430bQw
Basic and Applied Herpetology
http://www.herpetologica.es/publicaciones/basic-and-applied-herpetology/1650-volume-25-2011
ADAM DAVIES/MOKELE MBEMBE AT THE BBC
The hunt for Mokele-mbembe: Congo's Loch Ness Monster
… eyewitness reports still need to be taken seriously, in his view. "Certainly mythology surrounds it," says Adam Davies, a British man who spends…
27 December 2011
One explorer explains why he went to the remote far north of Congo-Brazzaville to search for the Mokele-mbembe, a large long-necked creature reputed…
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
SIMON REAMES: Film Review 'Super 8'
Super 8 – ReviewI first heard about Super 8 when I saw a teaser trailer for it at the cinema and then promptly forgot all about it. It just looked like another generic alien/monster movie. However, as the release date came closer and more information of the film released, it seemed that my first impressions may have been a little too hasty; there may have been more to the film than I first gave it credit for.
The plot centres on a group of young friends from a small Ohio town who are trying to make a monster movie. As they film one scene on a small railway platform, they witness a pickup truck crash through the barriers and into a military train causing it to derail. Gathering their movie making equipment, they run from the scene glad to be alive. As they come to terms with narrowly escaping death, they notice a series of strange occurrences start happening and before long, realise that not only did their camera capture the crash, it also captured part of the train’s cargo escaping.
Directed by man of the moment, J.J. Abrams, and produced my Mr Spielberg, most people would think this would be a big budget action adventure film. Although the budget bit would be right, the rest is less so. Super 8 follows the relationships of the children and uses the escaped alien/monster from the train wreck as a vehicle to do this. In this way, Super 8 is almost two films, a coming of age drama about a group of children and an alien/monster film. As you watch the film progress, you soon realise the emphasis is placed more on the social relationships between the children rather than finding the alien/monster and this is where the film tries to become more endearing to you but instead becomes slightly confusing as the children try to deal with growing up and finding an alien at the same time (which they manage to do and in typical Hollywood style by the end of the film). This is a shame as you almost feel that each part needs their own independent film to do their respective stories justice. The story aside, the acting and direction (for each film) are brilliant throughout and you do start to become engrossed in the characters. This is up to the point where the alien/monster attacks and then you want to know what is going on there but this is left so that all emphasis is back on the children. One feature I particularly liked was that when the alien/monster attacks, you never really get to have a good look at it until the end so much is left to your own imagination for the majority of the film.
Apart from appearing to be two separate films, Super 8 also appears to be a homage and amalgamation of Spielberg films from 1980’s. This is no bad thing as Super 8 becomes a fairly decent all round family film with a feel that reminds you of movies such as E.T., Stand By Me and The Goonies. If you are a fan of these types of films, you will definitely enjoy this.
Watch the trailer here
7/10
DRAMATIC CHANGES TO BRITISH WATERFOWL NUMBERS
Millions of ducks, geese, swans and waders escaping the Arctic winter in northern Europe, Siberia, Greenland and Canada head for our shores, making the UK one of the most important European countries for wintering waterbirds. However, there are signs of dramatic changes for some wetland birds, including the Mallard: the UK winter populations of several species have exceeded previous maxima, while others have fallen to an all-time low. The latest population figures on wetland birds (and a host of other species) are published in the State of the UK's Birds 2011 report. The report provides a 'one-stop-shop' for the results of bird surveys and monitoring schemes and projects from across the UK from as recently as 2010.Read on...
IMAGE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mallard_in_flight.jpg
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1950 the Peak District became the first National Park in the UK.
And now the news:
Czech national's attempt to take 247 animals on pl...
Drones used to track Japan whaling fleet
Yellowstone ecosystems - reintroduction of wolves
Hope for species as rare Sumatran rhino is capture...
Kepler Mountains home to rare bat colony
The great bustard is back in the south-west after ...
Two spring and no summer, but British wildlife ada...
Arial photography via kite in the Peak District (this video is so British it hurts) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFWaJyLvY0w
MISSING FINGER FROM PANGBOCHE YETI HAND REDISCOVERED
According to the BBC:
The finger is of human origin, according to Dr Rob Jones, senior scientist at the Zoological Society of Scotland.
"We have got a very, very strong match to a number of existing reference sequences on human DNA databases.
"It's very similar to existing human sequences from China and that region of Asia but we don't have enough resolution to be confident of a racial identification."
DALE DRINNON: The latest on 'Cedar and Willow'
I'd like to thank all of the people thayt looked in on the last Cedar and Willow posting on Tommy and Chickie, the current count on that is 90 page views over the wekend, which is good for that blog. It must be the "Men are from Mars, Women Are From Venus" poster. Or probably more likely the Masters of the Universe part. Anyway, today's blog is a followup Tom and Chickie blog which connects them up to Cedar and Willow in the 1800s and includes a pasteup representation for the early 1990s FRPG game set that included Tom and Chickie as characters:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-on-tom-and-chickie-and-nate-and.html
Probably later I shall go on and on about the plots of those games, their gear and so on. I must belong in ordinance because one of my favourite part of doing role-playing games is keeping track of the gear the characters are using (Chickie reaches into her bag and pulls out her revolving-drum multiple- grenade launcher and sends an incendiary into the following humvee "We're outta here!" yells Tom "Whenever EITHER the Arabs or Israelis get a whiff of that where we are now, they'll be all over us like a swarm of bees!")
ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier
From CFZ Australia:
- Michael Sharland and the search for the Thylacine — A 1938 expedition by the Royal Zoological Society...
- Mystery of 25 dead ponies solved — And the police have charged a man with animal cruelty...
- Merry Christmas! — Yes, I know it's a bit late... but this was posted last week!
- ...I blame Minden, Ontario for my fear of Sasquatch — So says Matthew J. Didier of PSICAN...
Monday, December 26, 2011
FESTIVE WITH LOPLOP (and Davey Curtis)
They're back!
The critters have returned to my lava lamp. I reckon this one is definitely birdlike so I've called him Lop-Lop.
Regards and Merry Christmas my old friend to you and yours.
Davey.C
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
On this day in 1978 a record high temperature of −13.6 °C was recorded at the South Pole… Mmm, toasty.
And now the news:
Dalmation has 15 puppies - double the average numb...
Polar bear cub raised by humans
Microbe thriving in Death Valley
Ancient Fungi-Plant Duo Discovered in Amber
Rapid evolution in domestic animals
Are coral reefs being dissolved by sea cucumbers?
Extinction may be on the cards for most of India's...
Bad day? Things will feel better when you’ve watched this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqKzHSjQqnc
WHAT A BRILLIANT JOB!
Primary duties include: general equipment maintenance, processing of wild caught animals (lizards and snakes), and clear communication with supervisor and other technicians regarding tasked duties. Following a thorough introduction and familiarization period (one-two weeks), technician must be capable of performing tasks independently. All work will be conducted out of a field station in Maljamar, NM. Daily schedule revolves around routine checking of pit(fall) traps in the deserts of southern New Mexico.
Qualifications: Minimum requirements: High School Diploma or GED with 2 years of coursework in the life sciences. Ideal candidate will: be in their last year of coursework leading to a B.S. in the life sciences (experience in herpetology is desired), have prior field experience, and most importantly, have a desire to conduct field biological work under harsh conditions.
Last Date to apply: Application review will begin on February 15, 2012.
Website: http://people.tamu.edu/~dlea886/Research.html
DALE DRINNON: The Alkali Lake Monster and Mark A. Hall's "Horrors" from the Mesozoic
New on the Frontiers of Zoology: The Alkali Lake Monster and Mark A. Hall's "Horrors" from the Mesozoic:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/12/alkali-lake-monster-and-halls-horrors.html
ROBERT SCHNECK: Yesterday's mystery bug
Hi Jon and Merry Christmas to everyone there at the CFZ.I'm pretty sure it's a leaf-footed bug - one of the true bugs - but without more information, such as where the picture was taken, that's as far as I would go. Some leaf-footed bugs take on baroque shapes but here are two of the more subdued examples. These two have similar markings.
And strangemouse (a young lady called Victoria Burton) has identified it as to species
Well done both of you. I thought that I was the only person who thought about invertebrates on Christmas Day!
DAVE B-P AND JESS H: The History of the Christmas Tree
One classic tale tells us about a woodcutter who helps a small, hungry child. The next morning the child appears to the woodcutter and his wife, as the Christ-child. The child breaks a branch from a fir tree and tells the couple that it will be a tree that, at Christmas time, will bear fruit. As foretold, the next Christmas the tree was laden with apples of gold and nuts of silver.
Another legend tells that when Christianity first came to Northern Europe three virtues, faith, hope and charity, were sent from Heaven to find a tree that was as high as hope, as great as love, as sweet as charity, and had the sign of the cross on every bough. Their search ended in the forests of the north where they found the fir, lit from the luminosity of the stars, and that was the first Christmas tree.
Sacred trees in Europe, evergreens were a symbol of rebirth from ancient times. Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the winter solstice as a symbol of life's triumph over death. The Romans decorated with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honour of their god of agriculture. In northern Europe the pagans observed the Solstice festival of Jul, a two-month feast beginning in November with prickly pine branches hung around doorways and windows to keep away demonic spirits. But the sacred trees of the druids and Norsemen were deciduous oaks, not evergreen conifers.
The Paradise Tree - from the eleventh century, religious plays called "Mystery Plays" including the popular Paradise Play depicting the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin and banishment from Eden. An evergreen tree was the logical choice for a lush garden tree on this winter festival, and it was decorated with apples symbolizing the forbidden fruit. It ended with the promise of the coming saviour and his incarnation, so gradually flat wafers symbolizing the forgiveness of sins in communion were added to the paradise tree, making it now not just the tree of knowledge but also the tree of life. This resulted in a very old European custom of decorating a fir tree in the home with apples and small white wafers representing the Holy Eucharist at Christmas time. These wafers were later replaced by little pieces of pastry cut in the shapes of stars, angels, hearts, flowers, and bells. In some areas the custom was still to hang the tree upside down.
In addition to the paradise tree, many German Christians set up a Christmas Pyramid called a Lichstock, an open wooden frame with shelves for figurines of the Nativity covered with evergreen branches and decorated with candy, pastry, candles and a star. The star of course was the star of Bethlehem, the candles represented the light of Christ coming into the world, the evergreens were the symbol of eternal life, and the candy, fruits, and pastries, the goodness of our life in Christ, the fruits of the spirit, etc. By the seventeenth century the Lichstock and the "Paradise Tree" became merged into the modern Christmas tree.
