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.
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...
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the
first sighting of the modern age of the Loch Ness Monster and to mark this
milestone a symposium is to be held in the city of Edinburgh on the 6th of April
2013. A variety of speakers have been lined up to talk on various aspects of
this enduring story ending with a panel discussion on what the Loch Ness Monster
is and is not. The speaker roster is below and the official website is here and if this is not yet up and running
try the website of co-organise Gordon Rutter at this link.
In the words of the Beatles song "I get by with a little help from my
friends". Today there are some posts from Benny, some updates from Bigfoot
Evidence and my first FOZ guest blog donated by Jeff Albertson:
In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that - whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot, or lake monsters - it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean Zoologist to be interested in. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.
And so another day dawns. It is grey and
wet, but still remarkably mild for the time of year. I voiced my concerns about
the long term effects of this weather on the
latest episode of OTT, and Lars Thomas wrote: "You are almost right about the
mild winters and the wildflowers and butterflies.
A lot of flowers - bulbs, seeds and so on - do need frosting in the ground to
ensure a good crop of plants in spring. But the
butterflies, or actually the eggs, larvae or pupae wintering in the ground,
do not as such need a period of frost. They need
their enemies, bacteria, fungi and parasites to get a good beating from the
frost. In mild winters like this year, all the
things that can kill a hibernating insect have perfect conditions to wreck
havoc among them - and that's why a mild winter
is usually followed by a poor insect or wildflower year". Thanks
Lars.
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