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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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

State by State List of Herps USF&WS is Looking at (Via Herp Digest)

State by State List of Herps USF&WS is Looking at in 13 Southeastern U.S. States. Overlap of species in states is because those are the last known sightings of species. For Example Hellbender is listed in many states. But the last sighting could be 25 years old in that state. There is also an international trade in Hellbenders so while they collect information they are proposing all Hellbenders for CITES III listing. (Difference between CITES III listing and CITES II?) They need recent sightings. Recent information.

Alabama
Black Warrior waterdog Necturus alabamensis
Seepage salamander Desmognathus aeneus
One-toed amphiuma Amphiuma pholeter
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Tennessee cave salamander Gyrinophilus palleucus
Barbour's map turtle Graptemys barbouri
Escambia map turtle Graptemys ernsti
Alabama map turtle Graptemys pulchra
Black-knobbed map turtle Graptemys nigrinoda

Arkansas
Oklahoma salamander Eurycea tynerensis
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Western chicken turtle Deirochelys reticularia miaria

Florida
Florida Keys mole skink Eumeces egregius egregius
Eastern ribbonsnake - lower Florida Keys Thamnophis sauritus pop. 1
South florida rainbow snake Farancia erytrogramma seminola
Escambia map turtle Graptemys ernsti
Striped mud turtle - lower Florida Keys Kinosternon baurii pop. 1
Barbour's map turtle Graptemys barbouri
Florida red-bellied turtle - Florida panhandle Pseudemys nelsoni pop. 1
Chamberlain's dwarf salamander Eurycea chamberlaini
Georgia blind salamander Haideotriton wallacei
Gulf hammock dwarf siren Pseudobranchus striatus lustricolus
Florida bog frog Rana okaloosae
One-toed amphiuma Amphiuma pholeter

Georgia
Seepage salamander Desmognathus aeneus
Chamberlain's dwarf salamander Eurycea chamberlaini
Georgia blind salamander Haideotriton wallacei
One-toed amphiuma Amphiuma pholeter
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Tennessee cave salamander Gyrinophilus palleucus
Patch-nosed salamander Urspelerpes brucei
Alabama map turtle Graptemys pulchra
Barbour's map turtle Graptemys barbouri

Kentucky
Streamside salamander Ambystoma barbouri
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Kirtland's snake Clonophis kirtlandii

Lousiana
Pascagoula map turtle Graptemys gibbonsi

Mississippi
One-toed amphiuma Amphiuma pholeter
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Black-knobbed map turtle Graptemys nigrinoda
Alabama map turtle Graptemys pulchra
Western chicken turtle Deirochelys reticularia miaria
Pascagoula map turtle Graptemys gibbonsi

North Carolina
Neuse River waterdog Necturus lewisi
Chamberlain's dwarf salamander Eurycea chamberlaini
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Seepage salamander Desmognathus aeneus
Northern red-bellied cooter Pseudemys rubriventris

South Carolina
Chamberlain's dwarf salamander Eurycea chamberlaini
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Seepage salamander Desmognathus aeneus

Tennessee
Tennessee cave salamander Gyrinophilus palleucus
Seepage salamander Desmognathus aeneus
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Streamside salamander Ambystoma barbouri
Cumberland dusky salamander Desmognathus abditus

Virginia
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
Northern red-bellied cooter Pseudemys rubriventris

West Virginia
Streamside salamander Ambystoma barbouri
Hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
West Vrginia spring salamander Gyrinophilus subterraneus
Northern red-bellied cooter Pseudemys rubriventris

GLEN VAUDREY: Whole Wide World #20

20. Guatemala
Our next stop finds us in Guatemala, another country in which impressive remains of Mayan cities can be found, but it isn’t old building we are here to look at but to have a look at reports of the Chupacabra.

In the mid 1990s the Chupacabra was well on its way to being the most famous cryptid in the world with stories of the mystery animal appearing steadily all over Latin America. The description of a mix of hairless dog, a rat and a kangaroo with a row of spines running along its back suggests that whatever the Chupacabra is its pig ugly.

The name Chupacabra is usually translated as the goat sucker but despite the name suggesting that it should just be goats that need to worry it is actually attacks on other animals that seem to make the headlines. In November 1995 in just two nights a mystery creature taken to be the Chupacabra killed some 150 chickens on the farm of Alicia Fajardo. While in 1996 in a farm 20 miles outside Guatemala City attacks took place not only on chickens but on dogs, sheep and horses with signs that the coops and cages had been ripped open, while wire mesh had been torn apart, impressive stuff. Witnesses were unsure if the creature in Guatemala was a big black dog, bat or bird. The true nature of the Chupacabra is still a mystery.