Modern Christmas Trees - Christmas trees became fashionable in the mid-1800s. In 1846 the popular royals Queen Victoria and her German prince, Albert, were illustrated in the London News with their children around a Christmas Tree. In America the White House led the way to trees for the holidays beginning with President Franklin Pierce. Despite some congregations' concerns about bringing trees into their religious traditions, trees quickly were adopted as symbols of Christ's Advent.
Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, everyone and have a Happy New Year
Sunday, December 25, 2011
NEW HOPE THAT THE JAVA TIGER HAS SURVIVED EXTINCTION
Droppings and paw prints to claw marks from a "big cat" collected from staff at Meru Betiri National Park giving hope (at least to them) that the Java-Tiger still exists. Therefore they plan to set up five camera traps this month. The whole story:
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
On this day in 1982 Time Magazine awarded their ‘person of the year’ article to a non-human for the first time, the P.C. (which was a massive cop-out if you ask me).
And now the news:
1,000 Hidden Species Revealed in Aussie Outback Un...
Oceana Pushes to Protect 3,500 Km2 of the Baltic S...
Fast-Evolving Fish Struggle to Spawn in Wild
Shark threat fears raised in NSW
Don't feed garden birds with turkey and goose fat ...
The 3 most important forests for birds
Fun Fact: popular reggae performer Pato Banton once believed himself to be a Toshiba computer. He related the interesting tale in this little ditty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uq00qe_K2A
Saturday, December 24, 2011
SIMON REAMES: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale – Review
I first saw a trailer for Rare Exports just before Christmas last year, and to be honest, didn’t think much of it. Although it sounded interesting, the very clichéd American voice over makes you think this is going to be Z movie material and hardly worth watching. However, being a glutton for punishment (and there being nothing else to do) I went and saw it. All my preconceived notions about the trailer disappeared; this is a gem of a Christmas movie!Just before Christmas, and shortly after a mysterious excavation on a Finnish mountain, mysterious occurrences start happening to a small reindeer farming community. Although the adults are convinced a predator is loose, Pietari Kontio (son of one of the reindeer farmers and hero of the film) starts to piece the events together and comes up with one disturbing conclusion: Santa Claus is real, and far from the friendly fat man everyone thinks he is.
As you can see from the trailer and poster, the film is very much in B movie territory but that does not make it any less enjoyable. Full of black humour (typical of the Finish so I am told), the film starts up and continues at a fair ole pace as you watch Pietari first come to his conclusions that Santa Claus is real and then try to convince every one of his findings.
One of the best aspects of the film is that it keeps your interest throughout as you are never quite sure of what is coming next. (This works well throughout the film to the point where I didn’t know what was going to happen at the end.) The film is not all comedy and horror (or horror and comedy if you see it that way) as throughout everything that is going on, a sensitive father-son relationship/boy coming of age theme is also apparent and quite endearing so that you cannot help but like the characters. Although the acting and story are a bit thin in places, you don’t really care as the director is able to blend comedy, tension and mild horror very well into one enjoyable film. Rare Exports is spoken entirely in Finnish with English subtitles and, like Trollhunter, reading the subtitles doesn’t detract from what is happening on the screen at all.
In a sea of happy Christmassy movies, Rare Exports stands apart by doing something different.
But, it is no less endearing and should become one of those Christmas Classics that is watched every year!
Watch the trailer here!
7/10
And Merry Christmas Everyone!
IDENTIFY THIS INSECT
Anyone able to identify this little creature (about 25mm long tail to tips of antennae)? Found indoors minus one leg.David N
TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2011
1 'Let England Shake' by P.J.Harvey
No surprises here: I think this has been the album of the year for every reviewer in the UK. It is a magnificent record, and gets better with every listen. Polly Harvey has matured into an extraordinary talent, and this album which explores the twin themes of War and Englishness (and usually both) is testament to that.
2 'Superheavy' by Superheavy
This is where I can feel the brickbats winging their way through cyberspace towards me. A supergroup consisting of Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, him out of The Eurythmics, Bob Marley's son, and an Indian film music composer. Horrible, right? Nope. It is a bloody good record, and despite myself I have found myself listening to it more than most new albums from 2011. It is exactly what you would expect, only it works. And unlike most superstar collaborations, everyone gives everyone else space, and behaves in a surprisingly modest manner. Well done guys!
3 'Valhalla Dancehall' by British Sea Power
I have been a fan of this lot ever since John Hare played me their first album about seven years ago. They reconstruct the indie guitar-band ethic into something new and challenging, but at the same time familiar and listenable. This album breaks no new ground for them, but the old ground still has plenty of life in it, and the melodies - indeed the whole songs - are HUGE. The drumming is particularly satisfying here, and the vocals are mildly reminiscent of Richard Hell back in the day, but that is no bad thing. As always these songs are cinematic, but this time they are on a wide screen.
4 'An appointment with Mr Yeats' by The Waterboys
An immensely satisfying album which has been twenty years in the planning stage. Mike Scott took 20 W.B.Yeats poems and set them to music. He then toured the show for a year before releasing the album which is - by the way - excellent. I have always been fond of Mike Scott; he is one of the more fortean singers/songwriters to have come out of the broad New Wave melange, with songs about Pan, Findhorn and crop circles. If you are not a devotee, this album is probably your chance to become one
5 'Fly from Here' by Yes
The first new studio album from Yes for ten years. But is it Yes without Jon Anderson's vocals and Rick Wakeman tinkling the ivories? Surprisingly it is. New vocalist Benoit David does a fine job, even Anderson said so, and keyboard player Geoff Downes (no relation) has been involved with the band on and off for thirty odd (sometimes very odd) years. This is all that you could have hoped for and more. I am itching to know what happens next.
