CENTRE FOR FORTEAN ZOOLOGY

The Centre for Fortean Zoology is the world's largest cryptozoology organization.  Cryptozoology is the study of those animals whose existence has been rumored, reported or been the subject of legend or folklore, but has not yet been proven.  However, we cover a much wider spectrum than this at the Centre.  We study animal reports of a paranormal character, which we term zooform phenomena.   Because such creatures are widely reported, we try to discover if they have an objective existence.

We are also interested in allied subjects such as conservation, animal welfare and anomalous phenomena of sundry kinds.  The word Fortean is taken from Charles Hoy Fort, whose practice it was to scour papers in both the United States and Britain with the aim of discovering reports which seemed to relate to incidents outside the spectrum of contemporary belief.  It is perhaps a sobering thought that many established facts today would have been deemed impossibilities in the days when Fort pursued his quest.

Above all, we seek to stimulate the coming generations with an interest in the wonders of the earth, the value of its components and the use of imagination in investigation.  Einstein said imagination was more important than knowledge, no doubt because knowledge is the study of what is already known and what may be inferred from it, whereas imagination stimulates you to look into  untrodden areas where you will discover things hitherto unconceived, whose existence has lain long unguessed.