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, December 31, 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.





CRYTPTOLINK: “White Bigfoot”! Yeti Shows Up in Maine

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. 


By Edwin Duesiester (my own drawing from 1979)
By Edwin Duesiester 
LITCHFIELD, Maine — Severe ice and snow storms caused a power outage Tuesday affecting more than half a million people living in the United States and Canada. Hundreds were left fighting the cold and darkness with blankets, fireplaces and candles.
But according to some people there is something hiding in the snow. A man in Litchfield, a small community located in Maine, claimed he saw a strange beast in the snow that terrorized him and his dog.
“It ain’t like it used to be, this cold has become tough man…” said M. P., a single man working in construction. “The ice, the snow, yeah we used to get these before, but this is way too sudden. It has caught us by surprise, damn, it sure has.”
M.P. told Cryptozoology News he was outside his house taking the dog for a fast walk, when his furry friend “went nuts”. It was then that they had an encounter with what the man calls “a white bigfoot.”
Bigfoot Maine“I reckon there wasn’t much visibility, as you can imagine with this amount of snow. But I ain’t blind, man, I know what I saw, and my dog got out of control, barking at it, he never barks this much, he was pulling me like I’ve never seen him do before. When I first noticed it I thought it was a bear or something, but that was something else. It moved fast and like a human. It was fat, huge, and it had white long hair everywhere. Looked like a white bigfoot or something, no kidding. Look I don’t believe there are bigfoots or anything here, or in America or anywhere the world, for that matter, but either that was some guy in a costume or I will have to change my mind about the whole bigfoot deal. Now, who would be willing to dress up like this in this foul weather and get run over by a car or something? No sir, that must have been some animal, only I don’t know what kind of animal it was.”

KARL SHUKER: A Bird For Whom Scientific Recognition Came Too Late


Karl Shuker recalls the tragic history of the Lanai hookbill - an engaging little mystery bird for whom scientific recognition came too late.

Read on...

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

Chelonian Conservation and Biology 12(2)

Contents:


  • Carrion-Cortez, Javier, Carlos Canales-Cerro, Randall Arauz and Rafael Riosmena-Rodriguez. 2013. Habitat use and diet of juvenile Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the North Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 235-245. [ tavaruava@hotmail.com]
  • Ferronato, Bruno O. and Giselle Cruzado. 2013. Uses, beliefs, and conservation of turtles by Ashanika Indigenous People, Central Peru. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 308-313. [ brunoferronato@hotmail.com]
  • Folt, Brian and James C. Godwin. 2013. Status of the Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macrochelys temminckii) in south Alabama with comments on its distribution. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 211-217. [ brian.folt@gmail.com]
  • Foote, Robert S. 2013. Turtle poetry: An Interruption. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 324.
  • Ghaffari, Hanyeh, Michael V. Plummer, Mahmood Karami, Barbod Safaei Mahroo, Faraham Ahmadzadeh and Dennis Rödder. 2013. Notes on a nest and emergence of hatchlings of the Euphrates Softshell Turtle (Rafetus euphraticus) at the Dez River, Iran. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 319-323. [ ghaffari.hanyeh@gmail.com]
  • Hill, Shannon K. and Darrell S. Vodopich. 2013. Habitat use and basking behavior of a freshwater turtle community along an urban gradient. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 275-282. [ shannon.hill@templejc.edu]
  • Lamarre-DeJesus, Abigail S. and Curtice R. Griffin. 2013. Use of Habanero Pepper powder to reduce depredation of Loggerhead Sea Turtle Nests. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 262-267. [ cgriffin@eco.umass.edu]
  • Lamb, Jennifer Y., Joshua R. Ennen and Carl P. Qualls. 2013. Environmental characteristics of nest sites selected by Gopher Tortoises(Gopherus polyphemus) in southern Mississippi. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 227-234. [ jenny.y.lamb@gmail.com]
  • Macip-Rios, Rodrigo, Victor Hugo Sustaita-Rodriguez and Gustavo Casas Andreu. 2013. Evidence pf pelvic and nonpelvic constraint on egg size in two species of Kinosternon from Mexico. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 218-226. [ rodrigo.macip@correo.buap.mx]
  • Metz, Tasha L. and Andre M. Landry, Jr. 2013. An assessment of Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) stocks along the Texas coast, with emphasis on the Lower Laguna Madre. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 293-302. [ metzt@tamug.edu]
  • Mitchell, Joseph C. and Susan C. Walls. 2013. Nest site selection by Diamond-backed Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) on a Mid-Atlantic barrier island Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 303-308. [ dr.joe.mitchell@gmail.com]
  • Perez-Santigosa, Natividad, Judit Hidalgo-Vila and Carmen Diaz-Paniagua. 2013. Comparing activity patterns and aquatic home range areas among exotic and native turtles in southern Spain. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 313-319. [ poli@ebd.csic.es]
  • Redfoot, William and Llewellyn Ehrhart. 2013. Trends in size class distribution, recaptures, and abundance of juvenile Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) utilizing a rock riprap lined embayment at Port Canaveral, Florida, USA, as a developmental habitat. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 252-261. [ william.redfoot@ucf.edu]
  • Rowe, John W., David L. Clark, Darren M. Shaw and Lawrence W. Wittle. 2013. Histological basis of substrate color-induced melanization and reversal of melanization in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta marginata). Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 246-251. [ rowe@alma.edu]
  • Trauth, Stanley E. and Michael V. Plummer. 2013. Comparative histology, histochemistry, and ultrastructure of Rathke's Glands in hatchlings of two species of North American Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina and Terrapene ornata). Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 268-274. [ strauth@astate.edu]
  • White, Michael, Liza Boura and Lily Venizelos. 2013. Population strycture for sea turtles at Drini Bay: An important nearshore foraging and developmental habitat in Albania. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 12 (2): 283-292. [ crwban681@yahoo.co.uk]

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SKIPS

The Gonzo Daily - New Year's Eve
 
I spent a very enjoyable but late night recording with Mike Davis until what Frank Sinatra called 'the wee small hours', (a term which has taken on entirely new vistas for me since I became a diabetic). We recorded two songs: a jolly piece of power pop and something that sounds like the Incredible String Band on which I play guitar, banjo, recorder and tambourine and there are no electronics whatsoever. I have been putting it off all month, but now I absolutely HAVE to sit down and write my annual report. So no dozing in front of the fire for Jonathan this afternoon.
 

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_31.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?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

Yesterday’s News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1977 the South Korean rapper, Psy, was born. Psy is famous for his deliberately cheesy song and dance routine Gangnam Style, which broke new ground in toe-curlingly embarrassing moments when it was danced by members of the UN.
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  • We shouldn't be surprised when UN members participate in the latest naff dance craze; they have form... Here's Madeline Albright teaching the Macarena to fellow delegates:
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