6 'C'mon' by Low
I discovered this band by accident when they were eulogised on someone else's round up of the albums of the year. This is an elegantly fragile album which never ceases to surprise. Just when you are getting used to a tune, it veers off into an unexpected new direction, even more beautiful and/or interesting than the previous one. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.
7 'Director's Cut' by Kate Bush/'50 words for snow' by Kate Bush
I cheated here, but when you wait for years for a new Kate Bush album, and then two come along within the space of a few months what can one do? Anyway, this is my top ten, and I can do what I like with it. If I had to choose I would say that The Director's Cut is my favourite of the two if only for the way she has deconstructed and twisted familiar material into something new and beautiful. But the piano led album of new songs is very close behind in my affections. Go listen to them both, and make up your own mind.
8 'A grounding in numbers' by Van der Graaf Generator
Everything I said about the Yes album can be repeated here. This is another band that has been going since the sixties - in fact they formed in 1967, a year before their more popular peers, and although they split at the end of the 1970s they reformed in 2005. This new album is as elegantly brutal as ever. Surprisingly although founder member David Jackson's horn playing was an integral part of the band's sound, on this - the second album without him - the sound does not seem to have suffered. If anything they are even darker than they were in their proggy heyday. Well done chaps.
9 'The Most Incredible Thing' by The Pet Shop Boys
Another one of the arty side projects that the duo do in between their 'proper' albums. This music for a ballet based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen therefore is their follow-up to the 2005 soundtrack for Eisenstein's 1925 silent movie Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin. It is gloriously lush mixing, as you would expect, electro soundscapes with neo-classical strings. I only discovered it during the last few days, and I am well-impressed.
10 'The Impossible Song and other songs' by Roddy Woomble
Woomble is the singer with a band called Idlewild and I discovered this solo album totally by accident. However it avoids the pitfalls that many side projects from rock band frontmen fall into, and is a delight to listen to. Apparently his earlier solo work was far more rooted in Scottish traditional folk, but this delightfully unpretentious album of twelve songs inspired by his move to the Isle of Mull is a real eye opener. Well done dude.
Bubbling under were remarkably groovy albums by Alison Krauss, Wire, Hawkwind, Tori Amos, and Youth Lagoon....
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
Merry Christmas everyone!
And now the news:
Oil spill - Nigeria coast
Bolivia - conservation success for jaguars
Fulvous Whistling Duck seen in Bowness
Mistletoe under threat of dying out
Elephant's sixth toe
Spider cannibalism
Uncle Scrooge is the 1% :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSBvpzz7des
CFZ ANNUAL REPORT
This has been a hard working but gratifying year. Although the CFZ has not been massively in the public eye for most of the year, there have been a lot of changes behind the scenes, and most of them – I think – have been for the good.
We got off to a late start, because just before Christmas 2010 Corinna and I caught swine flu, and we were not wholly recovered until the beginning of March. Two months were almost completely lost. However we soon made up for it
CFZ member Glen Vaudrey carried out a very successful appeal to raise money for trail cameras in the spring and early summer, and managed to buy four of them. Another member, Dr Dan Holdsworth donated two high-tech night vision scopes. We are slowly, but surely, amassing a collection of very useful equipment.
In October Oll Lewis left us to go and live with his girlfriend in Plymouth. We wish him well, but his departure made a lot of difference and has influenced our policy in a number of areas.
Publishing - books
In 2011 we worked very hard on expanding our publishing portfolio. We published eighteen more books and are formulating plans for over 100 more titles.
Grave Concerns by Kai Roberts, (Fortean Words) 12/2/2011
Police and the Paranormal by Andy Owens, (Fortean Words) 12/2/2011
ORANG PENDEK: Sumatra's Forgotten Ape by Richard Freeman, (CFZ Press) 11/1/2011
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: London by Neil Arnold, (CFZ Press) 9/22/2011
CFZ EXPEDITION REPORT: India 2010 by Richard Freeman et al, (CFZ Press) 9/20/2011
The Cryptid Creatures of Florida by Scott Marlowe, (CFZ Press) 8/25/2011
Dead of Night by Lee Walker, (Fortean Words) 8/4/2011
HAUNTED SKIES Volume Three by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway,(Fortean Words) 8/4/2011
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: The Northern Isles by Vaudrey, Glen (CFZ Press) 8/4/2011
The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Gloucestershire and Worcestershire by Paul Williams, (CFZ Press) 6/13/2011
When Bigfoot Attacks by Michael Newton, (CFZ Press) 6/13/2011
WEIRD WATERS: The Lake and Sea Monsters of Scandinavia and the Baltic States by Lars Thomas, (CFZ Press) 4/25/2011
The Inhumanoids by Bart Nunnelly, (CFZ Press) 4/25/2011
I Fort the Lore (An Anthology of Fortean Writings) by Paul Screeton, (Fortean Words) 4/25/2011
Space Girl Dead on Spaghetti Junction (An Anthology of Fortean Writings) by Nick Redfern, (Fortean Words) 3/15/2011
Centre for Fortean Zoology Yearbook 2011 edited by Jonathan and Corinna Downes, (CFZ Press) 2/23/2011
Monstrum! A Wizard's Tale by Tony “Doc” Shiels, (CFZ Press) 2/22/2011
HAUNTED SKIES Volume Two by John Hanson and Dawn Holloway (Fortean Words) 1/15/2011
In December 2011, we launched our third imprint, this time dedicated to - let’s see if you guessed it from the title - fictional books with a Fortean or cryptozoological theme. We have published a few fictional books in the past, but now think that because of our rising reputation as publishers of quality Forteana, that a dedicated fiction imprint was the order of the day.
