CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track

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...

Thursday, January 29, 2015

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Thursday

ON THIS DAY IN 1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.

Dog disease in lions spread by multiple species

Change way we test and house cattle to control bov...

5 New Species of 'Shimmering' Goblin Spider Discov...

Holy mackerel! Belfast warned not to eat free fish...

The world's oldest known snake fossils: Rolling ba...

First step in plan to save northern white rhino

Company ordered to pay $90,000 for fishing in Ning...

Freshwater Fish are Disappearing: Where is the Glo...

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)

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:MAMMOTHS IN MALAYA IN 1884?

Today I present a story (which may or may not be new) I found a couple of days ago. I am NOT definitely saying this was a mammoth, so indeed I am sitting on the fence. Not with the mammoth (or whatever it was) because the fence would probably collapse.

The story is in the New York Tribune of Sept 22^nd 1884:

TWO MAMMOTHS FROM QUEDAH

ALLEGED REPRESENTATIVES OF AN EXTINCT SPECIES – RESEMBLANCE TO ELEPHANT

“A large crowd witnessed the unloading on Saturday,from the steamer Werra,of two strange animals, imported by Charles Reiche & Brother,and supposed to be Mammoths,technicaly known as elephas primigenius, and generally considered an extinct species. Years ago, Mr Reiche was informed by seafaring men who had visited the Malay Peninsula, that the inhabitants had told them of a peculiar species of pachyderm, seen near Queddah, an inland town. Their branch house at Alfred, Germany, was instructed to secure a specimen of this animal,if possible,and after a tedious hunt in the mountain near Queddah, these two animals were captured by the natives. They were transferred to Mr Reiche`s agent at Singapore,and placed in charge of John Penja, who accompanied them here. They were seen yesterday by a Tribune reporter, in a small stall in the hold of the Werra. They kept up a constant rocking movement of the body until they were placed in a cage, and removed from the ship. There are two females, four and a half and two and a half feet in height. Their length equals their height.

The animals bear a general but not detailed resemblance to an elephant. Their trunks have an upward curve;the elephants trunk curves backward. Their ears are flapping, but run parallel with the body, while the elephant`s hang more like a hound`s. A protuberance on the back resembles the hump of a camel {like the one discovered by Blashford-Snell`s team in Nepal in 1992-R?} The larger animal,excepting the trunk and legs,is thickly covered with a coat of dark brown hair, from three to eight inches long. It resembles bristles,and in some places there is an undergrowth of hair as soft as wool. The smaller animal is covered with a dark,fuzzy down. The age of the larger specimen is put at six years,and of the small one at two years. They have voices entirely out of proportion to their size,and when the keeper pulled the larger one`s ear she gave a howl that caused the spectator`s to flee. They are fed on hay,oats and bran,mixed with boiled rice.

Mr Reiche was asked why he thought the animals were called mammoths. “Because” , he replied, “of their resemblance to them. Bones of the mammoth have been found in Europe and Asia for many centuries,but the first complete specimen was found in 1799,by a Tungusian, named Schumachoft, deeply imbedded in a glacier on the shore of Lake Oncoul. He saw it again in 1803,and the ice having melted he removed the tusks.”

Here is a story from the Singapore Free Press July 29^th 1912 of another small hairy elephant:

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article.aspx?articleid=singfreepressb19120729-1.2.34&sessionid=5f52732155c34caf906714ab2605d2fc&keyword=hairy+elephant&search=advanced&fromdate=&todate=&articles=1&advertisements=1&illustrations=1&letters=1&obituaries=1&miscellaneous=1&newspaperTitles=&fuzzysearch=Off&token=elephant%2chairy

In his book Pygmy Elephants by Matt Salusbury ( 2013) pp 142-3 he comments on a list by Osborn, published in 1942, “ the tentative list included the hairy Malaysian elephant calf Elephas indicus hirsutus from London Zoo in 1914,probably a one off freak…”

Karl Shuker in Alien Zoo (2010) mentions mammoths in Thailand in December 2000.

Further info about Charles Reiche and Brother can be found in New Worlds,New Animals,From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the 19^th Century https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=15AsyQ8O2qoC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=Charles+Reiche+and+Brother&source=bl&ots=dEArUJE55n&sig=Qinwy31NNxe1Jn3ahstn1TVQDkM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-XaqVI67J438aMPpgaAL&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Reiche%20and%20Brother&f=false

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)

io9

Man Claims Boat Collision Proves Existence Of Loch Ness Monster

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A man who once rented boats on Loch Ness has come forward, claiming that "flesh and black skin an inch thick" was found clinging to one of his ...

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.

HOORAY FOR THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday

www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

I am not feeling too good this morning, and so, after the blogs are done - I shall be disappearing into the sitting room to wrap up warm, listen to Hector Berlioz, cuddle Archie, and write deathless prose on my iPad. It is nothing serious, but I apologise to everyone in advance, but I shall not be easy to get hold of today. Normal service will be resumed blah blah blah...

GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/gonzo-track-of-day_28.html
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_28.html
The story continues for Fairport Convention
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-story-continues-for-fairport.html
Barbara Dickson readies for nationwide tour
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/barbara-dickson-readies-for-nationwide.html
YES/EMPIRE: The Pete Banks Story - Pete Banks
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/yesempire-pete-banks-story-pete-banks.html

The Gonzo Weekly #114
www.gonzoweekly.com

Barbara Dickson, Pink Fairies, Genesis, Steve Hackett, Robert Wyatt, Stargrace, Jon Anderson, Yes, Hawkwind, and Daevid Allen fans had better look out!

The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#114) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Barbara Dickson on the front cover and inside there is an interview by me in which she talks about her new album and her work with Troy Donockley, Doug goes back to 1976 and the Genesis 'Seconds Out' Tour, I critique the extraordinary new Robert Wyatt biography, and also burble on about Bob Dylan, we send the lovely Stargrace to a desert island, tell you about new Pink Fairies recordings, marvel at the intrepidness of Steve Hackett, and Xtul are on the road to Norwich, and there are shows from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers wearing new shoes (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials in search of snazzy footwear, 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!!!

Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:

Issue 113 (Rocket Scientists cover)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/gonzo-weekly-112.html
Issue 111 (Mice on Stilts cover)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/gonzo-weekly-111.html
Issue 109/10 (Yusuf/Stevie Wonder cover)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/12/gonzo-weekly-10910.html

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:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/

* 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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit…

* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 infantile orange cat?