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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Wednesday, May 26, 2021

BIG CAT ROUND UP

 

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 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.

THE LAST WEEK AT THE CFZ-USA BLOG


  • SCARY BIGFOOT ENCOUNTER
  • CREEPY CRYPTIDS OF WISCONSIN
  • WATER MONSTERS OF SIBERIA
  • MYSTERY CREATURE ON BEACH
  • LITTLE PEOPLE OF SICILY
  • SMOKY MOUNTAIN BIGFOOT FESTIVAL
  • TWO NEW LIZARD SPECIES DISCOVERED
  • UNKNOWN CREATURE IN PAKISTAN
  • THE RAT LETTERS
  • ARE OCTOPUSES ALIENS?
  • IS THIS A PRIMITIVE SASQUATCH CARVING?
  • WAS THIS A YOWIE?
  • YAY-HO
  • KAW-KAW
  • MICHELIN MAN PAYS A VISIT
  • WHAT WAS STANDING NEAR THE BLINDS?
  • MOOSE STALKED BY STRANGE CREATURE
  • TRACKS LEFT BY BIGFOOT FAMILY?
  • LILI - CREATURE OF CHINESE MYTH
  • SEA SERPENT - UNSOLVED MYSTERY
  • MYSTERIOUS TURTLE REMAINS
  • SCARIEST URBAN LEGEND
  • CHUPACABRA AND OTHER MYSTERIES
  • DID THERMAL IMAGES SNAP TWO YOWIES?
  • ELVES, DWARVES, FAIRIES AND GOBLINS
  • 1997: UNDERWATER ULTRASOUND
  • TALL GRAY HUMANOIDS
  • FAIRY CAPTURED ON SECURITY CAMERA
  • MARANHIG: FILIPINO ZOMBIES
  • GHOST DEER OF CALIFORNIA
  • MUSKRAT LAKE MONSTER
  • MONSTER ENCOUNTERED BY RUSSIAN DIVERS
  • RAIN OF JELLYFISH
  • BEAST OF BANWELL
  • CRYPTIDS FROM ALL OVER
  • BLACK-EYED HUMANOID
  • DRAGON - FOLKLORE AND LEGEND
  • YEHO - CARIBBEAN CRYPTID
  • ORANG MAWAS
  • MAN-BEASTS OF SOUTH AMERICA
  • MERMAIDS AND THE AQUATIC APE THEORY
  • BIGFOOT SAVES HIKER'S LIFE
  • REFORESTATION AND DEFORESTATION
  • GROOTSLANG - A BIG SNAKE
  • BLACK-EYED KID BECOMES VIOLENT
  • DOES BIGFOOT HAVE A MIDTARSAL BREAK?
  • NUGGLE - WATER HORSE OF ORKNEY
  • SPACE PENGUINS
  • TROLLS OF NORWAY
  • TRUTH IN DRAGON LEGENDS?
  • BIGFOOT: TWO HISTORICAL SIGHTINGS?
  • US NAVY VIDEO
  • NEW BOOK ON BIGFOOT
  • GIANT SKELETON IN COPPER ARMOR
  • PALE CRAWLER HUMANOID
  • RED WOLF CUBS BORN
  • SLIMY CASPAR
  • BIGFOOT IN NEBRASKA
  • MAN BATTLES WITH STRANGE BEAST
  • BIGFOOT IN KENTUCKY
  • MYSTERY APES OF AFRICA
  • CREEPY CAVES AND THEIR DENIZENS
  • ORANGE-EYED OWL
  • EINSTEIN AND ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
  • POLICEMAN SAW LOCH NESS MONSTER
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN ISN'T

     The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday

    Lady Selene is high in the sky, and so again I turn to Robert Browning. Yay for Caliban! Yay for Setebos!
    Will sprawl, now that the heat of day is best,
    Flat on his belly in the pit's much mire,
    With elbows wide, fists clenched to prop his chin.
    And, while he kicks both feet in the cool slush,
    And feels about his spine small eft-things course,
    Run in and out each arm, and make him laugh:
    And while above his head a pompion-plant,
    Coating the cave-top as a brow its eye,
    Creeps down to touch and tickle hair and beard,
    And now a flower drops with a bee inside,
    And now a fruit to snap at, catch and crunch,—
    He looks out o'er yon sea which sunbeams cross
    And recross till they weave a spider-web
    (Meshes of fire, some great fish breaks at times)
    And talks to his own self, howe'er he please,
    Touching that other, whom his dam called God.
    Because to talk about Him, vexes—ha,
    Could He but know! and time to vex is now,
    When talk is safer than in winter-time.
    Moreover Prosper and Miranda sleep
    In confidence he drudges at their task,
    And it is good to cheat the pair, and gibe,
    Letting the rank tongue blossom into speech.]
    Setebos, Setebos, and Setebos!
    'Thinketh, He dwelleth i' the cold o' the moon.
    The new episode of On the Track went out on Saturday and features an exclusive interview with legendary Apple Records star Brute Force In which explains why he pledges allegiance to the planet, we revisit the conundrum of whether the Asiatic cheetah has survived outside its last known bastion in the middle of Iran, and we examine claims that it is still to be found in Bangladesh, and we look at the recent discovery of the Corsican wildcat - a creature that Bernard Heuvelmans predicted back in the day. And Hennis goes to the Polling Station. So, if you want to attend a visual entertainment consisting of hard science and a smattering of weird shit, interspersed with us dicking about in an increasingly surreal manner, check the latest episode out:
    My book ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ is the story of my early life in Hong Kong, and how I first became interested in Natural History, and more specifically cryptozoology, and there are several very little known cryptozoological mysteries discussed therein. It is very much like a darker analog of Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of his childhood in Greece, and I would’ve called it “My Family and other Sociopaths” if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t want to be sued either by Durrell’s estate, or my family. You can find out more and buy it signed from the link below:
    C’mon, make a curmudgeonly old bugger happy.
    AND HERE'S TODAY'S NEWS
    GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Elaine Paige, Barbara Dick...
    Pt 1 of Corky Laing Interviewed By Mark Nomad on D...
    Robert Calvert - Ramblings at Dawn, 1982 Interview
    LEONARD COHEN: how Jewish is Hallelujah
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    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:
    Meanwhile I continue to pretend that I am a popstar, because now I have sold eleven whole copies of my new album Coldharbour. If I continue at this rate I will get a silver disc sometime at the beginning of the next millenium. 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?
    AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
    Gonzo Weekly #443/4
    THE CHICKEN SUIT ISSUE
    This magazine continues to go off on strange tangents that I never expect, but I am very happy to see it do so. What is in this week? Ooooh lots of things. Such as Discordianism, New World Ordure, Del Bartle founder of The Sid Presley Experience, Wounded Buffalo Beats, Anarchy in Hebden Bridge and oodles more...
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive, AND Merrell Fankhauser, and the Real Music Club, AND Strange Fruit, and Mr Biffo, there is a column from Kev Rowland, and C.J Stone, but Mr Biffo, Tony Klinger and Neil Nixon, are on hiatus. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and dibblers who have got the blues (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are listening to the new Bob Dylan album, 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!!!
    ..And the last few issues are:
    Issue 443-4 (Rubber chicken)
    Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 439-40 (Prince Phillip)
    Issue 437-8 (Yes)
    Issue 435-36 (Hawkwind)
    Issue 433-34 (Freda Payne)
    Issue 431-32 (Kosheen)
    Issue 429-30 (Ocean Aid)
    Issue 427-8 (2021 ia Bosch)
    Issue 425-6 (Paul McCartney)
    Issue 423-4 (KLF)
    Issue 421-22 (Christmas)
    Issue 419-20 (John Lennon)
    Issue 417-8 (gIG)
    Issue 415-16 (Phideaux)
    Issue 413-14 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 411-12 (Extinction Rebellion)
    Issue 409-10 (Covid)
    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 a recently widowed old hippy of 61 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, three other cats, 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 a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 0017 - Germanicus of Rome celebrated his victory over the Germans.

    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Save the helmeted hornbill
  • Cave lions found

  • 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)