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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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...




Saturday, January 05, 2013

MANY OF US OF A CERTAIN AGE (AND MAX) WOULD LOVE ONE OF THESE

CFZ NEW ZEALAND: How the Takahe made a Lazarus-like comeback

A 'Lazarus species' is one that is presumed to be extinct and then reappears.

One such example is the Takahē, thought to have died out by 1898.

The bird was rediscovered in 1948 by Dr. Geoffrey Orbell, who wrote this article, which was originally published in the December 10, 1948 edition of the Listener, and recently re-published on its website.

Dr Geoffrey Orbell wrote:

My interest in the notornis (takahÄ“) began some 30 years ago. I was looking through some old photographs belonging to my mother – a keen amateur photographer – when I came upon a print of a bird in a glass case. My mother explained that it was a picture of the notornis specimen in the Otago Museum, that only four of the species had been found and that it was now supposed to be extinct. That word “supposed” stimulated my boyish sense of adventure, and I read all that I could find about the notornis.

Read on...

TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND-UP

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 by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.




  • NEWSLINK: Tigers Roar Back: Great News for Big Cat...
  • FEATURELIINK: Big cats from the past
  • ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

    News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

    From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:
    From CFZ Australia:

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (CFZ)

    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. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


    I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

    "Jon isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel", sing the Surrogate band. However, I am well enough to get out of bed and do the blogs but that is about all. I was particularly rubbish yesterday, and stayed in bed all day. Hopefully, I shall be up and about properly tomorrow. In the meantime I am afraid that OTT and other early january things will be postponed a few more days.
     
    The next issue of the increasingly fab Gonzo newsletter is imminent
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-latest-issue-of-gonzo-newsletter.html
     
     
     
    A link to an interesting essay about the role of the music press
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/link-record-reviews-who-needs-em.html
     
     
     

    *  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:
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
     
    *  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish and batrachians. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 2005 the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris was announced. This prompted the IAU to act like petulant UKIP voting baby boomers and redefine the meaning of the word planet so that it didn't apply to anything other than the nice big planets up to Neptune, otherwise they would have to learn a lot of new planet names due to the fact than several planets were being discovered of late thanks to better methods of detection and technology.

    And now the news:
  • Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Creta...
  • Rocky Mountain College student studies relationshi...
  • Lethal Effects of Water Quality on Threatened Cali...
  • Egg-Laying Mammal: Scientists Discover That for Au...
  • Polydactyl cats at Hemingway Museum in Bangkok, Th...
  • Bonobos Will Share With Strangers Before Acquainta...
  • As Climate Warms, Bark Beetles March On High-Eleva...
  • Gelatinous Menace? Jellyfish on Boom-Bust Cycle Wo...
  • LAKE ELSINORE: Thousands of Animals Euthanized in ...
  • Q&A: Extinctions and the impact of Homo sapiens - ...

  • And my axe!