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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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

ARCHIVING PROJECT: General Forteana Part 46

As you know, Oll has been working on the archiving project since early February 2009 and he is now working on a general mish-mash of a section known as `General Forteana`.

This 46th collection once again really is completely uncategoriseable stuff, including killer spiders in Japan, a motorway death plunge, rhino attack, whale suicides, whale shark/diver interaction, animal organ donors, caterpillar plague, the medical uses of crab excrement, and Scottish sperm whale strandings. Good stuff.

HERE
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PASSAGE OF AMPHIBIANS ACROSS ROADS

EFFECTIVE CULVERT PLACEMENT AND DESIGN TO FACILITATE PASSAGE OF
AMPHIBIANS ACROSS ROADS

Journal of Herpetology 44(4): 618-626

David A. Patrick, Christopher M. Schalk, James P. Gibbs & Hara W. Woltz

Abstract: Efficient deployment of culverts to mitigate mortality of amphibians on roadways requires identification of locations within road networks where animals cross (hotspots), points within identified hotspots for culvert placement, and attributes of culverts that make them behaviorally palatable to migrating individuals. In this study, we assessed road crossing frequency of Spotted Salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum, and American Toads, Anaxyrus americanus, along a 700-m transect within a known crossing hotspot, and related these distributions to habitat variables within the hotspot including the presence of existing culverts. We also placed experimental arrays of culverts of varying attributes in the path of migrating Spotted Salamanders to examine culvert preference by salamanders under typical movement environments and appropriate animal behavioral states. Our studies of patterns of road occurrence demonstrated that both species avoided crossing where there was a wetl!
and within 15 m of the downslope of the road and that neither species showed a strong preference for crossing near existing culverts. When considering the choice for experimental culverts by Spotted Salamanders, we found no preference for culverts of varying aperture size, length, or substrate. Our results indicate that patterns of occurrences of the two species of amphibian within a crossing hotspot may be linked to the physical attributes at the site. For Spotted Salamanders in particular, predicting where they will cross within a hotspot may not be easy. Spotted Salamanders showed little preference for culverts of different design, indicating that a variety of culvert designs can suffice for mitigation if placed in appropriate locations.

*****

A pdf of this article is available from the CNAH PDF Library at

http://www.cnah.org/cnah_pdf.asp
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GERALD SMITH: Tiny Froglets in North Devon

There were DOZENS of these chaps on the path near a pond in the Trew forest last week. Fingernail size.
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HAUNTED SKIES: More 1967 Flying Cross sightings

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post.html
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OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1856 the author H. Rider Haggard was born. Haggard is best known for his adventure novels like King Solomon's Mines which introduced the world to his character Allan Quatermain and the 'Lost World' fiction genre.
And now the news:

Why Cleaner fish punish their partners for putting...
Dingy skipper puts in rare appearance in Worcester...
Emperor penguin appears on New Zealand beach
Scotland's 'bizarre' seal plans under fire
RSPB wildlife warning over EU farmland funding
Bats' hairs are 'airspeed sensor'
NEW NESSIE SIGHTING (Via Lindsay Selby)

Shine on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCe-1LYj_4o
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