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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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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

MYSTERY SHARK?

STRIPELESS TIGER MAY HELP SOLVE 99 YEAR OLD MYSTERY

Fareeda - a white tiger cub at a South African animal park - has been born without stripes. This is mildly interesting in itself, but we would like to refer you to one of the major articles in this issue of Animals & Men

which tells the story of a mystery cat shot in Hong Kong in 1910.


The original reference in the South China Morning Post reads:


“Residents in Kowloon ought in future to rest peacefully at night, for the prowling “tiger” has at last been killed. This was the news which reached our office last night.

It appears that on Saturday afternoon several parties set out into the New Territory with the avowed intention of bringing home the skin of the “tiger” if there was such an animal anywhere in the reach of a gun.


One of these parties consisting of 6 men, set out late on Saturday afternoon. From information they obtained from outlining villages, they learned that the beast was in the habit of feeding in the neighbourhood of Tai Om between 4 and 5 in the morning. The hunters accordingly concealed themselves near the place and waited with commendable patience. They were rewarded for their long wait, for at half past four on Sunday morning it made its appearance. Two shots were fired at it, one striking it in the neck and the other in the back. Both shots took effect, one of the bullets entering the spine, and the beast at once collapsed and in a very short time was dead.


In its death struggles the animal dug a hole in the ground nearly 3 feet deep. It was a powerful beast and measured 5feet 1inch in length without the tail. It stood about 3 feet high. Its skin was of a dark brown hue, and it did not resemble a tiger. It is thought to belong to the panther specie. [sic]

The two successful shots were fired by Sergt. Devny and Mr. Gast. They are to be congratulated on the success of their hunting expedition, and they will have the satisfaction of having relieved the minds of the residents in the outlying villages of the New Territory. They left the animal in the New Territory, we understand, for the purpose of having the skin preserved. What will be done with it afterwards has not been decided. It will make an interesting addition to the local museum”.

In the article written by Jon and Richard Muirhead, this and other mystery cats from the region are discussed, and it is hypothesised that they might be stripeless tigers. Now, Fareeda has proved that this might well be the case....

Read the original article

THE CFZ HIT PARADE - THE TOP TENS FOR JUNE

UK

1 The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent by Neil Arnold (1)
1= Man Monkey - In Search of the British Bigfoot by Nick Redfern (3)
3 Dragons: More than a Myth? by Richard Freeman (-)
3= The Owlman and Others by Jonathan Downes (3)
5= Dark Dorset by Mark North and Robert Newland (5)
5= In the wake of Bernard Heuvelmans by Michael Woodley (5)
5= Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Animals on Stamps by Dr Karl Shuker (8)
5= Dr Shuker's Casebook by Dr Karl Shuker (-)
9 The smaller mystery animals of the westcountry by Jonathan Downes (-)
10 Monster Hunter by Jonathan Downes (-)



US


1 Big Bird by Ken Gerhard (1)
2= Extraordinary Animals Revisited by Dr Karl Shuker (2)
3= In the wake of Bernard Heuvelmans by Michael Woodley (5)
4= Dr Shuker's Casebook by Dr Karl Shuker (2)
5= Monster - the A-Z of Zooform Phenomena by Neil Arnold (5)
5= Dinosaurs and other Prehistoric Animals on Stamps by Dr Karl Shuker (-)
5= Giant Snakes by Michael Newton (-)
8= The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent by Neil Arnold (1)
9 The Island of Paradise by Jonathan Downes (9)
10= The Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland (Northumberland) by Michael Hallowell (9)


Last month's positions in this pinky colour, which I think is called cerise

DR DAN WITH AN INTERESTING RESOURCE

DAN HOLDSWORTH WRITES:

Jon,
Having read your story about the phantom black dog, I decided to go looking for an online map of geological faults and similar data. I found http://portal.onegeology.org/

Mooching around on this I happened to discover that Mawnan Old Church is sitting slap bang on top of a geological fault. Now, Google Earth has a layer that shows where there have been earthquakes in the past.

