CFZ PEOPLE: Stuart Rickard's Funeral

For those of you who have enquired, Stuart's funeral is at 2pm on Monday the 15th, in the parish church yhere in the village.

NICK REDFERN: More on British Man Beasts

Any mention of the infamous Beast of Bodmin Moor inevitably conjures up imagery of large black cats roaming the British countryside.

But not always.

Some time ago, I received an email from a man who had an intriguing, but unfortunately, very brief story to relate.

The details, from Keith Fletcher of Derby, concern a story told to him back in the mid-1980s (by a work colleague who hailed from Cornwall) of a "giant monkey" roaming Bodmin Moor 6 or 7 years prior to when Keith heard the story - which would have placed the events somewhere in the latter part of the 1970s.

Keith is currently trying to track down his source; and so hopefully we may learn more in due course.

In the meantime, it's intriguing to note that others seem to have uncovered data on what may very well be the same story.

In his book Big Cats Loose in Britain, author Marcus Matthews says: "On 2nd January 1985, an article appeared in Exeter's Express and Echo about the 'Beast of Bodmin.' I have learned from a relation that in the 1970s and 1980s there were always rumours of an escaped orang-utan ape in the area. Farmers coming home from the public houses were used to seeing a strange pair of eyes looking at them, and a hairy human-like figure disappearing quickly."

Expect more data if and when I hopefully get it...

And, on a somewhat related matter:

Another story brought to my attention not too long ago is worthy of commentary: it comes from a man named Bob Shenton, who claims to have seen "something bloody odd" on the wilds of Dartmoor back in the winter of 1967.

Bob was driving across the moors late one night (at the time he worked as a plumber and was heading to a house to deal with a case of a burst water-pipe) and - while near the village of Postbridge - came across something decidedly strange.

According to Bob, for the briefest of moments, and as he approached Postbridge, he caught sight of what looked very much like a large ape-like figure crossing the road in front of him and vanishing into the shadows at the edge of the road.

Interestingly, Bob described the creature as "like a shadow", in the sense that it seemed one-dimensional in nature - which closely, and eerily, echoes the description of the similar beast seen at Bolam Woods by Squire Downes in 2002.

Not only that, Postbridge has been the site for many years of a phenomenon that may very well be related: namely, that of the infamous hairy-hands - concerning which, a quick search of Google will provide quite a lot.

I am contacting local newspapers in the area to see if anyone else can shed further light on this mysterious encounter. I'll keep you posted.

RICHARD HOLLAND'S SHAMELESS PLUG: Top tips for monster hunters

Once again we hand you over to guest blogger Richard Holland, editor of Paranormal Magazine, and all round good bloke. He is a regular visitor tho these pages, and I am sure that you will all agree with me that this is jolly good news for all of us.

This is a new service provided by the CFZ bloggo both to publications and to you, the reading public. We invite the editors of any magazine that is on topic to the admittedly broad remit of this bloggo, to send us a shameless plug for the contents of any issue of your mag that fits on these pages...

The latest edition of Paranormal Magazine (July / issue 37) has a strong cryptozoological flavour thanks to contributions by the CFZ’s zoological director Richard Freeman and crypto-star Dr Karl Shuker.

Richard has provided a highly readable guide to organizing a cryptozoological expedition, offering handy insider’s tips on such matters as equipment, clothing, travel arrangements, inoculations and choosing a guide. He also gives hints as to selecting the ‘best’ monsters to hunt.

Richard has led expeditions to all parts of the world and in a variety of challenging environments, including dense jungle, scorching deserts and treacherous icy mountains. I can think of no one better to write such a guide – let alone such an entertaining one.

Paranormal Magazine is the ideal platform to reach readers who may only have a vague interest in matters cryptozoological, so hopefully Richard’s article will galvanise that interest in more than a few and encourage them to approach the CFZ.

In addition, Karl has come up trumps again with a fascinating piece about the creatures of the Australian Dreamtime. Are they merely figments of Aboriginal imagination, he asks, or are the remote, trackless rainforests really home to a variety of undiscovered hairy hominids and other weirdies? Is the monstrous, vampiric Yara-ma-yha-who really just a race memory of the bizarre but harmless tarsier? And why is the Black Dog as prevalent in ancient aboriginal lore as it is in European?

It’s all good stuff and comes complete with the rudest picture we’ve ever published in Paranormal, which is a plus, I feel.