We launched with four titles:
Green Unpleasant Land by Richard Freeman
Left Behind by Harriet Wadham
Dark Ness by Tabitca Cope
Snap! By Steven Bredice
These will be released in January 2012.
I think that when someone takes a look at our achievements, maybe in 20 years time when we will have been in operation for 40 years, and I - if I'm still alive - will be well into my dotage, they will find that our greatest achievement will have been in publishing a long list of books which needed to be published, but which had eclectic commercial value and which no money-orientated publisher would have touched with the proverbial bargepole.
Weird Weekend 2011
This was our twelfth event and the sixth since we came to Woolsery.
Speakers were:
Matt Salusbury: Hunting Pygmy Elephants in India
Adam Davies:On the track of the Orang Pendek
Oll Lewis: The Man Who Humbugged Barnum
Kevin Goodman: The Warminster Triangle
John Hanson/Dawn Holloway: The Haunted Skies project
Glen Vaudrey: The Waterhorse
Peter Christie: Fortean North Devon
Max Blake/Dr Darren Naish: The new British Lynx
Henry Hartley: Fortean aspects of the modern Maya
Nick Wadham: Giant spiders
Richard Freeman et al: The India expedition
Ronan Coghlan: The Labours of Hercules
This year’s Golden Baboon award winners were:
Bryan Sykes
Darren Naish
Dave Archer
John Hanson and Dawn Holloway
The Wadham Family
Numbers were down on previous years, mostly - we believe – due to a combination of three factors:
- There were far more Fortean conferences in 2011 than in previous years, and the WW is probably the most geographically isolated
- The recession and uncertainty in the money market leading to people having considerably less money than before
- The summer was the coldest in many years and people just did not feel like travelling to Devon
Periodicals
I am embarrassed to say that we didn’t issue either of our periodicals this year, although issue 49 of Animals & Men is ready to go and will be sent out in early January. This is obviously an area which needs to be addressed. It is time for a change. I have been editing Animals & Men for over seventeen years, and before I go any further let me get one thing straight; I intend to carry on editing it for so long as I am able. I have no intention of closing the title.
However, as regular readers are aware, things have been a little uncertain as far as our publishing schedule has been concerned for the last few years. I will be the first to admit that it was my fault; I totally miscalculated the production costs of the magazine now that it is produced perfect bound, but the real reason is that we are now doing so much more than we used to.
I have been biting off more than I can chew for most of my life, and I have no intention of stopping now.
However, it is becoming very evident that it is time for a change. Since 2002 a subscription to Animals & Men has been synonymous with membership of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. I think that this probably should change.
We are looking to completely change the membership scheme to become a yearly production, with a substantial discount on both ALL books published by the CFZ, plus Weird Weekend tickets. A&M will no longer be a direct part of the yearly membership, but you will get a discount whenever it comes out, if you are a member (the same applies for TAN).
A quarterly e-newsletter will also be sent out to members, keeping subscribers up to date with the latest goings in the CFZ, including: big news stories, recent publications and the latest news about the CFZ.
So, to be clear, the old membership subscription got you 4 issues of A&M (or TAN) and was renewed every 4 issues. The new membership will be paid for every year, but you will get a discount on all books published by the CFZ, all periodicals published by the CFZ, discounted tickets to the WW, and a quarterly e-newsletter.
On the other hand, the fact that this publication comes out so irregularly does not really affect your subscription which is for four issues rather than for twelve months, so everyone gets what they pay for in the end. It is up to you. What do you think? Please let me know, in confidence if you prefer, and I promise that I will take everybody’s views into account when I make my final decision…
Journal of Cryptozoology
In August we announced that in 2012 we shall be launching a new publication, The Journal of Cryptozoology which will be a peer-reviewed, academic journal. It will be edited by Dr Karl Shuker, and will have the following peer review panel:
1 Darren Naish
2 Brian Regal
3 Charles Paxton
4 Christine Janis
5 Lars Thomas
6 Colin Groves
7 Paul LeBlond
8 Tom Gilbert
9 David Waldron
10 Adrienne Mayer
Work on issue one starts in earnest next month.
CFZtv
We uploaded 46 films to our CFZtv YouTube channel this year. These include one feature-length (1hr 45min) documentary about our 2010 India expedition – Riddle of the Hills. There were also 12 monthly episodes of On the Track and the entire 2011 Weird Weekend. For those of you eagerly awaiting our feature film Emily and the Big Cats which we have been working on since 2009, it is nearly finished. We just have to wait until Spring to reshoot one sequence because the two folk who originally filmed it are no longer part of the CFZ family.
Branches
Also in 2011, we launched offices in Canada and New Zealand. The New Zealand office is run by our old friend Tony Lucas, someone who has been part of the wider CFZ family for many years. The Canadian office is run by Robin Bellamy, a newcomer to the CFZ but someone who is rapidly earning a great deal of respect.
