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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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Sunday, April 08, 2012

RIGHT ON RETRIEVERMAN


This "jaguar" was photographed via camera trap near Guelph, Ontario. No scale is given to figure out how big this cat is, and if it is cougar-sized, the dismissal of this animal's identity as black cougar "because no black cougar has been spotted in North America" is one of the dumbest things I've ever read. It doesn't matter that no one has never seen a black cougar in North America before. No one has ever seen a jaguar in Canada!




http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/black-jaguar-photographed-near-guelph-ontario/

BIG CAT NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD


Mountain lion suspected of attacking horses dies
San Jose Mercury News
Aaron Reyes, deputy director of Los Angeles county's Department of Animal Care and Control, told KABC-TV (http://bit.ly/I4pwfX) a big cat apparently jumped the fence and mauled the mare. Reyes said injuries sustained by the horse suggested she was ...

Mountain lion suspected of mauling horse in Lancaster is fatally struck by car
Los Angeles Daily News
A big cat-paw print was found near a fence the puma apparently jumped to get to the horse, he said. The mountain lion that was euthanized was struck Friday by a car near the Lancaster Animal Care Center, 5210 W. Ave. I. A necropsy should show if the ...

Nepal plagued by big cat attacks Int'l Coverage ekantipur.com
A teenager has been killed in what officials in Nepal have described as a rare attack by a..


Big cat territory
Kuensel, Bhutan's National Newspaper

Carnivores, other than tigers in Manas, are the common leopard, clouded leopard, jungle cats, Asiatic golden cat, leopard cat, marbled cat, large Indian civets, small Indian civets, Himalayan yellow throated martens, mongooses, otters, ferret badger ...

Wild cat: 'Dracula' fails to survive captivity
The Express Tribune
Another villager, Suleman Khan, claimed that the cat had attacked and killed a number of his buffalos. He said that she had also injured some men from the village. “I made a special cage. It was as big as a small lion.” The operation to capture the cat ...

Stray big cat enjoys its extended stay
Times of India
With the rise in temperature, the dense and damp forest patch has become a favoured stay for the big cat. But, since the forest is not easily accessible, forest department is not able to comb the area. The stray tiger has frequented Mandauli several ...

Local News Briefs: Mountain lion sightings reported in Carlsbad
Carlsbad Current Argus
Moyers said the big cat is probably coming into the area for water and asked that early morning and late night walkers, joggers and bike riders remain aware that there could be a big cat in the area and use proper precaution.

Big cat sightings on the rise
Windsor Star

By Julie Kotsis, The Windsor Star April 3, 2012 12:00 AM A local businessman and his wife say they spotted the big cat in a field near their home Sunday. "We were just totally blown away," Cecil Farmer said. Cecil and his wife Connie, who live on the ...

With Vid: Big cat sighting startles couple
Windsor Star
A local businessman and his wife say they spotted the big cat in a field near their home Sunday. “We were just totally blown away,” Cecil Farmer said. Cecil and his wife Connie, who live on the 4th Concession South, about four kilometres east of a ...



Using a dog as bait, the department officials had kept a cage in a farmhouse to trap the big cat. The ploy succeeded as the leopard walked into the trap around 8.30 am Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Thammaiah and other officials released the ...

BIG CAT NEWS: Ireland, Scotland and Northamptonshire

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 in some way by us, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.


It takes a long time to do, and is a fairly tedious task, so I am not promising that they will be done each day, but I will do them as regularly as I can. JD

Mystery of capital's big cat sighting
The Scottish Sun
POLICE teams searching for a vulnerable mum were stunned when they spotted a BIG CAT. The unit had been drafted in by cops in Edinburgh after a two-day-old baby was found abandoned in the street. Officers were desperate to find the tot's mother, ...

I don't know about you guys, but I am always more impressed when the cops see a big cat when they are looking for something else entirely. It gets rid of any suggestion that they are doing a Captain Ahab and smelling cats where there are no cats..

Mystery big cat spotted in Derry - Northern Ireland, Local & National ...
A large cat described as resembling a panther has been spotted in Co Londonderry.

