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...




Thursday, March 29, 2018

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: 5 big cats roaming without radio collars...
  • ARTICLE: Close interaction with captive lions is N...
  • NEWSLINK: Another tiger goes missing from Maha for...

  • VIDEO: Leopard Enters Residential Area in Ulhasnag...

  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN CONTINUES TO TALK LIKE JENNINGS

    The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
    Things have been happening. Not good things, not bad things, not big things, not tiny things...just things. One of the times blew off the roof last weekend sowe have hired a very long (and surprisingly inexpensive) ladder so Graham can go on the roof, replace it, and carry  various tasks of prophylaxis which we hope will safeguard the rest of it. In the meantime I am reading Graham Reels' massively entertaining 'Confessions of a Hong Kong Naturalist', and enjoying every paragraph.
    ciaou....
    Forgive me for always banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for as many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
    And if you fancy supporting us on Patreon:
    And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore seems to be in order: if you want to make me a happy fellow, you can:
    buy my novel:
    buy the record by the main protagonist of the novel who isn't me in an elephant mask, honest:
    buy my single:
    But for now, here is the news:
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:   Van der Graaf Genera...
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    Captain Beefheart Full Documentary
    ZAPPA FAMILY NEWS
    IS IT OVERKILL TO USE MY WONDROUS STORIES JOKE AGA...
    Gonzo Weekly #279
    THE DIGI-ME-DO ISSUE
    In this magnificently peculiar issue, The immortal and happily visible Mr Biffo has a new TV project and needs OUR help, Alan reviews Lady Sybil Grey, Doug concludes his series on Split Enz, John loves the new Cary Grace album, and Jeremy goes to see the Handsome Family, while Jon reads a book about The Beatles. Wot, another one?
    #Hail Eris!
    And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, AND Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, there are columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, Kev Rowlands, Roy Weard, C J Stone, and Mr Biffo AND the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers who have gone for a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have probably got hangovers and have decided to have a little rest, 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:
    Leslie Charteris, Gerald Durrell, Lawrence Durrell, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Paul Rose, John & Yoko, Ed Sheeran,great crested newts, Ringo Starr, Orbital, Glenn Hughes, Roger Daltrey, music piracy, David Bowie, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Charles Kofi Amankwaa Mann, Sudan, Killjoy (Frank Pucci), José Juan Piñero González, Alfred Lynn (aka Allah Real) Laurence Cleary, Katie Boyle, Lady Saunders (born Caterina Irene Elena Maria Imperiali di Francavilla), Peter "Mars" Cowling, Tony Klinger, Billion Dollar Babies, Man, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, Jeremy Smith, The Handsome Family, Doug Harr, Split Enz, Alan Dearling, Lady Sybil Grey, Simon Boyd, John Brodie-Good, Cary Grace, Kev Rowland, Testament, X-Panda, Ammouri, Anti-Flag, Armed Cloud, Babylon A.D., Band of Rain, Beast in Black, Betontod, C.J. Stone, Hawkwind, Captain Rizz, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Margaret Hunt, The Beatles, Barry Manilow, Lemmy, Motorhead, Neil Nixon, Five Starcle Men
    And the last few issues are:
    Issue 278 (The Beatles)
    Issue 277 (Auld Man's Baccie)
    Issue 276 (Dukes of the Orient)
    Issue 275 (Martin Gordon)
    Issue 274 (Steve Took)
    Issue 273 (Live Dead 69)
    Issue 272 (George Butler)
    Issue 271 (Mark E Smith)
    Issue 270 (Eric Clapton)
    Issue 269 (Narnia)
    Issue 267-8 (Happy New Year)
    Issue 265-6 (The Who)
    Issue 264 (John McLaughlin)
    Issue 263 (The magic Band)
    Issue 262 (DikMik)
    Issue 261 (Leonard Cohen)
    Issue 260 (Amsterdam Squat Festie)
    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?

    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.



    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Thursday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1461 - Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown by defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Full Monty python: Florida snake swallows deer hea...
  • Scientists seeking rare river crayfish aren't just...
  • Earless Frogs and Their Unique Habitats – via Herp...


  • SC turtle smugglers wrapped critters in candy and ...


  • 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)