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...




Tuesday, February 06, 2018

POWLERS PIECE CARCASS UPDATES

Just to keep you all updated, on the 12th of January this year, Graham, Charlotte and I took a party of journalists and videogame executives to two locations in North Devon, where there have been a string of sightings of alleged big cats over the last few years. At the second of these, a dismembered sheep skeleton was found by Mike Levaggi of Hope and Glory Publicity. The skeleton has been examined by Charlotte, and by Carl Marshall. These two preliminary examinations have yielded the following results:

  •  The skeleton appears to be of an elderly sheep, as seen by the wear on its teeth. In our opinion, is would have been too large to have been carried off by a fox. 
  •   If the predator had been a domestic dog, the animal would have been torn apart in situ
  • There is no sign that either primary or secondary predation by a badger has taken place. There is not enough damage to the bones to suggest this.
  • There are no signs of human interference; cut marks from a hatchet or knife. Therefore, we can conclude it was not butchered. The fact that the skeleton was found in a small thicket adjoining a road, at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest sheep, would confirm this.
  • There are bite marks on the skeleton at various points. These have been photographed and sent to Lars Thomas for his instructions as to what we do next.
  • The muzzle of the skull was damaged and it appears to have been done in a similar fashion to other skulls supposedly of creatures killed by big cats, who have clamped their jaws over the muzzle of their victim in order to subdue it by suffocation.
  • Graham and Carl have deployed a trail cam inside the thicket. The thicket is apparently part of a well-used animal road-crossing track, and it will be interesting to find out what animals habitually use this path.
  • None of this evidence is conclusive, but it is interesting and does support the hypothesis that there is at least one non-native predator at large in the Powler’s Piece area of North Devon.


No comments: