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...




Friday, September 01, 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.

  • ARTICLE: 25 lost leopard cubs reunited with their ...
  • ARTICLE: Interspecies Hybrids Play a Vital Role in...
  • NEWSLINK: Satellite collars can save big cats in t...

  • NEWSLINK: Teen tells judge he bought tiger cub on ..
  • CFZ MONTHLY NEWSLETTER #23

    Dear Friends,

    For those of you not in the know, at the beginning of each month we send out a newsletter to all members of the CFZ. The most recent (which went out this morning) included articles on the expedition to Russia, Paul Vella, a chupacabra skull that isn't, a picture query from Col Blashford-Snell's Mokele Mbembe expedition, o.o.p Nile Monitor, a mysterious animal that might be a 19th Century blue dog, a mystery cat from Nepal, a new book on vampires, CFZ not in the news, the return of OTT, Expedition Profiles for 2017, Notes and Queries etc.

    The infrastructure of the Centre for Fortean Zoology has changed rapidly over the last few years and truthfully doesn’t look like its going to stop changing anytime soon. The newsletter costs a quid a month (or the equivalent in your currency) and is delivered straight into your inbox by a plethora of tiny invisible elves, or email if your prefer it that way. You can sign up for it here: http://tinyurl.com/jtsq7ew

    If you want to view a sample issue click here: http://tinyurl.com/pw7rw9l

    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




    JEMEZ SPRINGS, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico village is holding a festival in connection with a legend that Bigfoot is roaming around the state's Jemez ...

    A Bigfoot sighting on South Bass Island
    By the time you are reading this, college football season has already started. Not that the weather necessarily changes, but football is the start of our ...

    The United States has some pretty peculiar regulations when it comes to wildlife—real or imagined. View Images. Mexican free-tailed bats sail through ...

    Bigfoot waves from a bizarre Willow Creek Fire Safe Council float during the annual Bigfoot Days Parade in 2016 in the riverside town. This year's ...

    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.





    THE LAST TRAIN TO THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

    The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
     
    I am feeling surprisingly cheerful today. And for no particular reason. I have just heard from Judge Smith who has decided -it seems - to return to live performance with a new band. On top of this Spirits Burning made a rare UK live performance recently and I shall be talking to both Judge and Don Falcone very soon and the results will be in the magazine, as you might expect.
     
    By the way, forgive me for banging on about this but on a personal level I would be very grateful if you could spread the word about our rebooted monthly webTV series after a break of nearly four years. I actually hadn't realised it had been so long, but - then again - my concepts of time and space are fairly abstract at the best of times.
     
     
    But now, here is the news:
     
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Clepsydra - Travel of ...
    RICK WAKEMAN IN NEW MICK RONSON DOCUMENTARY
    CAPTAIN BEEFHEART NEWS
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    COMING THIS WEEKEND
     
    Gonzo Weekly #249
    THE ON THE RAZ WITH BILL ISSUE
     
    We unpack Bill Bruford’s box and investigate the contents, we visit The Raz Band featuring Joe Vitale and Joey Molland in the studio, Alan introduces us to Gypsy Dave Smith, Alan Finlan and Startled Monkeys, we drop the legendary UFO author Nick Redfern on a desert isle, and review this week’s return of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
     
    Yup, and it’s all free!
     
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Strange Fruit, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antichinuses attracting a chorus of boos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have become unpopular for some reason, 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:
     
    Leonard Cohen, Morrissey, Robert Plant, Cyreez Lewis, Skunk Anansie, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Iman, Prince, Carine Roitfeld, Billy Joel, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, John Laird Abercrombie, Jerry Lewis, Albert Austin "Sonny" Burgess, Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson CBE, Brian Wilson Aldiss OBE, Rick Wakeman, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Third Ear Band, Atomic Rooster, Bill Bruford, The RAZ Band, Alan Dearling, Gypsy Dave, Alan Finlan and Startled Monkeys, Kev Rowland, All Out War, BLK Ops/Cave Bastard, Child Bite, Syk, Chris Pasin and Friends, Warbeast, Empire, Aenaon, Nick Redfern, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, Mal Evans, Janis Joplin, Daniel O'Donnell, Robertson’s, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Wilson Pickett, Duran Duran, Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
     
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 248 (The Selecter)
    Issue 247 (Don Airey)
    Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
    Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
    Issue 243 (Galahad)
    Issue 242 (Steve Miller Band)
    Issue 241 (Carol Hodge and Steve Ignorant)
    Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
    Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
    Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 236 (Manchester)
    Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
    Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
    Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
    Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
    Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
    Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
    Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
    Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
     
    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 58 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?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1939 - World War II began when Germany invaded Poland. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • An alternative to wolf control to save endangered ...
  • Chinese scientists artificially breed rare snakes ...
  • Rare white moose caught on video in Sweden
  • Bubonic plague-carrying fleas found in parts of no...
  • Spectacular rebirth of Belize's coral reefs threat...
  • UK charity helps rescue two orangutans in Borneo f...

  • Who's a Blue Boy? Indian Dogs Tinted by Polluted R...



  • 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.