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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Tuesday, October 08, 2013

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.





CRYPTOLINK: 2013 Loch Ness Monster Sighting

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. This post, however, is particularly interesting and the author should be congratulated...

CRYPTOLINK: 'Bigfoot' filmed in remote Canadian woods

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. This post, however, is particularly interesting and the author should be congratulated...



Could there be a creature lurking in the woods ? Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Donar Reiskoffer

A new video has appeared online that claims to show evidence of a hominid creature lurking in the forest.

The footage was recorded by a man referred to only by his first name, Jim, who has been seeking evidence of the creature since 1996. The video was published around a week ago and was filmed in a ravine where he'd been searching an area of woodland with a camera in the hope of catching a glimpse of his target.

The footage begins with Jim creating a loud wood knock and then venturing in to the trees to look for any activity. After a few minutes he comes across a creature partially obscured by the foliage and records it for a while before it moves away. In the video caption he describes the creature as being approximately 7ft tall and weighing 500lbs.

"Upon reflection on the chain of events , I'm certain that this individual both heard me earlier and knew of my presence and possibly my location directly behind it," he wrote. "I've returned to the area several times and did not notice any obvious signs of it's return , however it's return is not ruled out."

The footage has, unsurprisingly, attracted a large amount of skepticism. Critics argue that the creature in the video could simply be a man in a suit and that the whole thing was staged.


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 are 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: Bully' Terrorizing Brooklyn Neighborhood...
  • NEWSLINK: Link to Sultan's Memorial Page - Big Cat...

  • NEWSLINK: Canada Lynx of Big Cat Rescue gets home ...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS MILDLY CURIOUS

    The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
    I have another interesting interview lined up for this afternoon - Patrick Barkham, the author of 'The Butterfly Isles' probably my favourite book of the past few years. For those of you who haven't read it, it takes one of my favourite literary genres of about a century ago (the amateur naturalist's notebook/diary) and updates it to the 21st Century with all the trials and tribulations of rubbish girlfriends, unreliable mobile phones and facebook, that this entails. Excellent!
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_7.html
    Grouplove Talk Recording Album in Legendary Yes Guitarist's House
    gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/grouplove-talk-recording-album-in.html
    Hawkwind Postpones Logan Square Auditorium Show, U.S. Tour
    gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/hawkwind-postpones-logan-square.html
    The 'Caped Crusader' Pays a Warm Tribute to Chuck Smith
    gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-caped-crusader-pays-warm-tribute-to.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:
    www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
    * 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 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 orange cat?

    ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

    From CFZ Canada:

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1943 the actor Chevy Chase was born. Chase has stared in a number of American comic films (mostly in the 80s and early 90s because Hollywood no longer knows how to make a comedy that is funny but not animated) which have involved Fortean subjects like time travel, invisibility and giants. He was also one third of the Three Amigos, which is one of the funniest American films ever made.

    And now the news:
  • Tanzania's rhinos - Edging back from the brink
  • An unprecedented threat to Peru's cloud forests
  • Health of Honey Bees Adversely Impacted by Seleniu...
  • Asian Rhino range states to work together to save ...
  • Honeybee sanctuary status for Colonsay and Oransay...
  • Wentwood Forest: Larch disease felling in ancient ...

  • Dear little buttercup: