REDDERS REVIEWS GLEN - with impressive results

Several years ago the British-based Centre for Fortean Zoology – one of the very few groups in the world dedicated to investigating strange creatures on a full-time basis – embarked upon an ambitious project. The idea was to publish a series of books on unusual and unknown animals reported throughout the length and breadth of Britain, on a county-by-county basis. And given that the nation has a lot of counties that means a lot of books!

Fortunately, the CFZ has proved to be fully up for the challenge and the group has now published a number of titles under the banner of The Mystery Animals of the British Isles, including books that cover the counties of Kent, the Western Isles, Northumberland and Tyneside. And I’m pleased to announce the CFZ has just released the latest in this on-going series. Written by Glen Vaudrey, it covers the Northern Isles, which can be found north of mainland Scotland.

Read on...

BLOODY HELL

I am always unreasonably shocked when I find out how far divorced most people are from the realities of the natural world. But this takes the proverbial biscuit...

Most holiday makers taking a stroll around a working harbour might expect to see the odd fish. But when David Copp came across a fishing trawler moored in Ilfracombe Harbour he took great offence and complained about the “disgusting” smell.

The 46-year-old was outraged that his children, aged seven and nine, had been forced to endure the sight of 12 crates of dead fish and crabs, piled up on the quayside. He said the ordeal had left them “quite distressed” and demanded to know why the harbourmaster was not more considerate to tourists.

Read on...

GERALD SMITH WRITES: Mystery plant

Any of you guys know what this is? It appeared in the garden - only one.

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

 News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From Nick Redfern's "There's Something in the Woods...":

• Mystery Animals of the Northern Isles — Another plug from Nick for this recent CFZ Press publication...

From CFZ Australia:

• We're back from the jungle! — The team arrived home from Sumatra over the weekend...

From CFZ New Zealand:

• The Jesus bird returns — The NZ storm petrel is back from the dead (but that's not how it got its nickname)...
• Study Finds Aquarium Fishes Are More Aggressive In Reduced Environments — Angry goldfish...
• Funny world we live in — A busy time down under...

From CFZ Canada:

• Do those that believe in Cryptids really suffer from psychological disorders? — or as the academics would say: "Cognition and Belief in Paranormal Phenomena: Gestalt/Feature Intensive Processing Theory and Tendencies Toward ADHD, Depression, and Dissociation"...

HAUNTED SKIES: Another giant leap...

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/09/update-on-haunted-skies-under-const.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1947 the American singer Meat Loaf was born. Honestly; if your surname is Loaf what sort of parent names their son Meat? Sometimes parents just don't think when naming their kids! I used to know somebody called Wayne who shared his last name with famous Irish music group, for example (if you're trying to work it out, it isn't B*witched).
And now the news:

Pig Abduction
Hanoi village conserves snake business (Via Herp ...
Rare snail found after 110 years in Fife
Bullfighting in Barcelona to end with Catalonia ba...
Highs and lows for British mammals
Red squirrel and hedgehog under threat, study says...
'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combust...

One from the vaults:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQx-uLC-wYI

DARREN NAISH: A baby sea-serpent no more: re-interpreting Hagelund’s juvenile Cadborosaurus

Our efforts to get analyses of cryptozoological data into the technical, peer-reviewed literature continue, with the ‘our’ being myself, Michael Woodley and Cameron McCormick (a.k.a. Lord Geekington). I’m referring here to our new paper, titled ‘A baby sea-serpent no more: reinterpreting Hagelund’s juvenile “cadborosaur” report’, published within recent weeks in Journal of Scientific Exploration (Woodley et al. 2011).

What’s the point of this paper? We show, via an analysis of morphological character states, that the ‘baby Cadborosaurus’ encountered by Captain William Hagelund in 1968 was most likely…. a pipefish, not a baby sea serpent. Cadborosaurus, if you’re not familiar with it, is a long-bodied, horse-headed sea monster thought by some to exist in the waters of the north-east Pacific.

Read on...

CFZ PEOPLE: Dr Darren Naish

A very happy birthday, my dear boy....

CFZ CANADA: Do those that believe in Cryptids really suffer from psychological disorders?

http://cfz-canada.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-those-that-believe-in-cryptids.html