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...




Wednesday, May 03, 2017

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.

  • NEWSLINK: Another tiger run over by speeding train...
  • NEWSLINK: Animal Advocates Are Still Fighting to F...

  • VIDEO: Rescue worker seriously injured in leopard .
  • 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.

     


    IF THERE'S A BUSTLE IN YOUR HEDGEROW, IT'S JUST THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

    The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
     
    It's all change here in the potato shed, with the advent of a new assistant: Olivia, my stepdaughter has replaced Chloe who has gone off for pastures new. Apart from that, there have been three recent sightings of the large tortoiseshell; a butterfly presumed extinct in the UK for the last sixty plus years. However, there are enough sightings in specific parts of the South of England (Sussex and the Isle of Wight in particular) to suggest that it may have recently recolonised its old haunts.
     
    And now, here is the news:
     
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: DAVE BAINBRIDGE - Cele...
    Binky Womack review
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    Frank Zappa - Lost Interview - Beatles, Stones & C...
    GASTANK REVIEW
     
     
    Gonzo Magazine #232
    THE COR BABY THAT'S REALLY STRANGE AND WEARD ISSUE
     
    And so, in this week's peculiar issue, We interview Roy Weard about his remarkable new album, Alan discusses rhythms of the world, John waxes lyrical about Moonalice and we send the legendary Richard Strange to a desert island. Graham explains the latest twists and turns in the saga of Hawkwind and Jon discovers that Every Record tells a Story! and learns about the horrific world of Internet Vigilantes.
     
    Groovy huh?
     
    It’s all free!
     
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Friday Night Progressive, and Strange Fruit. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside zoos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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!!!
     
    This issue features:
     
    Frank Zappa, Every Record Tells A Story, Deep Purple, Don Airey, Queen + Adam Lambert, Elton John, The Kills, Gruff Rhys, Clinic, Nadine Shah, Fat White Family & Wild Beasts, John Cale, Nick Cave, Damon Albarn, Michael Jackson, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Leo Baxendale, Frank Dostal, Calep H. Emphrey Jr., Robert Maynard Pirsig, Emmie Beckitt and Rick Wakeman, Supertramp, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Al Atkins, Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Mary Hopkin, Alan Dearling, Marco Faddo, Trilok Gurtu, Jan Garbarek Group, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Grateful Dead, Rhythm Devils, Brian Jones, Denis Kigongo, UzBand, David Byrne, John Brodie-Good, Moonalice & Doobie Decibel System, Kev Rowland, Solitary, Ape Shifter, Artemiy Artemiev & Karda, Axel Rudi Pell, Barock Project, Richard "Kid" Strange, Doctors of Madness, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, The Beatles, Cocteau Twins, Franz Ferdinand, The Who, Pink Floyd, Neil Nixon, Cut Chemist, Gorillaz
     
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
    Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
    Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
    Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
    Issue 227 (Chuck Berry)
    Issue 225-6 (The Rites of Spring)
    Issue 224 (Hibernal)
    Issue 223 (Beatles)
    Issue 222 (Cruise to the Edge)
    Issue 221 (Deke Leonard)
    Issue 220 (Larry Wallis)
    Issue 219 (Martin Stone)
    Issue 218 (Mark Reiser tribute)
     
     
    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!
     
    You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
     
    SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
     
     
    * 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.co.uk
     
    * 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 57 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. 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 Archie and the Cats?

    END NY COMMERCIAL TERRAPIN HARVEST

    New York State just proposed to end the commercial terrapin harvest, and they need to hear from you if they are to proceed.

    Terrapins in NYS are under pressure from pollution, habitat destruction, vehicle strikes entanglement in fishing gear (crab traps) and over collection.

    In New York State Terrapins are quickly disappearing in areas where they recently were common. 

    Now is our chance to get at least one of those threats off the table for NYS terrapins.

    This will slow down the pressure on the NYS population so solutions for the other threats can be developed and implemented.

    Mail your comments on why you agree that NYS should end the commercial harvest of Terrapins by June 9, 2017 to
    Michael Schiavone
    NYSDEC
    625 Broadway
    Albany, NY 12233-4750
    or email them to him at: WildlifeRegs@dec.ny.gov
     
    For more information about the proposed rule  go to (http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/34113.html#Parts_31_and_32).

    Please remember to include any titles and affiliations, with your signatures. 


    Please distribute this to any one you know might be interested. Post via social media. Help get the word out.

    THYLACINES IN THE NEWS




    While the chances that one of the tigers is alive is one in 1.6 trillion, a find of thylacine hair and a previously unseen photograph have tiger hunters ...


    ... existence of the Tasmanian wolf, also known as the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, but to this day, no definitive evidence has ever been found.

    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)




    THIS is the moment the fabled Loch Ness Monster was “officially” spotted for the first time this year – bringing eight months of uncertainty to an end.


    This is the moment the fabled Loch Ness Monster was “officially” spotted for the first time this year — bringing more than eight months of uncertainty to ...
    This infamous Loch Ness Monster picture spiked terror 84 years ago today
    Though tales of a massive sea beast slithering through Scotland's Loch Ness have been floating around for the past 1500 years, this is the picture that ...
    Film's Lost Nessie Monster Prop Found in Loch Ness
    A 30ft (9m) model of the Loch Ness Monster built in 1969 for a Sherlock Holmes movie has been found almost 50 years after it sank in the loch.

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Is This The Oldest Film of a Bigfoot?
    Sometime between 1965 and 1970, this was reportedly filmed in Louisiana. Is it a real bigfoot captured on camera, and does it pre-date the famous ...

    Baby Bigfoot Peeks Over Cover
    Originally posted as a mother and baby, now believed to just be a branch and the movement of the camera. Have a look and see which you think is ...

    Woman Surrounded By Bigfoot While Camping
    This lady from Pennsylvania had Bigfoot chase her away. Later Porsha went back to the area to camp and several Bigfoot surrounded her all night.


    Playboy Playmate Talks About Her Bigfoot Sighting
    Playboy Playmate Anna Marie Goddard talks about her famous bigfoot sighting, also known as the Redwoods Footage, to Jay Leno.


    Bigfoot Heard Talking In Florida Swamp
    Trail to Bigfoot team does some recon into an area, and hear what they believe were bigfoot talking, as well as some other unusual finds.

    Listen to this very compelling Bigfoot sighting by a psychologist
    This is a documentary from thedailycourier.com on psychologist Matthew Johnson's Bigfoot sighting at the Oregon Caves.


    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1916 - Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • David Attenborough’s ‘Guardian headline’ halts Bor...
  • Naked mole-rats just keep getting weirder and weir...
  • Giraffes must be listed as endangered, conservatio...
  • Space bullethead parrotfish use is influenced more...
  • Bears breed across species borders


  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day.)