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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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Friday, April 27, 2012

BIG CAT NEWS: From around the world





Bobcat a frequent visitor to Carrollton water plant
WXIA-TV"I knew it was a cat but I didn't know what kind. I was scared." Simmons saw the same bobcat later the same day. Other employees have seen the big cat slip beneath the fence at the plant to take a relaxing walk. "She didn't run," said employee Robert ...

Possible Mountain Lion Sighting in San Carlos
Patch.com
While it's unclear whether the animal in question was actually a mountain lion, officials are warning residents to stay on the alert for signs of the big cats. People that encounter a mountain lion are encouraged to stay calm and to not run away from ...

Leopard slips into Mumbai school
Calcutta Telegraph
Mumbai's north-eastern suburb of Mulund lies at its base, where it is not unusual to hear of big cats prowling the streets and alleys after sundown. The “gatecrash” at NES International School, however, happened around 8am.

Six leopards caught in two districts of Gujarat
<>PTI 10:04 PM,Apr 22,2012 Vadodara, Apr 22 (PTI) Atleast six leopards have been caught from two districts of Junagadh and Amreli in Gujarat in the last two days after an increase in the instances of attack by the big cats on humans, ...

July date for Indo-Bangla joint tiger census
Times of India
The numbers, given by the Bangladeshi forest department and its Indian counterparts till date, are disputed on the ground that big cats frequently cross over the Indo-Bangla border. Every time, Sundarbans authority in India or that of Bangladesh comes ...

OT: Big Cats in Georgia...
Just to ask, I have heard stories of panthers or cougars in Georgia but I have not seen one before. I live in Bartow county around Alatoona.

Game Wardens Kill Mountain Lion in Sunland Neighborhood
KTLA
(KTLA)
Police shot and killed an 80-pound mountain lion Friday after a resident spotted the big cat hiding in some bushes near her home. Marlene Hitt lives in the foothills near the Angeles National Forest. She was closing her garage door Friday ...

Local couple spot mountain lion near Onion Creek in Buda
Hays Free Press

The large wild cats have been moving into Central Texas, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Okay, some of you may not believe me but my husband & I were riding around Buda on Wednesday, April 11. We had our 4 yr old grandson with us ...

Mountain lion sightings reported in Arcata; HSU student reports cougar at ...
Times-Standard

Although Yates said the big cat was carrying something he believed to be a dog in its mouth, the police haven't received any reports of missing dogs from that area, Bergstresser said Tuesday. Police contacted the California Department of Fish and Game, ...

'Badshah' still playing hide-and-seek
Times of India

The big cat killed and partially ate a buffalo tied as bait at Rahmankhera on Monday night. It was the 20th bait killed by the tiger even as forest officials remain clueless. The tiger has now shifted its location to a patch of forest with a dense ...

Mountain Lion's Dead Body Dismembered
KEYT

KEY News has learned the big cat's body was dismembered. The CHP received calls around 5:30 AM, about a mountain lion getting hit by a car. At the same time, a fawn was found there, dodging traffic on the northbound lanes.

Rehmankhera tiger finally trapped, taken to Dudhwa
Daily Pioneer

The shrewd big cat had successfully evaded the Forest department team on its trail for nearly 108 days until luck ran out on Wednesday when it was tranquillised at 6:40 am. The one-quintal beast fell unconscious at 7 as the second dart fired by Lucknow ...

Mountain lion sightings reported in Arcata
Times-Standard

Sgt. Todd Dockweiler said the resident who reported the sighting had seen the cat carrying an animal away. The resident reported that the animal may have been a small dog, Dockweiler said. Officers were unable to find a big cat when responding to ...

BIG CAT NEWS: Gloucestershire, Peterborough and a beaver in Cornwall

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived in some way by us, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.

It takes a long time to do and is a fairly tedious task so I am not promising that they will be done each day, but I will do them as regularly as I can. JD

Mile Oak sighting might be Steyning big cat -

BIGCATSINSUSSEX
Sighting in from Carol Cowley on 7th april of a very large black cat could well be our old friend the Steyning big cat,Carol does mention mention it was big and ...


The first of a new batch, courtesy of the Sussex Big Cat team who seem to be very much on the ball. Well done chaps and chapesses. By the way, a matter of statistics - there have been only a few big cat reports in recent weeks, but today's posting is massive. Is it because there are suddenly lots more sightings? Nope, sadly not. It is because I have been snowed under with other stuff for nearly a week, so here are 7 days worth all at once.

But now to a new incident in the east of the country:

Giant paw prints stop Peterborough councillor Ray in his tracks
Peterborough Evening Telegraph

Ray Dobbs from Eye, on White Post Road where he spotted large, cat-like prints in a field. (METP-23-04-12PF001) Photo: PAUL FRANKS/Peterborough ET By STEPHEN BRIGGS A Peterborough City Councillor has called for experts to investigate suspicious paw ...



They are certainly paw prints, but what do you think? Now for another story involving paw prints (actually, several different stories all involving the same incident)

Cheltenham carpenter finds 'big cat' paw print
This is Gloucestershire

The footprint find comes after a sighting of the mystery creature in February. He said: "I have been working there since October and I just could not believe it when I saw it there in February. "It looked like a puma and I really had a good look at it ..

Cheltenham carpenter find 'big cat' paw print -
This is Gloucestershire

By Gloucestershire Echo
CARPENTER Alex Stewart believes big cats are roaming through the centre of Cheltenham and he claims he now has the proof.The 54-year-old is working on a Winchcombe Street building site and came into...

Is this footprint of elusive big cat?
This is Somerset

Carpenter Alex Stewart believes big cats are roaming through the centre of Cheltenham and he claims he now has the proof. The 54-year-old is currently working on a Winchcombe Street building site and came into work yesterday to discover four-inch ...

But where is the picture? You will have to go to the source for it, as it has been embedded in a way which precludes me from pinching it. Now down to the Westcountry...

Big cats still a myth – but at least the beaver is real
This is Cornwall
I just know that if big cats really were roaming our fields by now at least one of them would have been run over, garrotted in some stock fencing or found fried at an electricity sub-station. Or, perhaps, found floating about in some bloke's slurry pit ...

Actually this is a rather well-written skeptical piece which claims there are no such thing, although it dfoes tell the talle of an o-o-p beaver in the River Tamar.

Now back to Gloucestershire, where Frank Tunbridge never lets us down...

Big cat expert sets up cameras to catch sight of beastThis is GloucestershireBIG cat detective Frank Tunbridge has put up cameras around a town centre building in the hope of catching sight of the elusive beast. It comes after he examined footprints found in Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham. The prints were discovered by ...

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From Nick Redfern's Fortean World:
At the beginning of the week Nick started a new blog which replaces all his old blogs, and so covers a much wider range of topics than just cryptozoology. Needless to say it's worth a look for all the posts, but here are the ones to date that Nick has tagged with a "cryptozoology" label:

ANOTHER NEW 'BIGFOOT' VIDEO




DALE DRINNON: Irish giants, footnotes to Tyler's post


Newly posted on the Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/04/legends-of-irish-giants-are-more-than.html

Newly posted on the Frontiers of Zoology, sort of a set of footnotes to Tyler's posting made last night (there will probably have to be at least one more part to follow this)http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7249/full/459910a.html

HAUNTED SKIES: Update


I'M THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN


I really tried to write the entirety of today's notifications in rhyme, but I couldn't get any further than:

It is Saturday morning at the Gonzo blog,
outside it is cloudy and grey,
a middle aged hippy and his jowly fat dog,
have plenty of interest to say,
Outside my mate Graham is washing his car,

in here we have Judge Smith and Michael Des Barres,
and Sonja Kristina and Galahad too,
and vintage Eric Burdon clips waiting for you...

I then gave up and decided to write it normally instead:

We have the second part of our exclusive Judge Smith interview:http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/exckusive-judge-smith-interview-part.html

A clip from the Curved Air DVD from the 'Lost Broadcasts' series, accompanied by my musings about how times have changed, and memories of my massively Victorian parents:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/curved-air-it-happened-today.html

A bit of vintage strangeness from the incomparable Eric Burdon:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/eric-burdon-when-i-was-young.html

A profile of a Gonzo band called 'Galahad' that I hadn't heard before:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/all-about-galahad.html

And finally a clip from Michael Des Barres' past:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/michael-des-barres-for-those-of-you-not.html

See you tomorrow...

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 2001 Denis Tito became the first 'space tourist'.

And now the news:

Residents terrified after 14 cats found dead in Ta...
Bears Interrupt Weather Report At Pennsylvania TV ...
Nottinghamshire man banned after puppy drinks vodk...
Where's the Beef? Early Humans Took It
Dragon cruelty is among more than 100 RSPCA convic...
Body Armor for Breathing?
Limbless amphibian species found
Psychology in bigfooting – FEAR
Search for Bigfoot gets a new leader
Animal picture of the day: the spotless cheetah - ...
Repeated delays plague landmark rhino poaching cas...
Critically Endangered tortoises, raised in captivi...
Anxious Mice Face Higher Cancer Risk
Human Body Language Can Mislead Dogs

An animated simulation by Virgin Galactic on what it would look like if Daft Punk were to become space tourists:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ng6G7KsPjA

THE CONTINUING OWL PELLET SAGA

RICHARD F WRITES: I was walking Prudence in a section of forestry reserve opposite Huddisford Woods when I came across what appear to be some more large owl pellets. They looked very like the ones Carl Marshall and I found last weekend. But they are not quite so large. On closer inspection they seemed to contain feathers rather than compacted hair. Close by were the remains of a pheasant. This consisted mainly of wing feather and was seemingly dropped from the canopy.

I put the pellets in a suspension of bicarbonate of soda. The began to dissolve but at a far slower rate than the owl pellets from Ross' barn owls. The large pellets Craig and I found have still not dissolved.

BIG CAT STUDY GROUP: Dan Holdsworth has a bloody good idea

Jon,


Yesterday on the way to work, I observed a couple of Highways Agency vans busily engaged in the rather risky business of removing thesad remains of an extremely dead car from the side of the M66.


Two things occur to me regarding this. Firstly, there is unlikely to be any difference in the road-crossing behaviour of domestic and non-domestic cats. They're all going to be equally incompetent at it, and will likely suffer similar casualty rates.


Secondly, the same agency that removes dead deer, badgers and otheranimals from roadsides will also be shifting dead cats of all sizes from roadsides. That agency on motorways will not be the police but instead will be the Highways Agency, who were invented to do the dirty, boring jobs on motorways so police could do more useful things instead (mostly involving lurking with speedguns and so on).


The Highways Agency recently underwent an IT overhaul, as this puff-piece from Atos demonstrates:



All this IT management gobbledegook boils down to this: in the Highways Agency, operatives will barely be able to do so much as pass wind without it being recorded in the computer ticketing system somewhere(probably recorded under Climate Change methane emissions). Joking aside, removal of dead wildlife ought to be recorded as will disposal of biohazardous material. The Highways Agency aren't the police, so I'm wondering, would a strategic Freedom of Information request to them for this info do any good? Or has this avenue already been explored?


Dan H.

CRIPTOZOOLOGIA EN ESPAÑA: Shooting a shadow

Right from the Spanish cryptozoology blog, Criptozoologia En España:News in Criptozoología en España:

Seville, 2005. During a game of airsoft, a group of friends shoots a
big shadow, black, with red eyes. The next day, they discover a huge mark on the place.

All information in :
http://criptozoologos.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/el-caso-de-la-huella-de-sevilla.html

LINK: Four new bigfoot videos

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/new-footage-bigfoot-filmed-walking-in.html

This could be a new trend folks. Four new "Bigfoot" videos in less than 2 weeks.

Now that every child old enough to carry a cell phone around can record videos, it's more than likely that someone will inadvertently film a "Sasquatch". Thanks to TV shows like Finding Bigfoot where everything could be a Sasquatch, these kids were probably thinking the same thing when they saw a dark figure moving in the trees.



Read on...