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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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...




Tuesday, April 08, 2014

And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes Coveting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald

Daily Mail

Rats as big as CATS prowl the streets as pest control officers are called to 5000 sightings in a year ...
Rats as big as cats have been scouring the streets of Birmingham, breaking holes in walls and ravaging bins, reports claim. Pest control has gone into ...

SHERI THE CFZ INTERN: Day 3 – Monday

Day 3 – Monday
 
Today was spent conducting animal related tasks. Most of the tanks needed their water topping up and their glass cleaning. The tank in the sitting room and the one on the landing, with the axolotls, needed cleaning much more thoroughly than the others. A litre bottle’s worth of blanket weed was removed from the axolotls, who seemed much happier for it.

After about five years of trying to breed the Xenotoca eiseni to no avail, Jon recently found out that they may breed better, and more readily, during the rainy season and wanted to recreate this for them. To this end, I carried out a 50% water change and removed around 80% of the blanket weed – which was about 2lts worth. I also gave their glass a good clean.

After this, I learned how to conduct water tests, interpret their results and take appropriate actions based upon them. Then, I took some time out to make a ham sammy (sandwich) and fiddle with my phone.

We also watched the third and final part of the documentary series we had been watching. It carried out the same tests had already been done by a documentary show a few years ago and yielded few fresh results. Then, after a final cup of tea, it was bedtime. 

KARL SHUKER: An Undiscovered Giant Mantis in South Africa?


Karl Shuker recalls how he came face to face with what may have been a still-undescribed species of giant praying mantis in South Africa.

Read on...

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monster - Documentary | Bigfoot Research News - Blogger
Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monster is a 1976 documentary film written and directed by Robert Guenette. It was narrated by actor Peter Graves. The film

Bigfoot Calls and Responses, some close and some far away | BigfootBlogger.Com
Bigfoot Research: Sasquatch Calls – 05.27.13 · Florida Bigfoot InvestigatorsTV: Fasano call blast · Bigfoot Calls, listen to the Response · Sasquatch ...
Moneymakin'! The BFRO Bigfoot Expeditions Thread. - Page 7 - JREF Forum
Someone might hallucinate a Bigfoot knocking on the window of their Mobile Home. They are not going to report seeing a Bigfoot in their house, 

Bigfoot Evidence: This Man Saw Bigfoot's Junk and Everything
It's not everyday someone gets a good enough look at Bigfoot that they can actually make out his genitals. This man practically saw everything!

Moehau Man – New Zealand's Bigfoot | Paranormal NZ | Mysterious Times
In North America there is the Sasquatch or Big Foot, Asia has the Yeti, and Australia the Yowie. And while they are geographically separated, in some

Bigfoot News | Bigfoot Lunch Club: 4/1/14 - 5/1/14
This will be the very first live memory regression done on a qualified Bigfoot witness. Do not miss the chance to be there. Do not miss the chance to

Science Recorder
THOMAS TASCHINGER: Chupacabra, Bigfoot get shot down again
The quest for Bigfoot was even more disappointing. A fellow named Rick Dyer who claims to be a Bigfoot tracker admitted that the 8-foot tall body of a ...

Bigfoot killed and other infamous American hoaxes
Rick Dyer, who had previously been involved in a 2008 Bigfoot hoax, has announced that his latest bigfoot body was a hoax. Dyer and his Bigfoot 

Listen To These Creepy Bigfoot Calls Near Rainier Washington - Stardrive
Listen To These Creepy Bigfoot Calls Near Rainier Washington. To view the YouTube video, click here. Category: Weird Desk. Written by Kim 

Daily Mail
Two Australian mates claim to capture Yowie on video after luring it with fruit
Two friends who claim to have captured vision of an Australian Bigfoot say they 'convinced' the elusive creature to appear on film by offering him a ...

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS




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. 

  • AUSTRALIA SIGHTINGS: MORE VIDEO EVIDENCE OF BIG CA...
  • NEWSLINK: Lion season ends

  • NEWSLINK: Spot the predator: Would YOU know if a s...
  • 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. 




