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...

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Friday, November 04, 2011

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...":
From CFZ Australia:
From CFZ Canada:
  • Working 9 to 5 — An insight into a cryptozoologist's work pattern...

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: SCARLET BATS IN CHESHIRE AND SCOTLAND

The following newspaper article has been intriguing me for quite a long time since I first came across it a few weeks ago. When I first mentioned it in conjunction with Flying Snake magazine on the Wild About Britain Forum at about the same time I was rounded upon as if I were a bounder, a cad, a reprobate. But behold!

The extract is from the Manchester City News in March or April 1888. There is no actual date on the cutting but it is next to three cuttings from those dates.

A MYSTERY ABOUT BATS

The torpidity in which bats remain through the winter season in the temperate and colder climates is well known, and in common with other animals undergoing the same suspension of powers they have their histories of long imprisonments. The following curious instances may serve to corroborate each other. A woodman engaged in splitting timber for rail posts in the woods close by the lake of Haming, belonging to Mr Pringle in Selkirkshire, discovered in the centre of a large wild cherry tree a living bat of a bright scarlet colour, which, as soon as it was relieved from its entombment, took to its wings and escaped. The recess in the tree was only just large enough to contain the animal; but all around the wood was perfectly sound, solid and free from any opening through which the atmospheric air could reach the air could reach the bat. A man while occupied in splitting timber near Kelsall, Cheshire, discovered many years ago in the centre of a large pear tree a living bat of a bright scarlet colour, which he foolishly suffered to escape from fear, being fully persuaded that it was not a being of this world. This tree also presented a small cavity in the centre where the bat was enclosed, but was perfectly sound and solid on each side. The scarlet colour of these prisoners is still inexplicable. (1)


1. Manchester City News c. March/April 1888

HAUNTED SKIES: Ephemera from August 1971


http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/10/ephemera-from-august-1971.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1605 Robert Catesby’s plot to blow up the houses of Parliament was foiled. The man who was charged by Catesby with guarding the gunpowder to be used in the plot, Guy Fawkes, avoided the traditional and painful traitor’s death of being hung, drawn and quartered by jumping off the scaffold to break his neck just before the execution.
And now the news:

Saving Ghana's vanishing frogs
Do not bring whale meat home from Iceland, British...
7 Billion and Counting
Major berg forming in Antarctica (via Dawn Hollowa...
RIP: Monterey Bay Aquarium Great White Shark Dies ...
Yeti Hair and Footprints Found, Adduced as Evidenc...
Scientists Say Mythical Monster The Yeti Is Real, ...
Tracing the steps of a yeti hunter

A bit more information on the Gunpowder Plot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kas_HOy3fA

DALE DRINNON: Flying stingrays and Taniwhas

I have just completed two new blog postings for Frontiers of Zoology: the first one is an additional example if what was called a "Flying stingray" at the site where I got the photo:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/11/flying-stingrays-again.html

And I have some new information on the Taniwhas of New Zealand:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-on-taniwhas-new-zealand-dragons.html

Best Wishes, Dale D.

PS, nobody seemed to notice the pictures on Alistair Crowley and H.P.Lovecraft on the last Cedar and Willow blog, not to mention a guest appearance of Yog-Sothoth at the end. Perhaps I should have mentioned that up front as an added attraction.

KARL SHUKER: A century for the hairy fish

Here's a post celebrating the 100-year-old discovery of an extraordinary, highly deceptive fish - Mirapinna esau, the wonder-finned hairy fish of the Azores.

http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2011/11/mirapinna-esau-furry-fish-from-azores.html