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, October 18, 2013

Is it just me or are people interpreting Prof. Sykes' findings far too loosely?

CRYPTOLINK: Alberta a hotbed in the hunt for Bigfoot

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 (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. This post, however, is particularly interesting and the author should be congratulated....

Alberta a hotbed in the hunt for Bigfoot
 

Calgarian Tyler Huggins holds plaster casts from what are believed by some to be “bigfoot” prints. Huggins believes he and his friends saw one of the mysterious creatures while hiking in the Rockies in the 1990s.

Photograph by: Gavin Young , Calgary Herald

A Calgary man on an unwavering quest to uncover the existence of an elusive, legendary creature has endured “heaps of mockery” and dug into his own pockets to pay for his pursuit.
But Tyler Huggins remains on the hunt for Bigfoot, parsing through potential evidence after encountering what he believes was the ape-like beast, widely believed to be something out of mythology.
Theories about these mysterious, walking primates were thrust back into the public spotlight this week after Oxford University researcher Bryan Sykes released research findings that suggest the yeti — an ape-like creature of the Himalayas — could be a polar bear hybrid still roaming mountain terrain.

CRYPTOLINK: Albert Ostman's story

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 (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. This post, however, is particularly interesting and the author should be congratulated....

I have always followed logging and construction work. This time I had worked over one year on a construction job, and thought a good vacation was in order. B. C. is famous for lost gold mines. 

One is supposed to be at the head of Toba Inlet — why not look for this mine and have a vacation at the same time? I took the Union Steamship boat to Lund, B.C. From there I hired an old Indian to take me to the head of Toba Inlet.

This old Indian was a very talkative old gentleman. He told me stories about gold brought out by a white man from this lost mine. This white man was a very heavy drinker — spent his money freely in saloons. But he had no trouble in getting more money. He would be away a few days, then come back with a bag of gold. But one time he went to his mine and never came back. Some people said a Sasquatch had killed him.

At that time I had never heard of Sasquatch. So I asked what kind of an animal he called a Sasquatch. The Indian said, "They have hair all over their bodies, but they are not animals. They are people. Big people living in the mountains. My uncle saw the tracks of one that were two feet long. One old Indian saw one over eight feet tall."

Image

I told the Indian I didn't believe in their old fables about mountain giants. It might have been some thousands of years ago, but not nowadays.

The Indian said: "There may not be many, but they still exist."

We arrived at the head of the inlet about 4:00 p.m. I made camp at the mouth of a creek ...The Indian had supper with me, and I told him to look out for me in about three weeks. I would be camping at the same spot when I came back ...

Next morning I took my rifle with me, but left my equipment at the camp. I decided to look around for some deer trail to lead me up into the mountains. On the way up the inlet I had seen a pass in the mountain that I wanted to go through, to see what was on the other side. 


Albert Ostman talking to author John Green

Image

I spent most of the forenoon looking for a trail but found none, except for a hogback running down to the beach. So I swamped out a trail from there, got back to my camp about 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, and made up my pack to be ready in the morning. My equipment consisted of one 30- 30 Winchester rifle, I had a special home-made prospecting pick, axe on one end, pick on the other. I had a leather case for this pick which fastened to my belt, also my sheath knife.


Read on...

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.





TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP



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 are 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.





  • NEWSLINK: Poachers Responsible for Karnataka, Indi...
  • NEWSLINK: Domestic cats are 95% tiger
  • FRANCE SIGHTINGS: Mystery big cat caught on video
  • US SIGHTINGS: Newcomb mountain lion update
  • AUSTRALIA SIGHTINGS: 'The matter is closed': new r...



  • Female lion dies in big cat fight at Cheyenne Moun...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS CONFUSED

    The Gonzo Daily - Friday
     
    I am doing this in a bit of a rush this morning, because not only have I got a blood test scheduled for 12:45, but I am interviewing Oliver Wakeman at 2:00 and Mike Davis is arriving to resume work on his record at 3:00. So I am doing the blogs with unaccustomed (and hopefully not vulgar) haste. Richard Freeman is also here for a week because Graham is going off on holiday with his mother and sister. This is all a bit like Birmingham New Street station today...
     

    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_18.html
     
     
    Guitarist Steve Hackett: The genesis of an artistic tributehttp://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/guitarist-steve-hackett-genesis-of.html
     
     
     
    Trailer for Paul McCartney documentary featuring Mick Farren's final interview
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/paul-mccartney-going-underground.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:
    www.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 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 cat?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

    On this day in 1931 Thomas Edison died. Edison claimed to have invented hundreds of things the most famous being the incandescent light bulb, which oddly enough Joseph Swan had invented and patented before Edison... funny that, kind of makes you doubt the myth somewhat. He also killed an elephant and used the media and his contacts to ruin Tessla, who was a true visionary and didn't stoop to stealing other peoples inventions.

    And now the news:

  • Big clawed fossil had spider-like brain
  • Monkeys 'take turns in conversation'
  • Group aims to remove prairie dogs from town
  • Swiss customs seize rare frogs in taxi – via Herp ...
  • Orphaned otter cub rescued from Scottish street on...
  • Pinocchio lizard rediscovered? Or just good PR?

  • Online backlash as farm shop sells shark meat from...

  • Thomas Edison's other contributions to society include direct current and the electric chair. Here's a dramatisation of what can go wrong with this method of execution (WARNING not a pleasant clip) :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXbaizVEWGM