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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Thursday, November 07, 2013

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Teens' Burning Twin Towers Costume Causes Outrage



Teens' Burning Twin Towers Costume Causes Outrage (ABC News)

Two British teenagers had an unconventional Halloween costume last week: the burning Twin Towers.
Amber Langford and Annie Collinge, 19-year-old students at the University of Chester, dressed up as the Twin Towers for Halloween. The pair donned American flags on their heads and wore tower outfits that featured planes, explosions, smoke and people jumping to their deaths from the upper floors.

EXPEDITION NEWS: Fresh bid to find Tasmanian tiger


There is to be another bid to search for evidence that Tasmanian tigers are alive and well.
Representatives from the UK-based Centre for Fortean Zoology will join local searchers venturing into the wilderness near Smithton, in Tasmania's north-west.
The British cryptozoologists have previously tried to find Australia's so-called "big foot", the Yowie.
Expedition member Tony Healy says the team will use a range of equipment.
"[We'll have] a lot of trail cameras, game cameras and we've all got infra-red devices... just spotlighting, looking for tracks," he said.
The group will break into small parties to stake out different areas.

CRYPTOLINK: 'Bigfoot' spotted on Google Earth: Odd 'beast' spotted lurking in Canadian woodland


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. 


A video posted on YouTube shows a mysterious dark shape in Canadian woodland - but is is the legendary Sasquatch?Mysterious: But does this image captured on Google Earth show Bigfoot?




Mysterious: But does this image captured on Google Earth show Bigfoot?

YouTube
'Bigfoot' has been spotted on Google Earth.
A video posted on YouTube, which features shots taken from the satellite imaging site, shows a mysterious dark shape lurking in woodland beside the Trans-Canada highway in British Columbia, Canada.
Intriguingly, the unidentified creature can only be seen at one specific angle.
The clip was uploaded by paranormal researcher Wowforreeel and to date has been viewed more than 7,500 times.

Read on...

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: Ancient Sumerians were the first to depi...
  • NEWSLINK: Wild Cat Hybrid Fad In California Concer...
  • NEWSLINK: Jaguar captures heron in mid-air
  • NEWSLINK: Minnesota AG looking into cat sanctuary ...
  • NEWSLINK: Borneo marbled cat: Rare species caught ...


  • UK SIGHTINGS: Scientist could have found proof of ...
  • Turtles on the Brink in Madagascar: Proceedings of Two Workshops on the Status, Conservation, and Biology of Malagasy Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles

    Turtles on the Brink in Madagascar: 
    Proceedings of Two Workshops on the Status, Conservation, and Biology 
    of Malagasy Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles

    Christina M. Castellano, Anders G.J. Rhodin, Michael Ogle, Russell A. Mittermeier, 
    Herilala Randriamahazo, Rick Hudson, and Richard E. Lewis, Eds.

    Chelonian Research Monographs (ISSN 1088-7105) No. 6
    doi: 10.3854/crm.6 • © 2013 by Chelonian Research Foundation
    Lunenburg, MA, USA • Published Online 30 October 2013


     To order a printed copy or a high-res pdf version go to. Also a low res copy (pdf file is downloadable at that side for free, http://www.chelonian.org/crm-6/

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    INTRODUCTION
        Christina M. Castellano, Anders G.J. Rhodin, Michael Ogle, 
        Russell A. Mittermeier, Herilala Randriamahazo, Rick Hudson, and Richard E. Lewis    11
        Peter C.H. Pritchard.    17
        Russell A. Mittermeier, Peter Paul van Dijk, Anders G.J. Rhodin, and Stephen D. Nash.    25

    IUCN RED LISTING WORKSHOP
        Peter Paul van Dijk, Thomas E.J. Leuteritz, Anders G.J. Rhodin, 
        Russell A. Mittermeier, and Herilala Randriamahazo.    33
        (Reprint from 2008 Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter)
        Russell A. Mittermeier, Anders G.J. Rhodin, Herilala Randriamahazo, Richard E. Lewis, 
        Peter  Paul van Dijk, Rick Hudson, and Sébastien Rioux Paquette.    37
        Thomas E.J. Leuteritz and Peter Paul van Dijk.    40

