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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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...




Wednesday, August 30, 2017

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 are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

  • NEWSLINK: Teen tells judge he bought tiger cub on ...
  • PHOTOS: Lions go wild when they see their ‘godmoth...

  • ARTICLE: Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopard in Indi...
  • FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


    What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology? 

    Well, everything, actually! 

    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.





    WHY DID THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN CROSS THE ROAD?

    The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
     
    Oh Wot a Dream it Was! I am currently annoying everyone within hearing distance by playing Kevin Ayers and Gogol Bordello in quick succession. Kevin Ayers was a remarkable talent. John Peel famously wrote: "Kevin Ayers' talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery with it." Gogol Bordello however: Their new album is the best thing that I have heard for years, but - peculiarly - Mother (who usually likes and listens to anything) has taken an unaccountable dislike to it, and makes a fuss every time I play it. Jimi Hendrix may have extolled the virtues of Electric Ladyland, but Old Ladyland is much weirder.
     
    By the way, forgive me for banging on about this but on a personal level I would be very grateful if you could spread the word about our rebooted monthly webTV series after a break of nearly four years. I actually hadn't realised it had been so long, but - then again - my concepts of time and space are fairly abstract at the best of times.
     
     
    But now, here is the news:
     
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Captain Beefheart & Th...
    YES feat ARW IN THE NEWS
    BILL BRUFORD IN THE NEWS
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    PETER HAMMILL NEWS
     
    Gonzo Weekly #249
    THE ON THE RAZ WITH BILL ISSUE
     
    We unpack Bill Bruford’s box and investigate the contents, we visit The Raz Band featuring Joe Vitale and Joey Molland in the studio, Alan introduces us to Gypsy Dave Smith, Alan Finlan and Startled Monkeys, we drop the legendary UFO author Nick Redfern on a desert isle, and review this week’s return of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
     
    Yup, and it’s all free!
     
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Strange Fruit, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antichinuses attracting a chorus of boos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have become unpopular for some reason, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
     
    This issue features:
     
    Leonard Cohen, Morrissey, Robert Plant, Cyreez Lewis, Skunk Anansie, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Iman, Prince, Carine Roitfeld, Billy Joel, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, John Laird Abercrombie, Jerry Lewis, Albert Austin "Sonny" Burgess, Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson CBE, Brian Wilson Aldiss OBE, Rick Wakeman, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Third Ear Band, Atomic Rooster, Bill Bruford, The RAZ Band, Alan Dearling, Gypsy Dave, Alan Finlan and Startled Monkeys, Kev Rowland, All Out War, BLK Ops/Cave Bastard, Child Bite, Syk, Chris Pasin and Friends, Warbeast, Empire, Aenaon, Nick Redfern, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, Mal Evans, Janis Joplin, Daniel O'Donnell, Robertson’s, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Wilson Pickett, Duran Duran, Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
     
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 248 (The Selecter)
    Issue 247 (Don Airey)
    Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
    Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
    Issue 243 (Galahad)
    Issue 242 (Steve Miller Band)
    Issue 241 (Carol Hodge and Steve Ignorant)
    Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
    Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
    Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 236 (Manchester)
    Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
    Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
    Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
    Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
    Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
    Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
    Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
    Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
     
    All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
     
    You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
     
    SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
     
    * 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.co.uk
     
    * 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 58 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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 Archie and the Cats?

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




    Video Commentary of Bigfoot Drowning Deer
    Parabreakdown takes a look at the recently gone viral video of a deer reportedly being drown by a bigfoot in the southern United States. There is


    The Quest for Bigfoot
    The Patterson–Gimlin film is a famous American short motion picture of an unidentified subject which the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot.

    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



    Is that the loch ness monster in Houston?
    Post with 22 votes and 484 views. Shared by yourmomiswatchingthinkbeforeyoupost. Is that the loch ness monster in Houston?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1146 - European leaders outlawed the crossbow. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Cenozoic carnivore from Turkey may have evolved wi...
  • Comparing the jaws of porcupine fish reveals three...
  • Ancient species of giant sloth discovered in Mexic...

  • SeaWorld's matriarch 42-year-old killer whale is e...

  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day.