Bigfoot Forums
For those of you who don’t know, we took over the administration of the BFF back in 2010. They are pretty well autonomous, as can be seen in their annual report.
Jan 2011:
“ShadoAngel” assumes BFF Director Position from Jon Downes.
BFF Steering Committee structure finalized and implemented and there are 6 members plus “Spazmo” as SC Chairman.
Software settings optimized and repairable glitches identified by “ShadoAngel”.
Feb 2011:
SC Chair Spazmo steps down, New SC Chair Bipedalist is seated.
May 2011:
BFF Merchandise discussed and SC contemplates processes to move forward with planning.
June 2011:
“ShadoAngel” steps down as BFF Director, New BFF Director “masterbarber” is seated.
July 2011:
SC elections are held.
New Director recommends the following from the SC Chair: SC member handbook and SC perpetual election Calendar. Both are created and implemented.
Sept 2011:
The SC Chair has established a team to explore BFF merchandising feasibility.
FMT secures a forum tech “gigantor”.
Tech identifies numerous issues with current server capacity, makes recommendations.
The SC approved amending rules to limit member appeals to 30 days from the date of a staff punitive action.
Due to past Security concerns, the BFF Director implements manual validation of new member registrations.
Trash can storage of deleted content will be for a period of 3 months then it will be removed from the forum (previously storage was indefinite).
Feed content will be retained (stored) for 3 months, then removed from the forum (previously storage was indefinite).
Oct:
BFF Blog created.
New hosting server and company identified.
BFF Director obtains data files from the BFF 1.0 and secures them with the forum tech.
Nov:
Membership total for the first three quarters is 1121 new accounts (approx. 373 new members per quarter)
Dec:
BFF scheduled to switch to a VPS server host which will allow for continued growth and enhancements to the site.
Animals
When I look back over the last few years I see a CFZ that has changed rapidly in a very short length of time. And it is changing now, very much so. For example, when we first moved to North Devon, we expanded the CFZ animal collection greatly. In fact, with hindsight, we expanded it too much. Now we are downsizing, and we're doing so for a very important reason. When we first came here we intended to build a museum at the top of the grounds. We still have a small but interesting collection of objects from our various investigations, but now we have decided that it is far more important to have input into far more extensive exhibitions elsewhere. In 2012 we shall be announcing the first two of these.
We have rehomed all three rabbits, and one of the cats – Helios 7 – left with Oll when he went to Plymouth in October. We have also decommissioned five of the smaller fishtanks, moving smaller colonies of livebearers into the two showtanks that we maintain up at The Farmers Arms.
As regular readers or visitors to the CFZ itself will know, two years ago we acquired eight very young specimens of an undescribed species of cichlid - Aequidens spp - from Peru. We lost three of them in a power cut during the winter of 2009/2010 and another one a couple of months ago in a fight between the two largest specimens.
However, in early July we were happy to announce that they have bred.
When they breed again, we will be happy to share them to any aquariums or private fishkeepers (especially those with experience of cichlids, and either a species tank or a collection of large cichlids) We shall be studying the growth of these little fishes closely, as next to nothing is known about them, and we hope, soon, to be able to identify them once and for all, and to publish the results..
As well as the cichlids we have bred another 12 species of fish this year, but our most exciting breeding success are the two baby Rio Cauca caecilians that are presently ambling around the big show tank in the conservatory. These little amphibians are obscure enough already, but to breed them is very rare - in the UK anyway. We obtained ours at about the same time as the ZSL and Durrell Wildlife, and I am feeling rather smug to announce that to the best of my knowledge we bred ours first.
Research
The CFZ expedition to India brought back samples from some antlers found in India.
The full expedition report (available in book form from CFZ Press) tells the story:
Llewellyn, a conservationist rather than a hunter, invited us to look at his father’s collection. Eagle-eyed Jon McGowan spotted something unusual among them - a pair of muntjac horns of unbelievable size.
On closer examination, these very distinctive horns proved to be even larger than those of the giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) of Vietnam and Laos. This picture shows the horns next to those of the Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak), and the startling size difference is apparent. Local people have a name for this particular deer, calling it ‘matchok’. We took some samples from the antler for analysis back in Europe.
We sent the samples to Lars Thomas, and he passed them on to Prof. Tom Gilbert at Copenhagen University. For a while it looked as though our suspicions were justified, but after hours of painstaking work, Lars eventually wrote to me:
“Hi Guys, Finally we have the results of the DNA analysis of the antler samples from India. It has taken an awful lot of time, but we do need to check and recheck and check again - and earn a living every now and then :-). Unfortunately there was no new species in there after all... “
The antlers turned out to be from a Sambhur (Sambar) deer - (Rusa unicolor) presumably a juvenile - because although the antlers of an adult resemble those of a fallow deer, the antlers of the juvenile surprised me greatly by looking like those of a muntjac. It is mildly disappointing but our job is to find out the truth, and not purely to look for cryptids, and we have found the truth.
Richard Freeman and I would like to thank Tom Gilbert and his team for all their painstaking work.
On other subjects: Lars Thomas has been analysing hair samples taken from our dwindling colony of ageing spiny mice, and he was very surprised to find that they appear to be a new species. When the next one shuffles off to spiny mouse heaven its corpse will be dispatched off to Copenhagen for Lars to work on.
