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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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Monday, February 14, 2011

RAHEEL MUGHAL: Hombre Gato: The Cat People of Argentina

The Hombre Gato or Cat People are known by many different names across the continent called South America. However, several aspects link all of the reports together: the Hombre Gato are nocturnal, largely arboreal and have a taste for cattle and livestock. Recent spates of cattle mutilations in Argentina and Chile have been blamed on these leonine beings. Moreover, a number of people who ventured too far into the forests late at night are said to have been the unforeseen victims of this feline fiend.

The rural people of Argentina and Chile are largely superstitious God-fearing folk. Could tales of the Hombre Gato have been inspired by cultural aspects rather than true-life encounters with otherworldly cat-like beasts (such as the Chupacabra or Moca Vampire of Puerto Rican lore?). If so could these tales be based on a mixture of superstition, cultural influences and/or racial memories of cults that routinely mutilated cattle as an offering to their deities and the stories pertaining to kidnappings in the forests at night – the result of murderers or escaped convicts hiding in the forests and attacking unfortunate victims who may otherwise have informed the authorities of their illegal activities? We will probably never now as there are hardly any recent encounters with the creatures, and a lot of the stories about them are largely steeped in tradition or based on hearsay – the Hombre Gato are a convenient bogeyman used to blame all ills on.

3 comments:

Retrieverman said...

Cat people from Red Dwarf?

Unknown said...

http://para-leer-algo.blogspot.com/2008/01/el-hombre-gato.html

Unknown said...

Found this story on an individual that wants to be cat person and the lengths they went to.

http://para-leer-algo.blogspot.com/2008/01/el-hombre-gato.html