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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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...




Tuesday, April 26, 2011

MATT SALUSBURY IS BACK FROM INDIA

I recently returned from my investigation into alleged “kallana” pygmy elephants in and around Neyyar-Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala, South India. These elephants are supposed to have a height of 5ft (1.5m) at the shoulder – or less – in adulthood, and are particularly nimble, scrambling over rocks at great speed. (Conventionally-sized adult Asian elephants on the Indian sub-continent start at around 7ft at the shoulder and up.)

A full write-up of my kallana reconnaissance will appear in my forthcoming book, Pgymy Elephants, to be published by CFZ Press later this year. Meanwhile, I will have to be a bit vague, and refrain from publishing some of my photos, as I’m in talks with BBC Wildlife Magazine about a possible travel piece for their August issue, and they want first dibs on pictures and the story.

Read on

DAVEY CURTIS WRITES




Dear Jon,

Whilst talking some "Arty Farty" shots of Hexham Abbey I accidently snapped this bird zooming passed. Is it a Kestrel? A Goshawk? I cannot tell. Help!


Regards Davey C

THE ORANGE TIP SAGA CONTINUES

As regular readers will know, Graham and I were very pleased last week to be able to confirm that the Orange Tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines) has returned to the lanes around Woolsery after something like a thirty year absence. However, the plot thickens.

In North Devon the primary foodplant for Anthocharis cardamines is Cardamine pratensis, known as the Ladies Smock, or Cuckoo Flower (or locally, Meadowsweet, although this is generally used for a totally different flower).





It has always been locally common, but this year it is EVERYWHERE. Just check out these pictures of the bank next to Asda (below) and the corner of the CFZ lawn.

There must be some link between the population explosion in Cardamine pratensis and the re-occurence of the butterflies, but what is it? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?





Please give me your ideas on this because I am getting monumentally obsessed with the conundrum..

HURRAH! There is an Unconvention this year

It is in London on 12th and 13th November. More news as we get it..

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1963 Russell T. Davis was born. Davis was instrumental in the return of Doctor Who to television and the show-runner for the times of the 9th and 10th Doctors.
And now the news:

American bullfrog Lithobates catesbeianus (Shaw, 1...
Ratting out Sydney's cane toad menace (Via HerpDi...
Austrian frogs pinched by Italians (Via HerpDiges...
Conservationists sound alarm over Madagascar's Rad...
Satellite tracking of sea turtles reveals potentia...
Olive Ridley baby turtles emerge from mass nesting...
Male snake choose to 'abandon food source than los...
Giant tortoises show rewilding can work (Via HerpD...
ARKive (Via Herp Digest)
Mitigating Amphibian Disease: Strategies to mainta...
Stalking the wild salamanders of Manhattan (Via He...
Future of Asian snakes at stake (Via Herp Digest)
Louisiana, Florida Residents Differ on Views of Lo...
Giant Fire-Bellied Toad's Brain Brims With Powerfu...
Impact of the experimental removal of lizards on L...
Researchers jump to a conclusion on toads' breedin...

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5qc-xPNp6k

POLY STYRENE (1957-2011) The world is once again a poorer place today.

DALE DRINNON: Muhuru, Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu and the Megacrocs of East Africa


http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/04/muhuru-mbielu-mbielu-mbielu-and.html