In the early autumn CFZ supporter Jan Edwards from Co. Durham sent some hair samples from a dead mustelid found as a roadkill near her house. Lars was able to confirm that although it had a small abount of ferret ancestry, it was a bona fide wild polecat, and so the species is cheerfully recolonising yet another of its old haunts.
Manpower
As Corinna and I get older I realise that the way that we lived only a few years ago, sharing our living space with an ever-changing ménage of people is something which a couple will into their fifties really cannot do any more. We still have visitors, and my old friend Richard Freeman, who like Graham Inglis who still lives with us is more like a brother than a friend, is still a frequent visitor. However, rather than looking for people to come and live with us, we now look for volunteers who are happy to give up some of their time and expertise on a regular basis to help further the CFZ ideal.
The first of these volunteers are Tim and Graidi Taylor-Rose from Ilfracombe who come to us every other Sunday and have done sterling work on several projects including the new library (see below).
We also have started employing Daniel Taylor (16) a strapping young lad who helps Graham and/or Richard on Friday afternoons. He is son of our housekeeper Helen and brother to Emily and Jessica who are both familiar faces around the CFZ.
Expeditions
In September, the fourth CFZ expedition to Sumatra took place. It was our largest expedition yet, and although not as successful as the previous one came up with one particularly important piece of evidence.
Richard writes:
“We were about to turn back when Adam suggested the guides go on a little way ahead to see what they could find, and Sahar’s brother John found a print next to a rotting log that had been ripped apart. The orang-pendek has been seen feeding on grubs in such logs. Andrew, using quick drying dental plaster, cast the print. It looked more like a handprint than a footprint and appeared that the animal had been bracing itself with one hand whilst heaving the decaying tree trunk over with the other. Close by, Sahar found a number of hairs that Adam Davies preserved in ethanol for examination. We were elated at such a find so early on in the proceedings, and we set up two camera traps along the trail. Back at the camp, I had a closer look at the print as Sahar, using my spare toothbrush, cleaned it off.
It was clearly a handprint rather than a footprint. It was a right hand some 6in long by 4½in wide, the palm was rounded, and the thumb short and almost triangular. The fingers were thick and sausage-shaped, and the structure was quite unlike that of the Sumatran orang utan with its long thin fingers and almost vestigial thumb. It was more like the handprint of a small gorilla, but with a somewhat rounder palm. I’ve worked with all the known great apes and recognise an ape hand when I see one. The shape of the hand is interesting, suggesting a ground dwelling ape rather than an arboreal one. The hand looked as if it would be capable of manipulating objects quite well and could possibly indicate tool use. The orang-utan can use sticks as weapons and tools, and has recently been shown to fashion sticks into spears to catch fish! It is said that when the trans-Sumatra highway was being built that orang-pendeks emerged from the jungle and threw sticks at the bulldozers and other machines.
I think that the general shape adds weight to my theory that the orang-pendek is the third extant species of orang-utan, having speciated on the Sunda landmass (that incorporated Sumatra, Borneo, Java and the Malayan peninsular) before its break up and at roughly the same times as the Sumatran and Bornean orang-utans speciated around 400,000 years ago.”
Within the last few weeks Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
Two such tragedies coming almost on top of each other forced us into action. We launched an appeal to raise money for both families.
Library
In October Oliver Lewis, who had been living in my spare room for the last five years, left us to go live in Plymouth with his girlfriend. We have started turning what used to be his bedroom into a proper library, and for the first time in many years I am able to start gathering all my, and the CFZ’s, voluminous and esoteric collection of books in the same place. I am very indebted to Tim and Graidi Taylor-Rose without whom this complicated project would really not have taken place. We hope that it will be completed in the spring.
Eric William Classey (2 November 1916 – September 6, 2008 ) was an English entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera. Eric Classey was a book dealer and entomological publisher and cofounder of The Entomologist’s Gazette. He was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London. He was one of the most important British entomologists, and we were shocked to find his collection turning up piecemeal on eBay. We have started buying as many of the aberrations as we can, with the idea of having them all under one roof again. These are kept in an entomological cabinet made by Graham’s grandfather, and are being kept in the library.
Well, do they?
The CFZ is currently in the state of flux, but looking back over the past two decades it seems that we always were. Believe it or not, this is the first time that I have ever sat down and cold-bloodedly looked at the progress, and otherwise, year by year of the organisation that I founded two decades ago. Ten years ago George Harrison, my favourite Beatle died of cancer. His posthumous album contains a song which includes the words: “if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there”, and if I hadn't already chosen a Latin tag Pro bona causa facimus (we do it for a good reason), which I pinched from a children’s book called The Case of the Silver Egg by the late Desmond Skirrow, then I would probably have adopted George Harrison’s words. It is interesting, by the way, that I have never managed to find any other reference to this Latin motto. I had assumed that it was Scipio, Cicero or one of those dudes from ancient Rome that I learned about during my Latin classes in Bideford Grammar School all those years ago, but on the Internet the only reference I can find at all are in things written by me.
I only just realised, literally whilst typing these words that my choice of motto could well be seen as quite significant in that it tells the story of a group of children living in 1960s London who get involved in a major international espionage mystery, and come out on top. The important thing about the story is that the Queen Street Gang do things in their own way, and usually without adult interference or supervision. Substitute the Queen Street Gang for the CFZ, and substitute ‘adults’ for erm the scientific establishment, the established media, and pretty well anybody else you can think of with whom we have come in contact over the past two decades, and you have fairly good encapsulation of the ethos of the CFZ.