    IUCN RED LIST ASSESSMENTS
    (Reprints from 2008 IUCN Red List, www.iucnredlist.org)
    Astrochelys radiata. Thomas E.J. Leuteritz and Sébastien Rioux Paquette    44
    Astrochelys yniphora. Thomas E.J. Leuteritz and Miguel Pedrono    47
    Pyxis arachnoides. Thomas E.J. Leuteritz and Ryan C.J. Walker    50
    Pyxis planicauda. Thomas E.J. Leuteritz, Herilala Randriamahazo, and Richard E. Lewis    53
    Erymnochelys madagascariensis. Thomas E.J. Leuteritz, Gerald Kuchling, 
        Gerardo Garcia, and Juliette Velosoa    56

    CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY
        Miguel Pedrono and Lora L. Smith.    59
        Rick Hudson.    67
        Christina M. Castellano, J. Sean Doody, Riana Rakotondrainy, 
        William Ronto Mananjara, Tantelinirina Rakotondriamanga, 
        Julio Duchene, and Zigzag Randria.    75
        Tsilavo H. Rafeliarisoa, Ryan C.J. Walker, and Edward E. Louis, Jr.    86
        Bernard Devaux.    93
        Susie McGuire, Tsilavo H. Rafeliarisoa, Herilalaina Randriamanantenasoa, 
        Veloarivony R.A. Randrianindrina, Gary D. Shore, and Edward E. Louis, Jr.    97
        Thomas E.J. Leuteritz and Donald T. Gantz.    105
        Gerald Kuchling, Eric V. Goode, and Peter Praschag.    113
        Jutta M. Hammer.    119
        Tiana A. Ramahaleo and Malika Virah-Sawmy.    124
        Léon A. Razafindrakoto.    132
        Ryan C.J. Walker, Charlie J. Gardner, Tsilavo H. Rafeliarisoa, Inge Smith, 
        Richard Razafimanatsoa, and Edward E. Louis, Jr.    135
        Daniel W. Pearson.    146
        Ryan C.J. Walker, Christina M. Castellano, Michael Ogle, Tsilavo H. Rafeliarisoa, 
        Riana Rakotondrainy, Tiana A. Ramahaleo, Herilala Randriamahazo, 
        and Charlie J. Gardner.    153
        A. Ross Kiester, Angelo R. Mandimbihasina, Richard E. Lewis, Eric V. Goode, 
        James O. Juvik, Richard Young, and Torsten Blanck.    162
        Juliette Velosoa, Lance Woolaver, Randriamahita, Ernest Bekarany, 
        Floriot Randrianarimangason, Richard Mozavelo, Gerardo Garcia, and Richard E. Lewis.    171
        Owen Griffiths, Aurele Andre, and Arnaud Meunier.    178

    TURTLE POETRY
        (Reprint from 1999 Chelonian Conservation and Biology)

        Anders G.J. Rhodin.    184

    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.





    WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN?

    The Gonzo Daily - Thursday
    The Internet Access is back to normal - back to normal for us I mean, which is about 5% of the superfast speed one would get in a city. Why it took nearly a week for British Telecom to do what I asked them to do in the first place, I am not sure. But "ours not to just stand still, ours just to pay the bill", as Tennyson would probably have said about the Charge of the Electricity Brigade. We heard the first news from the Australia expedition via a message on Rebecca's Facebook page: 'Finally found a wi-fi connection - yay! Been interviewing some wonderful witnesses, visiting some great locations and even found a quoll skull today! Jonathan McGowan and I stumbled across it and now he has a great souvenir of the trip. Really loving everything! (Except maybe the cold.)'
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/11/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_7.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?

    DALE DRINNON: Sierra Kills, Yacumama, Benny's Blogs

    New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

    On this day in 1907 Jesus Garcia died during his heroic effort to save the town of Nacozari in Mexico from a burning train full of dynamite. He drove the train 6 kilometres out of town before it exploded. The town was renamed Nacozari de Garcia in his honour.
    And now the news:

  • Somerset badger cull fails to meet target, Defra a...
  • Feeling Blue: Gender-Bending Lady Lizards Miss Out...
  • Pronghorn Adapt to New Animal Overpasses
  • Hedgehogs given GPS 'backpacks' to boost survival ...
  • Orphaned otter cubs found at Thurso beach
  • Giant Armadillos found to be ecosystem engineer
  • Extinct 'Megamouth' Shark Species Finally Identifi...

  • Genetic Study Demonstrates Israel's Wild Boars Ori...

  • This song is sung in Mexico in honour of Jesus Garcia's sacrifice:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EysXTZsX1LI