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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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...




Wednesday, July 16, 2014

CRYPTOLINK: Unconfirmed boa in Lake Hopatcong causes fervor

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. 

JEFFERSON – The Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot and now the Lake Hopatcong Boa.

Reports of a boa constrictor in Lake Hopatcong over the past week have caused a fervor in the lake community though there has been no official confirmation nor have any photos been taken of the snake in the lake.

State Trooper Jeff Flynn confirmed police have received three reports of a snake near South New Jersey Avenue near the Main Lake Market and in Capp Cove.

"Each time troopers responded to the area to negative results," Flynn said. "There have been no official sightings."

One of the first known updates about the boa was a post from Byram Cove Party, now The BCP, on Facebook last Wednesday.

"Lake Hopatcong friends please beware of a very large reported 15+ft Boa Constrictor that has been seen by several neighbors, last seen swimming toward Halsey Island. Animal Control has been called," read the post.

The story appears to have taken on a life of its own and now the rumored boa has its own Twitter handle - @HopatcongBoa – with more than 100 followers.

CRYPTOLINK: Not quite the Loch Ness monster: mysterious sea creature washes up on Somerset beach

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. 

Not quite the Loch Ness monster: mysterious sea creature washes up on Somerset beach

A weird 'sea monster' has Somerset residents baffled after washing up on Weston-super-Mare beach.

Stunned Lisa Worthington, 42, came across the denizen of the deep while out walking the family dog with husband, Peter, 52, and their two children.

The two-foot long skeletal remains were found on the high tide mark on the North Somerset beach. The family decided to take the mysterious two foot skeleton home so that her ten-year-old son Tyler could show his friends.

Lisa, a stay-at-home mum, from Uphill, near Weston-super-Mare, said: "It was really quite strange. We were just walking the dogs when we stumbled across it. It was very strange.

"People have come up with some crazy ideas as to what it could be. My friend even thought it could be a llama, as the long tail bit looks like a neck.

"I guess with it being washed up on the beach you would expect it to be a fish or something, but it doesn't look very fishy.
Read on...

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Why Do We Look For Bigfoots? Part 3
1) What first sparked your interest in bigfoot? 2) Are you a believer, a skeptic or a knower? 3) Why do you go out looking for bigfoots? 4) What's your ...

Stafford teens to present cryptozoology: Unicorns & Bigfoot
... animals and is used to refer to the study of animals whose existence hasn't been proven, such as the Loch Ness Monster, unicorns and Bigfoot.

Two Idaho Hunters Capture High Definition Footage Of Big Foot
Two Idaho hunters got the shock of their lives when they ran into Big Foot himself. The Idahoans were on a normal hunting trip when they saw a big, ...
New Bigfoot Sighting Report From New Hampshire!
I got in a fresh report of a Bigfoot sighting in New Hampshire. I crossed check our Sightings Map and there has been some tracks and sightings fairly ...
Bigfoot Encounter Caught On Tape In Holland
Four people witnessed a very scary creature inside one of Holland's national parks on April 1, 2014. After hearing some loud banging noises, they ...
SouthEastern Ohio Society For Bigfoot Investigation
I was contacted by a fellow bigfoot investigator from Maryland yesterday. Seems he is wanting some help in checking into some activity along the W.





TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.



  • US SIGHTINGS: Mountain Lion Traps Set Up in Bay A...
  • NEWSLINK: ALDF and Big Cat Rescue propose bill to...
  • SAND CAT: Species Spotlight- Big Cat TV

  • US SIGHTINGS: Large, cat-like animal spotted arou...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN CAN MULTITASK IF HE TRIES HARD ENOUGH

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
    www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

    Last night Mother, Corinna and I went to the theatre. More specifically we went down to Poundstock in Cornwall, to the 15/16th Century Gildhouse, the best preserved example in Cornwall of a late medieval church house which has been in continuous use since it was built. The programme was presented by the youth theatre group frequented by our own dear Charlotte, who comes to the CFZ most weekends and presents OTT with me. There were two cut down Shakespeare plays - Macbeth, and a deliciously stylish modern recasting of 12th Night. The quality of the acting and directing was excellent and we enjoyed it immensely. Then upon going home Mother and I watched three episodes of the X Files, and then I stayed up until stupid o'clock reading Joey Molland's biography. This is why I am less than massively together today!

    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#86) is available to read or download at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has Hunter Thompson on the front cover an an article by theatrical producer Lou Stein about his friendship with the good doctor. There is also an interview with Paul Woodwright from Kozfest, Galahad at the Christchurch Festival in pictures, Doug Harr with thefirst of a mini series on Brand X, whilst Jon muses about Alan Moore (who knows the score). There are also new shows from the wonderfully eccentric Jaki and Tim on their Submarine, from Canterbury Sans Frontières  and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and salamanders from Toulouse (OK, no French caudata, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
    All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
    To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
    http://eepurl.com/r-VTD

    *  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 an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


    What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

    Well, everything actually!

    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.




    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



    Loch Ness Monster: Known Reports in Chronological Order
    Below is a chronological list of reported sightings and encounters with an unknown creature believed to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland. New accounts

    Loch Ness Monster
    At that time, some even see a monster long neck black slim surfaced. This news has rocked the UK on Loch Ness. That same year, a diver into the lake

    A Story from a Reader
    LOCH NESS MONSTER Glasgow Boy
    One of the blog's regular readers emailed me an experience he had at Loch Ness some years back. J.S. (as I shall call him) lives in Scotland and was 

    The hunt for the Loch Ness Monster - valid scientific research or a fool's errand?
    Is the hunt for Nessie futile or a project that should be embraced by science?...

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE

    ON THIS DAY IN 1790 - 
    The District of Columbia, or Washington, DC, was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government. 

  • Domestication syndrome: White patches, baby faces ...
  • How Dogs Can Save Birds From Being Incinerated by ...
  • How speed restricts evolutionary change of the ver...
  • Whoa! Seahorses Don't Neigh — They Growl
  • Little fish makes a big splash in genomic studies;...
  • Stolen 'Nest of Dinosaurs' Returned to Mongolia
  • Search for Welsh honey with antibiotic elements la...

  • Police officer shoots tortoise

  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK...