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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Saturday, February 15, 2014

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. 

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 read 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. 

  • VIDEO: Mystery Big Cat Sighting South Island NZ.mp...
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  • VIDEO: Incredibly Rare Siberian Tiger Release - Go...
  • VIDEO: IFAW Tiger Cub Rescue, India.

  • US SIGHTINGS: The Legendary Cat of the Mountains a...
  • 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. 

    Exotic bird breeder scoops every prize at national...

    OH DEAR; IT'S THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

    The Gonzo Daily - Saturday
     
    I finished this week's Gonzo Weekly yesterday evening. All it needs now is for Corinna to check it for idiotic spelling mistakes and we are ready to go. This issue features an EXCLUSIVE Pink Fairies interview, an exclusive interview with prog album artist Sandor Kwiatkowski, the return of the mighty Six Foot Three, Clepsydra box set details, a massively desirable slice of Acid Mothers Temple memorabilia, news about Hawkwind live next weekend, an oral hygiene tool endorsed by an Oriental dictator, A Communique from Pussy Riot, the Psychedelic Warlords live, and more news, reviews, views, interviews and brindled gnus (OK, no specialised African antelopes 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 COMPLETELY FREE!!!
     
    Just in case you missed issue 64 you can read it here:
    http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-gonzo-weekly-64.html
     
    To make sure that you don't miss your copy of this and future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
    http://eepurl.com/r-VTD

    PS: If you are already a subscriber but think that you haven't been receiving your copies please check your spam filters. For some reason known only to the Gods of the internet, some e-mail programmes automatically count the magazine as 'spam' probably because it comes from a mass mailer. Either that or they are just jealous of our peerless content.
     
    Gimme Five: Genesis’ Steve Hackett, Anthony Phillips + Ray Wilson on ‘Firth of Fifth,’ ‘The Knife,’ ‘Musical Box,’ others
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/02/gimme-five-genesis-steve-hackett.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: www.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?

    CRYPTOLINK: Chupacabra catch-all for unexplainable - Clovis News Journal

    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. 


    They roam in the dark of night searching for prey.
    Sharna Johnson
    Sharna Johnson
    Sometimes they are lizard creatures, sometimes spiny and two-legged and other times they skulk about on all fours.
    Monsters, anyway you shape them, the chupacabra is out there, sort of.
    Anyone who has spent any time in the Southwest inevitably hears of the chupacabra, often from natives who sometimes still have a fear of the nebulous creature that follows them into adulthood.
    Perhaps because the chupacabra is such a sketchy creature, its legend has almost become a catchall for the unexplained and a quick answer for the unidentified.
    Spotted from the U.S. to Russia, recent reports place the blood sucking mythological critters in the Houston area combing through back yards, presumably in search of dastardly mischief.
    And it may just be the absolute most attention mangy mutts have ever received.
    That’s right, mangy mutts — literally.
    Though the legend of the chupacabra is one thing, it appears real creatures have come to assume its identity.
    Looking like a hairless zombie dog from a video game, photos and footage abound, there are even specimens, killed through various means, which have been turned over for verification.
    After testing and examination, the specimens and photos of the elusive “chupacabra” have turned out to be canines with a fair degree of consistency and not just canines, but canines with mange.

    Read on...

    CRYPTOLINK: Campers Encounter Bigfoot Behavior in Skamania County Washington [Real Bigfoot Encounters]

    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. 

    CRYPTOLINK: Is THIS the Bristol crocodile finally caught on camera?



    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/video-1083154/Is-THIS-Bristol-crocodile-finally-caught-camera.html

    Remember it is The Daily Mail asking the question. It is probably an immigrant crocodile here to take the benefits rightly due to homeless British crocodiles. Or one parent families. Or something like that.

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

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

    On this day in 2005 Youtube.com was launched. Considering what an impact the video-sharing website has had, it is odd to think that it has actually been around less than 10 years, indeed, Facebook has been around longer.

    And now the news:

  • Satellites to help spot and count whales
  • Arctic marine mammals are ecosystem sentinels
  • Important wildlife sites secured thanks to a two m...
  • Genetic find might lead to cattle that are more re...
  • 100 rhinos to be relocated from South Africa to Bo...
  • Lost and found: New beetle collected by Darwin 180...
  • Cat parasite found in western Arctic Beluga deemed...

  • Hello Fish Face – A Fossil Fish Reveals the Origin...
  • And here's the first ever video that was uploaded to youtube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw