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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Monday, May 13, 2013

CRYPTOLINK: Bigfoot enthusiasts surface


A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.Photos by Earl Ward | A plaster cast created from a Bigfoot print.
Photo by Earl Ward | A plaster cast created from a Bigfoot print.
 An eager crowd listened to a recording of the sounds of forest nightlife in an expansive banquet hall inside the Fort Worth Convention Center.
Crickets chirped, the wind rustled the leaves and a faint howl could be heard in the distance. A distant grunt could be heard in the background, followed shortly by the thunderous sound of a rock striking a tin roof. The reported source of the propelled stone: a Bigfoot, located in an undisclosed region of Oklahoma.
The 12th annual Texas Bigfoot Conference, a convention devoted solely to the crypto-zoological creature, drew hundreds of enthusiasts, researchers, authors and witnesses to this year’s event. Hosted by the North American Wood Ape Conservancy, the one-day event featured several lectures by key speakers from various backgrounds, as well as a vendor’s room showcasing everything from books and DVDs to foot castings.

CRYPTOLINK: The Tenerife Chupacabras

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.


Anyone who has the slightest interest in the unexplained will probably have heard of the Chupacabra or “El Chupacabras”- literally “goatsucker” in Spanish.
This mythical beast or “cryptid” has been a regular source of mystery for many years, especially in the Latin American communities of the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico, where the beast was first sighted.  The earliest reports of the creature occurred in Puerto Rico back in 1995, when, over a period of months, up to 150 animals, including livestock and domestic pets were found drained of blood from 3 puncture wounds, which led to Puerto Rican comedian Silverio PĂ©rez coining the term goatsucker.
But did you know Tenerife has its very own Chupacabra mystery, which predates the Puerto Rican sightings by over 15 years?

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS ROUNDUP

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.





  • UK SIGHTING: Panther mystery deepens as more black...
  • NEWSLINK: Leopard outwits foresters, rescues its c...
  • NEWSLINK: Police: Arkansas woman Cheryl Swartout h...
  • CANADA SIGHTINGS: Stolen property found in truck; ...
  • NEWSLINK: Lion meat tacos served at Florida restau...
  • NEWSLINK: Tiger pits activists against locals
  • FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

    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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.



    DALE DRINNON: Lake Storsjon beast, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

    New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS TIRED

    Why is it weekend seem to get shorter and shorter as one grows older? Yesterday afternoon was a jolly one, we went for a walk at Fremington Quay, saw some whimbrels and some aquatic insects as well as more arum lilies than I have seen for years. I then left Prudence in the car bought Mama, Corinna and Richard a cream tea (being massively noble and eschewing it for diabetic reasons) before we dropped Richard at the station and came home again. I am still massively enjoying the pre-release MP3s of Judy Dyble's next album that will be out in the summer. She really is a remarkable artist (and a jolly nice person as well)...
     
    The Gonzo Track of the Day is from a percussion orchestra playing the music of Frank Zappa
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/gonzo-track-of-day-orkestra-percussion.html
     
     
    Michael Des Barres and Rodney Bingenheimer (with a brief nod to the GTOs)
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/05/pinched-from-michael-des-barres.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, and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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



    Today is Abbotsbury Garland Day in Abbotsbury near Weymouth. The day has been celebrated since the 19th century as a commemoration of Judy Garland (you don't want to know why they were celebrating Judy Garland there decades before she was born, some things must remain secret).
    And now the news:
  • London Zoo launches worldwide appeal to find and s...
  • Decline in Snow Cover Spells Trouble for Many Plan...
  • Do Bats Know Voices of Friends They Hang out With?...
  • World's Most Extreme Hearing Animal: The Greater W...
  • Four New Dinosaur Species Identified
  • 'Incredibly aggressive' terrapin grabs diver in Lo...
  • Engineered Spider Toxin Could Be the Future of Ant...
  • Human Impacts On Natural World Underestimated

  • Judy Garland is best remembered for The Wizard of Oz, but few people remember her “Blacking Up”... Uncomfortable viewing: