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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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 25, 2013

CFZ CANADA: Gold, Copper, and Sasquatch


Despite some criticism, environmentalists are finally starting to take Sasquatch into consideration.  Recently in the Prince George, British Columbia area, concerns have been heard relative to the environmental impact of the proposed New Prosperity gold and copper mine.  The study is a proposal by Taseko Mines to construct an open-pit facility about 125 km south of Williams Lake.  

TODAY'S 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. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.





  • NEWSLINK: Big cat spotted near Pierre - KOTA Terri...
  • NEWSLINK: Big Cats discussed in Gateway Centre tal...


  • CRYPTOLINK: Auburn's 'Loch Ness Monster': The story of the Hoopes Park giant snapping turtle


    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.
    AUBURN | There are only stories — whispers — at this point of a giant snapping turtle that lives in Hoopes Park pond.
    Like a campfire tale, details are added, or perhaps exaggerated, with each retelling of the creature's existence.
    It has the head the size of a volleyball. It has a shell that is 30 to 40 inches across. It has called the park home for a number of years.
    Ducks beware. It eats baby ducks whole and cripples the adults with a single snap of its jaws. Leave it to the professionals to actively seek this creature of the deep.
    Public works employee Jeff Brown has heard all of these things from a variety of sources, but said he has never seen the beast itself. He's certain, though, that it exists, likely lurking beneath the muck and algae of Hoopes Park pond.
    Brown is a groundskeeper at Hoopes Park, working almost everyday to maintain the park and everything involved, including its wildlife.

    FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

    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. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.





    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS FEELING FULL OF THE JOYS OF SPRING

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
    It actually mildly surprises me that no-one has questioned why I use the same words (these wot you are reading now) to introduce both the Gonzo blogs and the CFZ ones. It's not because I am too lazy to write two sets of intros (not usually, anyway) but there are two much more fundamental reasons. One is simply that a large proportion of readers are interested in both subjects and that this helps cross collateralize both sets of blogs, but the other is more primal. It is that the subject matter of both sets of writings are surprisingly similar; it is the search for integrity and something positive in an increasingly negative world. Both Gonzo and the CFZ do our best to present things of value in an increasingly trite and throwaway world, and I - for one - think that is of paramount importance. In fact, if I didn't, I wouldn't bother to do either.
    On another subject, many readers of both blogs will know, or have met Margaret Rickard (Stuart's widow) and my next door neighbour for the last eight and a half years. She is seriously ill in hospital, and I would ask you all to remember her in your thoughts and prayers.
    Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_25.html

    *  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:
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

    * 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 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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 the orange cat?

    THE CRYPTODANE: The search for the truth - and a giant monitor lizard

    I think it was Jon Downes, the illustrious leader of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, that once said something along the lines of "Cryptozoology is not the search for monsters, but the search for the truth" - a sentiment in which I totally agree, but since so much of cryptozoology, especially on the internet, is about people almost having the evidence for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster of similar creatures, one could easily assume that was all there is to cryptozoology. And of the things that turn out to be quite ordinary, one hears almost nothing, so here is the cautionary tale of a giant monitor lizard that wasn't.....

    WALLY THE COMEDY RHINOCEROS: Yesterday's News Today

    Oll is away, so for today Yesterday's News Today is done by Wally the Comedy Rhinoceros. He is a stand up comedian of some renown. Here is one of his rhino-related jokes.

    Q: What did the rhino say to Napoleon Bonaparte? 

    A: Nothing. Rhinos don't speak French.

    Ha Ha that was funny. Sidesplitting. Yes. Ha!

    Now for the news...


  • Gestation Crates Have No Place in U.S. Food Produc...
  • Taxonomy: The spy who loved frogs
  • Zambian rhinos making a long slow recovery from ex...
  • Police: Woman's Body Eaten By Wolf Dogs
  • Doctor regrows man’s missing fingertip using pig b...
  • Are Zoos Really a Setting for Ecotourism?
  • Large male orangutan rescued in Borneo
  • Mass Rhino Slaughter in South Africa Worries Conse...



  • And now for a happy tune that you can whistle while you work: