At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Monday 30 November 2015

FREE e-BOOK ON SEA MONSTERS

This is a treatise on monsters seen off the Nova Scotia coast.  I understand the e-Book may be accessed from the link to the Nova Scotia Museum website.

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MONSTERS OF OKLAHOMA

Some of the creatures reputed to be in this state.  These include a woman who is half human, half deer, a giant octopus and the Alligator Man.



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BABA YAGA

The cannibal witch of Russian folklore.

Baba Yaga used to enter her house through the chimney.


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ARE THESE BIGFOOT TRACKS?

They've been found in the snow in Washington state.

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TIGER AND GOAT

In Russia's Primorsky Safari Park, a goat was placed in the tiger compound for Timur the Tiger to eat.  The goat did not find this arrangement congenial and resisted when the striped gourmet approached.  Timur backed up and now the two have become good friends.



story with video....

BIGFOOT AND THE PIG

Farmer claims Bigfoot carried off his pig.

Image courtesy Lon Strickler


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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 30...

1966: While changing a flat tire at night, on a lonely road near Brooksville, Florida, a witness known only as "Miss M. B." reports being watched by a green-eyed Bigfoot or "Skunk Ape."


Sunday 29 November 2015

CHESSIE - MARYLAND'S SEA MONSTER

Chessie coloring book
Chessie is a sea-monster reported to live in Chesapeake Bay (Maryland).  It is said to be serpentine, measuring 25-40 feet.  The above picture is the cover of a coloring book published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

An early report of Chessie may date from 1840.  The creature described is likely to have been a turtle.  In 1936 an unknown reptile was seen in the Bush River, which flows into the Bay, by a helicopter.  A serpentine creature was reported by fishermen in 1943.  In 1978 a serpent was reported in the Potomac River, which also flows into the Bay.  There were other sightings in this river in 1980.  In August, 1984, there were further sightings. A possible sighting from a boat named the Impasse was reported in 1980, but those involved never claimed to have seen a monster, merely anh animal, which may have been a manatee.  In 2014 a serpentine creature, 25'-30' long, was seen from the Arundel Beach Road at a distance of only 5 feet.

My own suspicion is that we may be dealing here with large eels.  However, we should not forget that a dinosaur called the Astrodon roamed Maryland, but the fossil record would indicate it died out 100 million years ago.  Could there be a few lingering specimens off the Maryland coast?


Chesapeake Bay




FAIRY PASTIMES

A look at what Fairies are alleged to do.



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DOES BIGFOOT TRY TO COMMUNICATE?

Has the Hairy One been attempting to communicate with humans?

Image courtesy Lon Strickler


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BIGFOOT: COLORADO REPORT

Did two sisters have Bigfoot experience?



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IS THIS BIGFOOT CHATTER?

Videorecording from Oklahoma.



have a look.....

VIDEO OF GOATMAN

Is this a genuine video?

have a look.....

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 29...

1893: The New York Herald reports that multiple witnesses, including locals George Farrell and "Red" McDowell, have seen a large, hairy "wild man" roaming near Long Island's Rockaway Beach. The man—or thing—is never captured.


Saturday 28 November 2015

RUPERT SHELDRAKE AND SCIENTIFIC DOGMATISM

An article from the Guardian on Sheldrake's view of  a science which, he avers, holds fiercely to its tenets.

Rupert Sheldrake


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GRAY ALIENS AND HYBRIDS

Assuming you believe in the possibility of Gray Aliens, do they have an alien-human hybridization program?



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THUNDERBIRD

Article on the creature first found in Native American legend.



The above picture shows a painted skin featuring a Thunderbird.

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THE POPE LICK MONSTER

A Goatman, said to be scarier than Bigfoot.

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NEW ROSALES BOOK



Albert Rosales, who has long provided invaluable online works on encounters with humanoid beings, has now released another book of his findings.  The title is available from Amazon.

282pp.

Price: $15.95 [paperback]; $6.06 [kindle].

BIGFOOT AND GIGANTOPITHECUS

Video featuring Mike Rugg who opposes the identification.

Gigantopithecus


have a look.....

PARALLEL WORLDS

Article in French on this subject.

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 28...



1977: While hunting in Tippah County, Mississippi, the unnamed witness sees what he first mistakes for a man, then realizes it is a hairy biped 7.5 to 8 feet tall, with a "black face, shaggy reddish brown fur, standing upright, then running" through thickets of thorns, muskedine and kudzu vines. He reports the sighting to the GCBRO 28 years later, on November 31, 2005.




Friday 27 November 2015

ALIEN BIG CATS

A look at such creatures around the world.



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ANIMALS OF STRANGE APPEARANCE

This link brings you to animals which, though they may look like cryptids, actually exist.

Bergamasco Shepherd


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BROLLACHAN - THE SHAPELESS THING

A creature without shape in Scottish and Irish folklore.

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STRANGE CREATURES

The number of reports of such creatures is increasing.

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DID ALIENS ABDUCT POLICEMAN?

Account of a celebrated incident.

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ALLEGED DOGMAN ENCOUNTERS

This account deals with alleged multiple sightings.

Image courtesy Lon Strickler


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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 27...

1973: Little Rock's Arkansas Gazette reports a sighting of the "Fouke Monster" by witnesses Orville Scoggins, his son and grandson.


Thursday 26 November 2015

SEA SERPENT REPORT

The following report comes from the 19th Century - 1830, to be precise.  

The British navy ship Rob Roy was sailing towards St Helena, an island in the middle of the Atlantic which has the distinction of not being near anywhere else.  At about 5p.m. the huge head of a serpentine creature rose out of the water to the fore of the ship, to the great astonishment of those aboard.  This creature may have been as surprised as the jolly tars concerned - it certainly seemed somewhat nonplussed.  Captain James Stockdale was later to write that twenty foot snakes he had killed would have fitted into the animal's mouth.  He estimated the animal to be about 129 feet in length.  It had a fin between its shoulders.  Captain Stockdale in his report evinced a desire never to meet the creature again.


IS BIGFOOT TELEPATHIC?

Nick Redfern writes on this possibility.

Nick Redfern (not Bigfoot)


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REPTILIAN VISITOR

An uninvited guest can be startling.

Image courtesy Lon Strickler

BLUE DOG ON TAPE

A Blue Dog of the kind that is sometimes mis-called "chupacabra" has been caught on tape.



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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


Happy Thanksgiving to all readers who celebrate it!

On This Day in Weird, November 26...

1977: North Dakota's Bismarck Tribune reports a Bigfoot sighting by Mrs. Angus Long Elk along the Grand River near Little Eagle, South Dakota.


Wednesday 25 November 2015

CHANEQUES

Illustrated article on diminutive beings in the folklore of Mexico.  You'll need to scroll down a little on the page to read the article.




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Additional article on this subject in Spanish:

have a look.....

DOME ON MARS?

Did the Opportunity Rover encounter one?

Mars


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WAS THIS A MIRACLE?

Did the Pope cure a brain tumor?

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STRANGE TALES FROM PENNSYLVANIA

A selection of early newspaper reports.

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BIGFOOT IN COLORADO

Whether he's there or not, he's the subject of interest in a shop in Bailey, where Bigfoot merchandise is available.  Site includes video.



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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 25...

1968: While hunting north of Floodwood, Minnesota, witness Uno Heikkila reportedly saw a hairy biped roughly four feet tall jump down from a tree and flee into the forest, watching it from a distance of some 125 feet.


Tuesday 24 November 2015

THE GOLEM

An artificial creature of Jewish legend.



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LARGE LAND BIRDS

Have large flightless birds (resmbling dinosaurs) evolved?

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CAN BIGFOOT CLOAK ITSELF?

Can Bigfoot make itself hide from prying cameras?

Image courtesy Lon Strickler


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FORGOTTEN SEA SERPENTS

A look at sea serpent reports which have faded from the public mind.



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UNDERGROUND IN PENNSYLVANIA

Are underground facilities behind anomalies in this state?

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THE OTHER HEDGEHOG

Forbes, in his Gaelic Names of Beasts (1905) gives details of a very curious animal in the folklore of the north of Scotland.  To this animal is applied the name of hedgehog, but it is not the creature to which we normally give this name.  If you should chance upon it, it looks like a stone.  However, it can change shape.  If farmers harvesting met with it in a cornfield, they would leave a clump of corn around it.  Forbes himself saw such a clump.

REDFERN'S BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday to paranormal author/investigator Nick Redfern...and many happy returns!

ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 24...

2006: A resident of Itawamba County, Mississippi, reports hearing a "long, drawn out noise that sounded like kind of a cross between a yell and a moan," which he also heard around his house several times during the previous week. He sees nothing unusual outside, but in his subsequent report to the GCBRO, claims the cries sound "exactly like the howl that is on your multimedia page," purportedly caused by Bigfoot.


Monday 23 November 2015

DRAGONS OF ST KITTS

Do dragons inhabit this Caribbean island?