    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN DOES HIS OWN THING

    The Gonzo Daily - Monday
     
    Things are going reasonably well today. I have a plethora of interns (does anyone know what the collective noun for such people is?) painting and decorating the conservatory, which is going to look super swish when it is done. Volume Two of George Eberhart's Mysterious Creatures is also under way, as are the new book by Karl Shuker and a biography of The Waterboys. I have also found myself in a gastropod-acquisition state of mine and have just bought some eggs of Marisa cornuarietis which despite being commonly known as the giant ramshorn, isn't actually a ramshorn at all, but a specialised apple snail which grows between  18-22 mm wide, and 48-56 mm high, Things like that make me happy.
     
     
     
     
     
    KEITH LEVENE DONATES HIS VINTAGE SUPRO GUITAR IN SUPPORT OF GLOBAL RECORD STORE DAY
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/keith-levene-donates-his-vintage-supro.html
     
    Multi-talented musician, Jon Anderson, the voice of YES, will spend an intimate solo evening at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, April 13
    http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/multi-talented-musician-jon-anderson.html
     

    The new issue of Gonzo Weekly is here. It features interviews with Erik Norlander on the new Rocket Scientists album, Judge Smith on the early days of Van der Graaf Generator, and Jakko Jakszyk on the forthcoming ELP reissue and the King Crimson rehearsals. There are also features on The Psychedelic Warlords, Keith Levene, Acid Mothers Temple, Galahad and more news, reviews, views, interviews and Matschie's tree-kangaroos (OK, no arboreal macropods from New Guinea, 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!!!
    Check it out at www.gonzoweekly.com or http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/gonzo-weekly-72.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
     
    PPS: WARNING: If you are If you are a subscriber using Outlook, Hotmail or Outlook Express, some notifications and previous issues of the magazine may come out with formatting errors.
     
    *  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 an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?

    ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

    News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

    From CFZ-USA:

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

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

    Today is Draw a Bird Day. The idea of Draw a bird day is that you draw a picture of a bird and show it to people today. Nothing more complicated than that and there is no great meaning or obscure cause or charity behind it, the day is just about drawing birds and spreading happiness, how nice is that? Before anyone says, this is not something I've made up like Idi Amin's obsession with Captain Beaky leading to him constructing a plastic lunchbox several stories high or Michael Jackson being the accordion player on the theme tune of Allo, Allo, this is a genuine British celebration that has been going on since the 1940s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DABDay

    And now the news:

  • Kick-ass! How donkeys are used by farmers to scare...
  • Heathrow wildlife traffickers jailed for 12 months...
  • He’s baa-baa-gantuan: Lambzilla of newborns is big...
  • The secret life of the slippery eel
  • Vietnamese Bear Bile Farmer Joins Growing Movement...
  • Whitsand Bay rare coral 'at risk from dredging'
  • Honolulu Ambulances Have a Growing Bedbug Problem
  • Man gets nasty croc shock in East Innisfail backya...
  • This Veterinarian Does Surgery On Fish, And You Ca...
  • Endangered butterfly defies climate change with ne...
  • If you’ve ever wondered what a goat/sheep lovechil...
  • What bank voles can teach us about prion disease t...
  • Super Senses: How Sharks Hunt Down Prey
  • Tigers get asylum in the UK
  • Alligator traps in The Villages neighborhood conce...
  • Moonwalker flies backing up
  • Jail time for theft from UK ivory stockpiles
  • 10 day march to save the badgers proposed
  • Mouth Vision: Blind Fish Suctions Water to Navigat...

  • China’s tiger parks draw ire of animal-cruelty exp...

  • Here is a tutorial on how to draw birds you can use for your pictures today, after you've drawn them why not post them on your facebook, twitter (hoho) or where-ever with a short explanation of what draw a bird day is and maybe you'll get to see some friends drawings too before the day is out, have fun:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjkTDJ4OFA