RICHARD FREEMAN: YAHOO in on the whale slaughter

131 tonnes of fin whale meat has been imported into Japan from Iceland via Yahoo! In July, the Environmental Investigation Agency report Renegade Whaling identified Icelandic company Hvalur and its multi-millionaire boss Kristján Loftsson as hunting Fin whales for export to Japan via a company he helped to set up.

Despite the The Pelly Amendment permits (that has the United States to imposing a trade embargo against any products from a state certified as harvesting or trading whales in a manner which diminishes the effectiveness of either the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), it has now been confirmed that in August a new export to Japan took place of 131 tonnes of Fin whale product with an estimated value of 209 million Icelandic króna ($1.7 million).

On September 15, US President Barack Obama stated that Iceland's whaling and trade in the meat threatens the conservation status of an endangered species and undermines multilateral efforts to ensure greater worldwide protection for whales. Stopping short of targeted trade sanctions, he nevertheless announced diplomatic measures aiming to push Iceland to halt the trade.

Yahoo Japan! sells numerous Icelandic Fin whale products, including large blocks of meat, blubber and canned products. As of September 2011, these products and many more were still available on the internet from Yahoo! Japan shopping sites; a survey by the Environmental Investigation Agency found 10 different retailers offering Icelandic Fin whale meat products for sale via Yahoo! Japan.

EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said …

"At a time when the US Government is applying international pressure to force an end to Iceland's whaling and international trade, Yahoo! Japan is effectively encouraging further hunting of the species by selling endangered Fin whale meat products on its website. "It's long past due that Yahoo! put its house in order and stopped profiting from, and stimulating, this bloody and wholly unnecessary slaughter."


Make your outrage know to Yahoo, write to them expressing your disgust.

IDENTIFY THIS INSECT (A longhorn beetle I think)

HAUNTED SKIES: Source Material from a September 1970 sighting.


http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/10/source-material-from-september-1970.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1914 the poet Dylan Thomas was born.
And now the news:

Old Jawbone Found Near Kennewick Man Site
Panther tracks found
Stag tries to impress the ladies with grass wig
Rare white wombat nursed back to health
Tortoises Yawn-But It's Not Contagious (Via Herp D...
How to Scientifically Know where to Allocate Limit...
Biologists warn species at risk from new field
Toad appeal

Anthony Hopkins reads Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do Not Go Gentle In To That Good Night’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1fTlIsUGks

ROB AYLING: The world's first commercial spaceport

Rob Ayling is an old friend of mine. Due to unexpected circumstances, he finds himself wandering about the west coast of America with a few days to spare. "Can I send in some reports for the bloggo on anything interesting I find?" he asked. "Hell yeah" I said...

I was 50 miles from Baistow before the sat nav kicked in . . .Looking for the fabled Aeroplane Graveyard. There it was right by Highway 14. To the untrained eye it just looks like an airport with a lot of planes. But in the middle of a desert.

With the aide of a 400mm lens you start to see that these planes are here because its their last port of call. All around the airfield are parts, one compound is full of landing gear, another 7 jets exactly the same, but only their bodies, no wings.

This place isn't creepy or anything. Its just not what you would expect to find in the middle of nowhere. The end of the working days for this aircraft. Yet, it is also the birth place of commercial space travel.

This is where SpaceShipOne was based when it won the fabled X-Prize. There is a little memorial towards that competition. That is what these shots are of. As you can imagine photography is limited round this facility. Stood there, you feel that you are part of something. Even though NASA manned space flights aren't happening, the next step forward started here.


KARL SHUKER: Mystery Parrot solved.

A few days ago Karl wrote a blog about a mysterious parrot picture.

Now, he has solved the mystery once and for all, and has updated the posting accordingly...

http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2011/10/whos-pretty-mysterious-polly-then.html



'Dodo and Red Parakeet' - c.1773, attributed to William Hodges

DALE DRINNON: Three new posts - Indonesian hominid, jade ape, and environmental catastrophe

Another blog has gone up at Frontiers of Anthropology about another unusual Indonesian hominid fossil:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/10/not-somodern-early-indonesian.html

And I was just informed of this other jade item for sale on Ebay that was listed as showing an "Ape" on it, and it could be a very old depiction of the Chinese Wildman or Yeren:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-chinese-neolithic-ape.html

And over on 'Cedar and Willow' the next installment may sound frivolous but it certainly is NOT: it concerns a very serious matter, namely, the complete ecological disaster which is taking shape as our future, although it is presented as a series of adventure stories:

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2011/10/interlude-what-future-holds.html