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BULLBEGGAR OF CREECH HILL

The term bullbeggar may have originally signified a mythical goblin which looked in some respects like a bull.  Nowadays the term has a somewhat vaguer application, equating to American booger.  This one hung out on Creech Hill, Somerset, England.

Creech Hill


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MISSOURI MONSTERS

A look at monsters in this state.
Coat of Arms Missouri
[This Coat of Arms is semi-official]
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LIZARDMEN

Accounts of various Lizard Men/cryptid creatures.



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BIGFOOT CONFERENCE FEATURES WITNESSES

Alleged eyewitnesses attend conference.  [Contains video]




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MAGNIFICENT PICTURE OF ALPHYN

The Alphyn is an heraldic beast.  The name means 'pursuer' or simply 'wolf'.  This creature is not frequently met with in heraldry.

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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 23...

1977: Following multiple Bigfoot sightings on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, a dozen members of the Yanktonai Native American tribe stage a nocturnal campfire gathering to lure the creature. Afterward, they report seeing two hairy bipeds crouching in the brush nearby.


Sunday 22 November 2015

THREAT TO WHITE DEER

What will befall this population of White Deer in New York?

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DID BRITISH ARMY SHOOT YETI?

An army report says it did about 1903, but private reports of the expedition make no mention of it.



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DOG-PIG BEAST

This Namibian cryptid seems well outside current zoological knowledge.

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TROLLS

Carrying on from my Norwegian giant/troll story yesterday, the term troll is very imprecise and has been used for a wide number of creatures, ranging from the gigantic to the diminutive.  However, I would hold that it was sometimes used to designate groups of wildmen which, I suspect, persisted in Europe into historical times and may be found even today in remote locations.

In the 19th Century there were so many reports in Sweden, a highly forested country, that mythologist Benjamin Thorpe postulated that there were populations of uncivilized human still living in the woods.  There have been other reports of wildmen from a number of European countries, some even being quite recent.  Whether these are permanent residents, interdimensional beings or mere figments of the imagination is, of course, another matter.


 

UFO SIGHTING OVER MARYLAND

Bright UFO reported this month over Gambrills.  


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ON THIS DAY IN WEIRD


On This Day in Weird, November 22..

1963: The JFK assassination. It doesn't get much weirder than that, with the mangled Warren Report, a "magic bullet," and countless conspiracy theories.



1969: Nocturnal motorist Ivan Wally reports sighting a seven-foot-tall Sasquatch beside the Trans-Canada Highway near Lytton, British Columbia. The creature allegedly stands with arms raised overhead, watching Wally's vehicle pass by.



Saturday 21 November 2015

THE GIANT'S DOOR

Should you find yourself in Norway, there is a curious geological structure there called Juluporten (Giant's Door).  Beyond it dwells the giant Jutul (sometimes described as a troll), so legend has it.  It is said if you throw three stones in succession at the door, the Giant, referred to as Jutul, will answer it.  This structure, by the way, is to be found on Road 454 in Oppland.  The Giant's wife also dwells within.

Now, if I believed a Giant dwelt on the far side of the door, I wouldn't go so far as to cast stones at it, lest it provoke him to anger.  I am somewhat advanced in years, not up to tackling a wrathful giant.  However, this particular giant has a story told about him which is worth mentioning.

A Norwegian called John Blessom, an historical person who throve in the 17th Century, was down in Copenhagen for litigious purposes.  He was, however, homesick.  Jutul happened also to be visiting the city and offered him a ride home on his sled.  The speed with which Jutul's horse drew this vehicle was breathtaking.  Blessom could not discern sea or sky.  At one stage they stopped for a rest and, as they shot off again, Blessom thought he saw a pole with a skull on the top of it.  At last they reached the Giant's doorway.  Jutul went in and told Blessom to go home and not to look back.  Guess what?  He looked back and there was a twist in his neck ever after.

The reader may have noticed there is some apparent confusion about whether Jutul is a Giant or a Troll.  Actually, however, the word Troll was used in Northern Europe to cover a wide variety of supernatural beings.  Very big trolls were said to turn to stones or trees if daylight struck them.  A variant of this, supplied by the folklorist G. Hyltén-Cavallius, is that Giants died if struck by sunlight but Trolls burst asunder.


Troll


I don't think I would like to be in the vicinity of a bursting troll.  It would not be pleasant to be struck by the débris flying through the air.


Giant King



NAKED DESERT HYENA

Did it ever exist?



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BIGFOOT FLYING

Was a Bigfoot with wings seen flying over Walla Walla?

Walla Walla


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