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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Saturday, March 16, 2013

CFZ CANADA: What is normal?

More and more often, wild animals are turning up in Canadian cities.  Recently Toronto has developed a coyote problem.  Calgary has had rampant coyotes, porcupines, and even badgers within the city limits for a long time. Peregrine Falcons are more plentiful in the city than they are in the wild as we endeavor to repopulate the declining numbers. Many Canadians have found bears, deer, and even an occasional moose in their yard.  If the definition of “Cryptozoological” still includes animals showing up where they are not supposed to be, this is a problem.  A coyote kill in Scarborough is no longer unusual.

Read on...

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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 by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.





  • FEATURELINK: Mission to save jaguar exposes big ca...
  • UK SIGHTINGS: Tiers Cross big cat mystery
  • LEO BUILDS A NEST


    I have had many cats in my life, and each has been idiosyncratically different. However, I have never yet met a cat who burrows under piles of things to make himself a nest...

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (C...

    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.

    Sex role reversal: Female shorebirds rule the roos...



    DALE DRINNON: Another Ameranthropoides, Caribbean ground sloth, Frontiers of Anthropology, Cedar & Willow, Benny's Blogs

    New at Frontiers of Anthropology:

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS UNTOGETHER

    My anarchist credibility is fast going out of the window. Last night Corinna and I stayed up until gone five watching.... wait for it .... a documentary on the revolutionary struggle? A treatise on cryptozoology? Some obscure music video somehow connected with Gonzo Multimedia? Nope. We were watching the 2012 series of 'Upstairs Downstairs' lent us by my housekeeper Helen! Leo (also known fondly as Baby Buttons), the orange kitten, has really settled in, and sat down to watch television with us by making himself a nest in a pile of blankets and going to sleep. Yesterday, Dave B-P finally managed to sort out our archaic telephone system yesterday, and today I have two stalwart fifteen year old helpers (Jessica and her boyfriend Matthew) tidying up my office.
     
    I have been feeling terrible for the past few days. Manic Depression and diabetes are not a good mix. I would really like to thank everyone who looked after me (David, Matthew both Jessicas) and particularly Corinna. Being married to a nutjob cannot be that much fun. But, I feel much better today, and not only am not hurting, but am functional. I also have Eric Burdon's massively good new album to listen to, so today is shaping up to be a good day.
     
    Today's Gonzo Track of the Day is from Eileen Rose & The Holy Wreck
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-gonzo-track-of-day-eileen-rose-holy_16.html
     
    Once again we repair to Austin for our daily audience with Thom the World Poet
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_16.html
     
     
    Fascinatingly Bizarre Radio Ads for ’60s and ’70 Bands, featuring Hawkwind
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/link-fascinatingly-bizarre-radio-ads.html
     
     
     
     
     
    *  The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at  jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

    *  The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
     
    * We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

    *  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and a not very small orange kitten (who isn't) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cats?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1900 sir Arthur Evans bought the site of the Bronze age settlement of Knossos, the place said to have been the site of the Minotaur’s labyrinth.
    And now the news:
  • Phallus-shaped fossils identified as new species
  • Divers Free Whale Entangled in Fishing Gear
  • New species of sea slugs, feather stars and amphip...
  • As many as 100,000 dolphins in one vast pod spotte...
  • Snake oil threat to the world's rhinos
  • Gorillas Caught in the Crossfire in the Democratic...
  • Dumfries woman finds hairy scorpion in bunch of ba...
  • Neanderthals' large eyes 'caused their demise' - v...

  • A trailer for the film Labyrinth (which is nothing to do with Knossos or Minotaurs, but is a good film) :