There are very few details, so it is practically impossible to comment on this sighting. However the law until recently has been different in Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK, and big cats were kept legally, and more widely than on the mainland..

Panther sightings are causing a stir
Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

Reported sightings of a panther-like cat are causing a stir in the north of the county. Several people in Gretton have reported seeing a large black animal in locations near the village. And, after speaking to people who claim to have seen the panther, ...

No photographs and a quote from a village resident, that he believes the reports.


DAVEY CURTIS: Black news for the adder



Dear Jon,






Found this in the local rag. Sadly it makes pretty grim reading.






Regards Davey C

JON'S JOURNAL: Microscopy and dry ditches

I am very aware that I have been neglecting my nature diary recently. Without making excuses, this is mostly because I have had an awful lot on my plate in the last few weeks, and I have been neglecting all sorts of the peripheral things which I enjoy.

On Easter Saturday, Matthew and Emma came around with an Easter present for me; a USB microscope, with which we took this mildly grotesque picture of a dead cricket. This opens a lot of interesting new vistas for us, and I look forward to utilising it on the next OTT. Thank you my dears.

As regular readers will know, we have been following the misfortunes of the local frog population and their attempts at breeding this spring. Lots of frogspawn was laid in January, but it was all killed off by the severe frosts in mid February.


A considerably smaller amount was laid in March, and the tadpoles both at Kennerland and at Huddisford seemed to be doing well. But now look at this...



I don't usually pay much attention to the ramblings of politicians, but this time, when they are predicting a drought, I think that they might just have something. Most of the ditches which until the week before last contained tadpoles are now as dry as a bone.


Another generation of Woolsery's Rana temporaria has bitten the dust...

Today on the Gonzo blog



Easter Monday is wet and grey here in West Woolfardisworthy in the middle of damp North Devon, but it is another jolly day on the Gonzo Blog, starting with another sneak peek at the forthcoming album by Michael Des Barres - we have a live video of another song from the album, and boy is it a cracker!
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/michael-de-barres-more-sneak-peeks-at.html

There is a link to a review of Jon Anderson live in North Carolina, complete with some great pictures:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/jon-andertson-in-north-carolina.html

Tour dates for Chris Thompson and his band:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/chris-thompson-tour-dates.html

And a still from Mimi Page's new video.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/mimi-page-still-from-new-video.html

Oh, and I almost forgot. There is a brace of strange pictures of Martin Stephenson and Gonzo MD Rob Ayling wearing a peculiar hat. Yes, you got it. Hat - singular. This is not my rubbish typing...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/04/martin-stephenson-with-rob-ayling.html

HAUNTED SKIES: Times (The) 19.8.66.


OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/


On this day in 1860 Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville made the first recording of a human voice. He had not envisaged that the recording would ever be replayed he was just interested in recording the shape of the sound wave, but researchers have since used computers to recreate the recording from the sound wave he recorded.

And now the news:


Whooping cranes set for return flight home
Scientists Redraw the Blueprint of the Body's Biol...
Volunteers protect avocets on Two Tree Island in E...
Natural phenomenon turns Maldives sea water bright...
U.K. man collects 20,000 bird ornaments
French trawler amongst boats arrested off West Afr...
How to Make High-End Perfumes Without Whale Barf
How Social Contact With Sick Ants Protects Their N...
Petrified postmen ordered to stay away from Snowba...
Crocodile gets a prime spot in the sun after mista...

Here’s the recording, I don’t recommend listening to it in a dark room at night as there is something all too sinister about old sound recordings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Gi6j4w3DY

THE MONSTER Hayley Stevens

The Monster Hayley Stevens

Choppy waters, hiding monsters,
Something rises, catching eyes,
Swirling up, liquid shadows,
Depth of colour, monstrous size

Creatures Swimming, break the surface,
Fleeting sighting, ‘what was that?’
Body gliding, twisting, looping,
Water slides from otters back

Fear the monster, see the monster,
Whispered voices, ‘So I hear…’
Feed the monster, feed the story,
Mystery thrives, sense disappears.

http://hayleyisaghost.co.uk/monster-poem/