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, August 27, 2011

CRAWLING CORINNA AND HOPALONG PRU

http://cryptochick.blogspot.com/2011/08/gorblimey-hello-mrs-jones-hows-your.html



RICHARD FREEMAN WRITES: "Captive thylacines at dog shows"...

Species depart the biota, not with a bang but a whimper. The Thylacine, Tasmanian Tiger or Marsupial Wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus, is one of a handful of species, joining the Quagga, Equus quagga, and the Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, where that whimper has a precise date. The Thylacine became extinct on 7 September, 1936, when the last known specimen died in captivity in the Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart (Smith 1981).

Records, both of employees and the visiting public to Australian zoological gardens displaying
the Thylacine (Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne and Sydney zoos) represent an important and largely untapped data source of additional knowledge upon the behaviour of this species.

Read on...

SOME ODDS AND SODS COURTESY OF CHAD ARMENT

Info on a giant fossil cheetah:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44151536/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.TlRlhV3EhFw

The orange Alaskan mystery substance was spores, not eggs:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/18/alaskan-mystery-substance-is-fungal-spores-not-eggs-noaa-says/

Ripley's is putting in a museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and wants to put a Chessie model on the facade:
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2011/08/18/ripleys-pitches-3-d-chessie.html

WW2011: Richard Freeman - The India Expedition

PRUDENCE UPDATE

Poor Pru is still feeling sorry for herself. I don't think it is the pain (remember what her ancestors were bred for - they are allegedly pretty impervious to pain) so much as the fact that she has to sleep in the kitchen rather than upstairs with us, and that she is not allowed to jump on and off the sofa or armchairs, and is confined to the floor. Poor dear, she thinks she is being punished for something.

HAUNTED SKIES: Yorkshire Post 23.4.88


http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2011/08/yorkshire-post-23488.html

YESTERDAY'S NEWS TODAY

Oliver is away, but he asked me to remind you that on this day in 1929 the actor Windsor Davis was born, he was in Terrahawks, Carry On films and a Doctor Who story during the 60s.

Dinosaur-Era Mammal Possibly "Mother" of All Humanity
Twenty rare Siamese crocodiles hatch in zoo
Map highlights world’s most threatened coral reefs
Mosquitoes 'disappearing' in some parts of Africa
Amphibian disease research yields weapon
Female seals drawn to deadly ship propellers
Darwin's Butterflies? Spectacular Species Radiation in the Caribbean Studied With 'DNA Barcoding'

Seems appropriate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBU-MxydbWQ

SATURDAY POSTS FROM DALE DRINNON: Dragons, Bigfoot and the fall of Phaethon


At The Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/08/fall-of-phaethon-by-gunter-bischoff.html

At The Frontiers of Zoology:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-discouraging-revelations.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/08/ancient-babylonian-and-assyrian-dragons.html

A CLEVER, IF SNEAKY PIECE OF JOURNALISM

On Sunday I received two photographs from the Daily Star. They asked me to identify them, and after consulting with Darren Naish, Jonathan McGowan and two vets (Aurelia and Shosh) I wrote the following email to the newspaper:

'Hi Marc,

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you. Having checked with a zoologist, a big cat tracker and a vet we think it is a large domestic cat, probably a Russian Blue, or a crossbreed with Russian blue ancestry.

Jon'


The article, when it appeared, made no mention of my email but wrote:

A British wildlife organisation said it had proof the animals were still alive and well in Britain.
And Jonathan Downes, director for the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Devon, said: “We know there were lynx living in Britain 1,500 years ago, but could they still be here?”


I did actually say that a few days earlier, it is true, but it was in answer by a question from a different journalist, from a different paper, and in answer to questions about the lynx that Max discovered in the vaults of Bristol Museum. So whilst technically the newspaper has done nothing wrong at all, it performed a clever piece of journalistic prestidigitation with that quote.

And they didn't even have to hack my telephone to get it.