In addition, Paranormal 37 boasts articles on haunted theatres, screaming skulls, horrible coincidences and the history of alien abduction. And there is an in-depth feature on the new ‘daemon’ theory of life-after-death which is getting a lot of attention just now; together with an exclusive interview with the developer of the theory, Anthony Peake.

All that and possibly the worst pun even I have yet come up with (‘Fear and Lothian’) – but give me time! I hope you enjoy it.

Richard Holland, Editor of Paranormal Magazine (www.paranormalmagazine.co.uk) and Uncanny UK (www.uncannyuk.com).

THE CATS OF UPPER MINSTER: Part Eight - Getting down to business...

The other week, as an amusing one-off Tim Matthews, wrote a silly short story spoofing some of the more ridiculous exploits of various self-styled big cat researchers over the years.

It was so popular that he wrote another one, and now - by public demand - it has become a serial. Every other day will see an episode of Timmo's new Fortean soap opera The Cats of Upper Minster. And having read the first few episodes I can confirm that it is bloody smashing and highly amusing. "I'll carry on until it stops being funny" says Tim, and you can't say fairer than that!


Once mummy had dispensed with Colonel Bonkers she sat down on a chair in the corner of the room and talked to her children. It was not unlike a military briefing and certainly more effective than anything that Burger Van Billy and General Farley could manage.

“The first thing we should try is to actually find out something about this cat. I bet you that other people have seen it and another factor is, my dears, that we don’t want the village being taken over by nutters and men in camouflage. Or men driving around in a converted burger van. I am going to have a word with Jack and see what he can come up with. We shall reconvene here in an hour!”

Gosh, thought the children, mummy is a rock! “I was worried she’d be cross with me,” said Florence, “or tell me I was going mad.”

“You’re mad anyway, Florry,” laughed Robin. “But lovably so.”

“And pooh to you too,” sneered Florence in Robin’s general direction.

“There shall be no falling out. We are going to stick together in this one and save the village AND the cat I hope,” said Frieda. “It is going to be a lot of hard work but I suppose the first thing to do is to actually capture the cat!”

“Capture it,” the children said, aloud. Then Frieda added, “HOW are we going to capture it? Heavens!”

“Yes but I’ve been looking at some of these Big Cat websites and some are better than others,” said Robin. “And I’ll tell you what. The Big Cats Research one is the worst. Most of it isn’t about big cats and there are all these awful pictures of the various members and they all look like nutters or saddoes. Lots of photos of men in camouflage and very few women. Mostly a lot of posing idiots it seems and their forum, which I joined, is poisonous. It’s a lot of personal attacks on people they dislike and the General supports West Ham. Things couldn’t be worse!”

“Well who cares about his dratted website and forum,” retorted Tom. “Any idiot can have one of those!”

“Yes websites are ten a penny these days and it’s what people do, not how shiny their wretched website is and if ONLY people knew what kind of people these ABC idiots really are,” added Frieda.

“Brilliant, Frieda, brilliant. I have an idea...about the internet.....”, shouted Tom, joyfully. “Well, look here, we have broadband, we have a digicam, one of those nice Sony ones, and I’ve got this basic film making type programme and it’s a simple editing programme too. Some of my friends have put videos on YouTube. We could, too. We could make a `Kids From Upper Minster Speak Out` type film. Given all the rubbish publicity that is going to hit this village – and probably already is – people will watch any film on the subject and might help us in our plan.”

“Errrrm, just one problem, we don’t have a plan,” Robin complained. “Well apart from making a film and nobody will watch it anyway.”

“Don’t be so sure,” replied Tom. “If we do things right then we might go international.”

“Oh I do thiiink that the country air is affecting you Tom dearest,” added Florence.

“Maybe, maybe not,” replied Tom doing the worst Jimmy Cagney impression ever. “This is big news – by accident or design- so maybe the children of Upper Minster should get in on the act!”

At that moment, mother knocked on the door and Jack came in behind her. He spoke first:

“Well children, the quiet of our country life has been shattered by a lethal combination of bad luck and stupid people, so we are going to do something about it...starting now!” Jack was always a bit dramatic, but it amused Sheila and the kids loved his flamboyance.

“I have a plan,” he exclaimed, “and we will have to work in concert for it to work!”

“What’s concert?” demanded Florence. “Together, all of us,” Tom replied.

“I seeeee,” added Florence. “Cool!”

