CFZ's Next Generation Initiative

The third volume of David Weatherly's Wood Knocks: Journal of Sasquatch Research is available now on Amazon.com. This one looks to be quite good, with a lot of great contributors. Volume 3 features the following articles: "Bigfoot in Arizona" by David Weatherly "The Company they Keep" by Timothy Renner "The 'Demon' Bigfoot of the U.K." by Nick Redfern "The Florida Skunk Ape" by Robert Robinson "An Analysis of Relic Hominoid Sightings in the Desert" by Bruce Champagne "The High Strangeness of Bigfoot" by Joshua Cutchin "Oklahoma's Boggy Creek" by Marvin Leeper Overall this one looks quite good. Check it out here .  -Tyler Houck

Last night, Colin Schneider’s Crypto-Kid show retuned. Colin’s guest was Matt Bille, a cryptozoologist who has written two books on the subject - Rumors of Existence and Shadows of Existence . They talked mystery cats, bears,  ceataceans (whales/dolphins), and thylacines. Listen below. You can find Matt’s blog here . Check out Colin’s Facebook page for updates on his show. -Tyler Houck **I have decided to post news about new episodes on Monday on my other blog Tyler's Cryptozoo , I will post the archived shows on this blog.** - TH

My book Buckeye Beasts: Historical Accounts of "Gorillas," "Wild Men," and Other Hairy Monsters in Ohio is available on Amazon NOW! Right now only the Kindle version is on there, but the paperback will be in a day or so. Here's some more on the book: Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, encounters with "wild men" were commonly reported in newspapers around Ohio. Many cryptozoology researchers think these reports of wild men, "gorillas," "hairy men," and "anthropoids" could be historical accounts of Bigfoot-like creatures. In this book, author Tyler Houck examines these reports spanning from 1869 to the 1940s. Many are presented here as they originally appeared and are then compared to modern Bigfoot reports and other historical and contemporary reports of strange, man-like cryptids from around the world. Is this all something to do with mythology and folklore, hoaxes on slow news days or misidentificatio...

I have two new books coming out sometime in the near future, both focusing on some of Ohio's cryptid creatures. First, Buckeye Beasts: Historical Accounts of "Wild Men," "Gorillas," and Other Hairy Monsters in Ohio.  The book is an examination of old "wild man" accounts from the 18- and early 1900s in the state. I cover sightings from the "first" report in 1896 up to 1950, since the '50s were the decade when "Bigfoot" was born. After looking at all the newspaper reports, I compare them to other stories of "wild men" from throughout the world (Australia and England for example) and also to modern Bigfoot reports. The book should be available on Amazon before long and I will update things when it is! The other is The Ohio Monster Guidebook: A Look at the Buckeye State's Most Mysterious Creatures. This one is being published by CFZ Press and things are currently underway. In this book, I cover many Ohio cryp...

The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster  is a brand-new book by Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito. Below is the book description: Legend has it that in 1735, a witch named Mother Leeds gave birth to a horrifying monster - a deformed flying horse with glowing red eyes - that flew up the chimney of her New Jersey home and disappeared into the Pine Barrens. Ever since, this nightmarish beast has haunted these woods, presaging catastrophe and frightening innocent passersby - or so the story goes. In The Secret History of the Jersey Devil, Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito examine the genesis of this popular myth, which is also one of the oldest monster legends in the United States. According to Regal and Esposito, everything you think you know about the Jersey Devil is wrong. The real story of the Jersey Devil's birth is far more interesting, complex, and important than most people - believers and skeptics alike -...

Roland Watson, who runs the excellent Loch Ness Monster blog, has a new book out on a specific aspect of the mystery - the land sightings of Nessie. The book is called When Monsters Come Ashore: Stories of the Loch Ness Monster on Land . As far as I know, this is the first book to focus fully on the land sightings of the LNM. Below is the book description: "For centuries, people have claimed to have seen a strange creature swimming in the murky waters of Britain's biggest body of water - Loch Ness. However, a small but sensational number of these witnesses have claimed to have seen the same creature lurking on the beaches, lying on the fields and crossing the roads surrounding the loch. What are we to make of these extraordinary accounts of a normally aquatic beast? Hoax, misidentification or the real deal? What do they tell us about the nature and habits of this most mysterious of animals? In this first work dedicated to this aspect of the Loch Ness story, Roland W...

At the end of January, Anomalist Books published a new title from cryptid investigator Michael Mayes, who runs the  Texas Cryptid Hunter  blog. The book is  Shadow Cats: The Black Panthers of North America,  and, as the title suggests, it is an examination of sightings of anomalous big cats in the United States, primarily focused on the American South and the author's home state of Texas. Mayes starts off his book by going over the anecdotal history of "black panthers" and the history of the term. He notes that, in the South, the term "panther" is always used to describe black cats, and differentiates from normal-colored pumas or jaguars. Several chapters are also devoted to historical and contemporary sightings and reports of large black cats in the American South. Chapters 6-10 examine the possible suspects. Mayes goes over the biology and diversity of several cat species that could possibly be misidentified by witnesses as black panthers. These cats i...

One of the main things I recommend to upcoming cryptozoologists is to read. A lot. Besides actually working with other researchers, this is probably the best way to learn about the field. There are hundreds of books out there on cryptozoological subjects, though many are not on par with others. In this post, I decided to put together a list of books both I and Colin recommend for those getting into the field. General Cryptozoology Recommendations Hunting Monsters: Cryptozoology and the Reality Behind the Myths By Darren Naish Naish's book is one of the best examinations of cryptozoology that I have ever read. He examines whether cryptozoology is really about animals or more about the human mind and why 'monsters' are reported all over the world and what likely inspired tales of them. It also tells readers that cryptozoology can be done scientifically and how to do so. Naish has a background as a paleontologist and science writer to back him up. ...

I would like to welcome everyone to the blog of the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Next Generation Initiative. The NGI is the brainchild of Colin Schneider and Jonathan Downes, director of the CFZ. Since this is the first post on the new NGI blog, I thought I would take some time to introduce the CFZ, the NGI, and tell readers a little bit about who we are and what we will be doing. ABOUT THE CFZ The Centre for Fortean Zoology was founded by Jon Downes in 1992. On the CFZ website , Jon explains how it came to be: "I've been interested in this stuff all my life. My interest probably started when I was a little boy. I was brought up in Hong Kong surrounded by all sorts of weird and wonderful animals anyway. Every week my mother used to get me library books and one week when I was about seven years old she got me a book called 'Myth or Monster' which introduced me to the wonderful concept that there were real monsters like the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster ...