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, September 05, 2018

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: The feral reindeer of northern Scotland

Dear Cryptopeople

My Muirhead`s Mysteries blog of today is essentially a precis of an article by Ian Whitaker (deceased) in Archives of Natural History (1986) 13 (1) pp 11 - 18 titled ` The survival of feral reindeer in northern Scotland.

Whitaker states : " The reindeer, Rangifer tarandus L., was commonly found in the British Isles at the end of the last Ice Age and some remains have been found within a considerably later archaeological context. In Northern Scotland,however, it seems to have survived into the present millennium. In particular there is a reference in the Old Norse text,the Orkneyinga saga, to a hunt of this animal having taken place in Caithness in the year 1158. In this article I shall examine this passage in its literary context, as well as other archaeological records of the animal in Scotland..."

Unconvincing remnants of the reindeer have been found in Allt nan Uamh in Scotland and also in Tain, Co.Ross.  There is a sculptured stone, originally from the area of Grantown-on-Spey, Inverness-shire which "seems to show a reindeer " (Whitaker, p.11). Whitaker then goes on to describe more realistic reindeer relics from Orkney in the form of "brochs."

"However , the most specific evidence of the reindeer in Scotland is a literary one, contained in chapter 102 of Orkneyinga saga. There we read: "The Earls used to go over to Caithness every summer hunting red deer and reindeer in the woods there." Boyd Dawkins ,a naturalist,pointed out that the author of the saga " ...must have been well acquainted with the animal in Norway,Sweden and Iceland.."
Whitaker believed that the author of this saga may not have seen reindeer himself but he may have met travellers to Norway who may have seen it for themselves. The reindeer may have become extinct in Scotland when the woods were burnt down to clear out the wolves.Or possibly climate change.Other ideas put forward include the idea that Lapps visited Scotland to tame the reindeer and milk them, and the similarity between Lapps and fairies!

Whitaker believed the feral Scottish reindeer tended towards the " woodland type" (Whitaker p. 15) of reindeer.   

CRYPTOLINk: Tyneside "sea serpent".

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. 

Bizarre sea creature



"I think I witnessed the first sighing of the Loch Ness Monster outside of ... While a fourth simply concluded: "The mystery of Loch Ness is solved.".

The Loch Ness monster has become a national legend, with dozens of ... a giant "water beast" dragging a man to his death in Scotland's River Ness.

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.



BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



RMSO report on the Uinta Mountain Bigfoot sighting
The Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization recently posted a video with a campers report of a Bigfoot in the Uinta Mountains along with footage of ...


... a documentary filmmaker who produced a film about the sasquatch entitled Discovering Bigfoot, had been out filming for several days and while he ...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HAS A CLIPBOARD AND A WHISTLE

The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
YER EDITOR SEZ:
The good news: Prudence didn't eat my new iPad. The bad news: I didn't discover it quickly enough to stop Prudence eating the cover of my new iPad. Why she took it upon herself to do this, I have no idea. But she did, and a horrid crisis was averted by a margin of error which makes me shudder every time I think of it. Prudence, by the way, just in case you didn't know is an elderly and slightly senile Boxer x Bulldog bitch, the shape of a miniature hippo, rather than some human relative who has a taste for eating electronic consumer goods.

Now, I am on the want again. I have been using MSPublisher 2003 for many years, but upgraded to MSOffice 365 a few years ago. However, things that have been designed in Pub2003  come out all awry in 365, with pictures in the wrong places and all sorts of other formatting errors. Has anyone any bright idea about how this can be fixed? Preferably without going through the whole damn thing and sorting it piecemeal.

I have been writing Press Releases and one sheets for decades, but yesterday was the first time I had ever written one about myself. My endeavours to try and find out how the world of digitally marketed music works, are carrying on apace. I even started an EPK for anyone who wants to review my new record. Please email me on jon@eclipse.co.uk if that is the case, and please be nice. My ego is far too fragile for the sort of criticism that some reviewers dish out.  ‘Coldharbour’, by the way, can be found here: https://jondownes1.bandcamp.com/releases

I think it is really rather good, but then again I would say that wouldn't I?
Corinna continues to be pain free, and although she has intermittent discomfort is doing rather well. There is no further news from the hospital except for the fact that she needs more tests, and so the waiting game continues. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I am convinced that the barrage of love and blessings you have sent us so far has borne remarkable results...

ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO PRINT:

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Berlioz - Les Troyens ...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Dave Bainbridge Interview - Celestial Fire - Solo ...
YES feat ARW IN THE NEWS
LEONARD COHEN IN THE NEWS

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF FROM THE GONZOVERSE:

For those of you who are interested in such things, the Gonzo Privacy Policy is here:
And the CFZ Privacy Policy is here:
And, yes,
CHECK OUT THE GONZO STORES:
UK
US
AND OTHER STUFF FEATURING VARIOUS GONZO CONTRIBUTORS:

Our webTV show:
And if you fancy supporting it on Patreon:
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore may seem to be in order:
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:

Gonzo Weekly #301-2
THE PEACE AND LOVE ISSUE
In another fantastically fab issue, Richard meets Ringo Starr and goes into Therapy, Jon examines the autobiography of Cosey from Throbbing Gristle, John goes analogue, Doug goes to see Erasure, and Chris and Graham independently mention Eric Clapton, Alan gets the blues from Toby Mottershead, Raz goes to see Yes feat. ARW, Graham muses on Hawkwind and Arthur Brown, and Jon gets all apocalyptic and then releases an album.

#Hail Eris!

And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, AND there are columns from all sorts of folk including Kev Rowlands, Neil Nixon, C J Stone, AND Roy Weard and the irrepressible Corinna AND Mr Biffo are back on board.  There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and red kangaroos who've lost their shoes (OK, nothing to do with the largest extant macropods who are in a quandry with regards their footwear, 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:

Ken Worthington, John Shuttleworth, Apple Records, Ed Sheeran, Aretha Franklin, Neil Young, Daryl Hannah, Michael Jackson, Michael Raz Rescigno, YES featuring Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman, Bart Lancia, Peter Gabriel, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Lindsay Keith Kemp, Anthony Toby Hiller, Marvin Neil Simon, Edward Calhoun King, Leslie Carswell Johnson, Spencer Patrick Jones, Turgut Berkes, Khaira Arby, Jack Constanzo, Danny Pearson, Jill Janus, Collins Leysath "DJ Ready Red", Kyle Pavone, Elliot "Ellie" Mannette, Rick Wakeman, Michael Bruce, Natural Gas, Richard Stellar, Ringo Starr, Doug Harr, Erasure, Alan Dearling, Toby Mottershead, The Barrels Ale House, John Brodie Good, sound systems, Analogue, Stephen Fearing, Kev Rowland, Arena, Black Foxxes, Black Moth, Bob Arthurs & Steve Lamattina, The Bonnevilles, Bulletboys,Crosson, Roo, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Chris Stone, Eric Clapton, Hawkwind, Arthur Brown, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Carlos Santana, Elvis, Neil Nixon, Diamanda Galas.

And the last few issues are:

Issue 301-2 (Ringo Starr)
Issue 299-300 (Aretha Franklin)
Issue 298 (Alan in Hungary)
Issue 297 (Shir Ordo)
Issue 295-6 (Robert Berry)
Issue 294 (Bow Wow Wow)
Issue 293 (Stonehenge)
Issue 292 (Rolling Stones)
Issue 291 (Alien Weaponry)
Issue 290 (Frank Zappa)
Issue 289 (Misty in Roots)
Issue 288 (Paula Frazer)
Issue 287 (Boss Goodman)
Issue 286 (Monty Python)
Issue 285 (ELP)
Issue 284 (Straqngelove)
Issue 283 (Record Store Day)
Issue 282 (Neil Finn and Fleetwood Mac)
Issue 281 (Carl Palmer)
Issue 280 (Steve Andrews)

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?

THANK YOU: To Bob Skinner for this lovely and most undeserved glft


NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

ON THIS DAY IN -   1698 - Russia's Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • A breakthrough to rescue the Northern White Rhino
  • New wasp species with a giant stinger discovered i...
  • First dogs in the Americas arrived from Siberia, d...
  • What does the koala genome tell us about the taste...

  • 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)