“First thing is,” said Jack, “To catch the blighter. Now so far nobody has managed this but then, you only have to look at the quality of personnel involved in the Big Cat Hunt to know why they’ve achieved nothing. Most of them don’t even own pets! Anyway, I digress. To catch this thing is not, technically, that difficult. What I shall do first, with some help from you youngsters, is try and work out its route. You see, cats of any sort are creatures of habit. I shall be speaking to a couple of the farmers I know, on the quiet, to see if they have any information. I have known some of ‘em all my life and they trust me, so we might get lucky. If this really is a Big Cat that Tom and Florry saw, then local farmhands will know something of it but will, for several reasons, not have made it public and might just have taken extra precautions on their land rather than making a big fuss or rushing off to the papers.”

“God knows what local farmers are thinking now,” mummy interjected, trying to add some hilarity into proceedings that had suddenly become all too serious. Mind you, Jack was an uncompromising soul and very gifted when it came to Zoology. When it came to animals and suchlike, Jack was your man. He was employed as a farm manager because he knew livestock, had expertise in it. In his earlier years, after doing a Zoology degree at Bristol University, he’d gone in search of new species of animal in South America and parts of Venezuela that weren’t even mapped properly! So he was a doer, not so much a talker.

“What we will do,” Jack continued, “is use our brains and our common sense. These have been sorely lacking amongst Big Cat researchers thus far.”

The children laughed.

“It seems to me that the cat will be hungry. Therefore, it is hunting. It needs food. So it will be drawn to local livestock and within short order we should be able to build up a Cat Activity Map on Robin’s computer. After doing this, and some preliminary investigations, we shall try and capture the thing by baiting it and trapping it. We shall use a ton of catnip, some live bait and hope that the Gods are on our side. By developing our sightings and activity map we should be able to work out a route and the best place to put our bait. I am betting that this creature is not so damned mysterious at all and that it behaves like big cats the world over using natural cover, for example nearby woods, to hide itself before moving in the for kill on open ground......”

“And here endeth the lesson,” remarked Tom, enthusiastically.

“Well Tom, what do you think?” asked Jack. “You’re a good fisherman and I taught you about that and the girls are quite good at catching butterflies before releasing them!”

“Yes, darling,” interrupted their mother, “but this mystery cat, or whatever, is not a butterfly and I do not want the children being in danger.”

“Indeed not,” answered Jack, “but these beasts seem curiously disinterested in their human counterparts.”

“I hope you’re not counting on a ruthless killer’s benevolence here darling,” added Sheila. “My children are not going to get in danger on some insane Big Cat hunt. I trust you to do it, with assistance, but my children shall be the backroom support.”

At this point Tom told mummy and Jack about the film and she said, “Aha! Fab! Something less dangerous for you to get involved in. I love your creativity. By all means, children, go and interview Mrs Seaton and Jenny Watts from the pub and, for that matter, anyone else you can get hold of. Be discreet of course. Tell people it’s for a homework project or something. If I’m right that idiot clown in the camouflage will have annoyed all but the most gullible by now. We can, I hope, rid the village of these invaders so we can maintain the peace and quiet and hopefully save the mystery cat’s life....”

JAN EDWARDS: What's this baby?

These are all pictures of the same bird. It’s a fledgling, as you can see from the beak. It’s kind-of-brown. I know what it is, but do you?

Jan Edwards,
Head of Animal Care
Farplace Animal Rescue
- the no-kill animal sanctuary
Farplace, Sidehead, Westgate, County Durham, DL13 1LE
www.farplace.org.uk

WORK ON THE NEW AVIARY

Work is well underway on the second aviary in the bottom aviary block. This will go alongside the aviary currently inhabited by Ichabod Melkdrew the crow, and will await the next rescue birds coming in from Beth.

Last weekend she offered us a baby magpie, and we said `yes` even though we had nowhere to keep it. Sadly, the magpie succumbed to its injuries, but we decided that it was probably a good idea to go ahead with building the aviary anyhow.

For those of you familiar with the CFZ grounds, this means that the perimeter hedge which presently divides us from Dave and Ross B-P's grandmother next door, will have aviaries all along its length.

Whilst on the subject of aviaries, we hopefully will be getting a breeding pair of Reeve's Pheasants on friday afternoon. They will go in the main aviary outside the museum..

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today

Yesterday’s News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

It’s time for another update on the latest cryptozoology news from the CFZ’s daily cryptozoology news blog, enjoy:

Long odds on space viruses seeding life
Researchers believe they have found recent Bigfoot print in Oklahoma
New bustard chicks a 'huge step'
Sharks can be cuddled like dolphins, say scientists

Did you hear about the angry aquarium owner? His shark was worse than his pike.