There was an earthquake just a little away from Mawnan in July 23, 1966 01:50:04 UTC at a depth of 33.00 km (20.51 mi). So, that fault was active then and is very likely still creeping a bit to this day, and very likely still churning out geomagnetism and the like.

Interesting, yes?

(Oh, and there are geological faults shown near Somerset, but nothing much shown near the northern bit).

JOHN KEEL'S LAST DAYS

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/keel-end/

On cryptomundo Loren gives some sad details of the final days of fortean legend John Keel. Having nursed my own father through his final illness, and seen an imploring, giant of a man both physically and mentally - someone who forged the empire like an escapee from the pages of Kipling - reduced to a frightened, frail figure, who was doubly incontinent, and scared of the dark, and had to be tucked in to bed and kissed goodnight like a small child, was a particularly humbling experience. So my heart goes out to Doug, and everyone else who supported Keel at the end. When my time comes, I hope that at too have friends like that around me....

LINDSAY SELBY WRITES: Bigfoot supposedly found

MEDIA RELEASE - SANGER PARANORMAL SOCIETY - JULY 6, 2009

The Sanger Paranormal Society has confirmed the object that was photographed with a trail camera is not a tree stump or a bear. The team returned on Wednesday July 1, 2009 to the exact spot where the photo was taken. It was verified by Jeffrey Gonzalez, his wife Cheryl, Emerald Bonilla, Investigator for Sanger Paranormal and David Raygoza, veteran Bigfoot investigator. Other photographs were taken by the same camera during that same time period but were not posted because we wanted to see what kind of a reaction we would get from the paranormal field. Many Bigfoot investigators simply said the object was a tree stump or a figment of our imagination. Others said it was a bear standing on its hind legs and/ or scratching its behind on a tree. One Bigfoot organization simply said, and I quote, “we went to your site but we didn’t see anything”. But there are several problems with the opinions stated by the public and the paranormal investigators. For example, its not a tree stump because the dark object is no longer there. (see photo’s) Another problem with the bear theory is that if you notice the head, it does not have a snout. You can see the features of a human face such as the nose, mouth and chin. The arms on a bear, when standing, do not hang that far down. We also took measurements on how high this thing was. According to the leaves and the branches that were covering the objects face, the tape measure said it was between 8 and 9 feet tall. The same camera that took the picture of the object also took pictures of other animals such as black bear and deer, which does not resemble the object in any way.

These cameras were left up in the Sierra National Forest Memorial day weekend and retrieved on June 7, 2009. The memory cards were downloaded that same day on my computer and the memory cards were taken back home with David Raygoza. We did go through the photos on my laptop while we were in the forest but never saw the object until 3 days later. I received a email from David Raygoza telling me to take a look at picture # so and so and look at the top left hand corner. I had all the photos on my laptop so I was able to look at them. David Raygoza has been visiting this location for 6 years now and was told about this spot by an elderly native American. He told David this particular spot in the forest was sacred Indian land and that weird things happened there. David Raygoza has had many individual sightings with many footprints but has never had the shot until now. With examining all the evidence and debunking the tree stump and bear theory, we can honestly say that we have captured a photograph of a bigfoot. I don’t care what people are going to say...this is for real. Jeffrey Gonzales


Go have a look at the site for yourselves and see the photos.:
http://www.sangerparanormalsociety.com/bigfoot.html

I am not convinced by what I have seen on the site but am always willing to be proved wrong.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today

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

It’s Tuesday-o’clock; I make it time for the latest cryptozoology news and a bad pun:

The wombat: back from the brink
In the spots light
Trendy science findings more likely to be wrong
The world's ecological hotspots
Groundbreaking green ideas unveiled
Chimpanzees learn from video demo
Zoo's 30 chimps escape enclosure
Tags to help solve puffin decline

Which bird is always out of breath? A puffin.