Nw, what does the future hold for us? Of course, I cannot answer that question with any degree of certainty, and bearing in mind quite how many of what Graham calls curveballs have come our way over the past two decades, I would be even more foolish than normal if I tried to foresee the future. However, what I can do is to tell you what I would like to see happen.
I created the CFZ in my own image (and by this, I mean that I created it according to an image in my mind rather than having created it to look like an ageing fat hippy) and to a greater or less extent have been steering it in my desired direction ever since. It is interesting that when, like I have over the last few days, you look back of the history of the organisation you can see that it has had several distinct phases.
Phase one: the infancy, during which it was run purely by me and my first wife Alison. (1992 to 1993)
Phase two: our first phase of expansion during which Alison and I were joined by the late Jan Williams, and we started publishing. (1994 to 1996)
Phase three: in the immediate aftermath of Alison’s and my divorce, I was joined first by Graham, and then by Richard, and the three of us managed the running of the organisation quite happily, although at this stage we were still basically a theoretical and publishing organisation. (1996 to 2002)
Phase four: as my mental and physical health improved, and - in the wake of my mother's death - my income also improved, we began to do more and more fieldwork, and to publish more books (2002 to 2005).
Phase five: after the move to North Devon and then in the wake of my father's death when I was able to divert considerably more funds into an ambitious campaign of publications. Things became even more coalesced in 2007 when I married someone who took it upon herself to make the administration of the organisation work properly for the first-time.
Now we are approaching phase six.
In 2001 I codified the structure of the CFZ formerly for the first time. At the top is our titular Life President John Blashford-Snell who took over the position when the previous incumbent Professor Bernard Heuvelmans - usually known as the ‘Father of Cryptozoology’ - died.
Below him is a three-person committee consisting of myself, Graham, and Richard. Being three of us it means that we never have a hung vote. However, I would like to say that in the ten years that we have been operating in this manner we have never had a serious disagreement.
Below us there is what I dubbed The Permanent Directorate, and another group called the Advisory Board. The Permanent Directorate included people from the various study groups, the various international offices and those who have particular skills to offer. The Advisory Board are exactly what they sound like - a group of people who have particular expertise for knowledge in one specific area.
Now, ten years after setting this hierarchical management structure into place I am making the first major change. The three-man management committee is being - as of the 2011/2 management meeting - replaced by a five-person committee. Until now the only people eligible to vote have been me, Graham and Richard. Now, because of their invaluable contributions, I am expanding the committee to include my wife Corinna, and my nephew David Braund-Phillips. The Permanent Directorate, and the Advisory Board will still be there to advise and assist, but will not be able to make decisions.
I intend to continue our programme of publications, and in 2012 I am instituting a new series imprint called CFZ Classics. These will not just bring books that have been long out of print, and which are really only available to the cognoscenti, into the wider public consciousness, but will serve another, and equally important, function. There are people within the cryptozoological research community who have little or no income beyond state benefits. The last few governments have progressively demonised benefit claimants until it looks quite possible that we will see the end of state benefits as we know them in the UK within the next few years.
We have the technology and infrastructure available to publish as many books as we want, and the Internet is an invaluable marketing tool. Each of the books in the series will have extra essays, footnotes and as much additional material as we can provide. As each of the books in question is well out of copyright, the author’s royalties will be paid to the person who put the package together. We will provide an unprecedented level of help to put currently impecunious researchers into the position where they can earn themselves a monthly income through their own efforts, and thus be able to lift themselves out of the poverty trap.
As I have written elsewhere, I had an unhappy childhood, and though I was a mildly gifted child, my family and teachers did their best to stifle my creativity and aspirations. Despite them I achieved most of what I wanted to, and am now in the position to help another generation of writers, artists, and dreamers. I won't embarrass them by naming names, but there are various people now in the scientific and cryptozoological establishment who have become what they are today, at least in part because I and the CFZ encouraged them when it mattered most. Ever since we moved to North Devon we have had more and more children becoming involved in what we do, and I think that this is massively important. We intend to do all we can to encourage literacy, and a love of nature, as well as encouraging the innate curiosity of succeeding generations of young people for as long as we can.
I've already spoken about the tragic events of the autumn of 2011, and I am proud that the CFZ responded in the way that it has. I have always believed that we are a family, in a very real sense, and now we are rapidly becoming a truly global family. I hope that what we are doing for Sahar’s and Dezy’s families is only the beginning, and that we can eventually run programmes all over the world to help the members of the CFZ family who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Over the years I have made some bad decisions, and I have made some wrong decisions. My decisions to run a little museum and zoo in my back garden ultimately proved to be unwise, for example. However, over the past two decades the CFZ has done pretty well under my stewardship, and I am proud of what we have achieved together. I hope that whatever happens, we continue to be essentially a caring organisation, one that puts people before money, and common sense before ideology. I hope that the CFZ never loses its sense of humour, its sense of idealism, and never loses touch with its core concept, that half a century or more after Bernard Heuvelmans first brokered the ideal: the great days of zoology are not done.
Thank you to everyone who has helped over the past 12 months. I really do appreciate everything you do for us. To all members of the CFZ Family, and to all our supporters I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and a happy and fulfilled New Year.
Jon Downes
Woolsery,
December 22nd 2011