Expedition searches for Tasmanian Tiger

It has been ‘officially extinct’ for decades, but two British scientists have set off across the world to hunt for the curious animal known as the Tasmanian tiger.
The last known tiger died in captivity in a Tasmanian zoo in 1936, but a team of enthusiasts believe there is still a chance that several of the animals might still be roaming the forested regions of the island state.
British scientists Dr Chris Clark and Richard Freeman, who have searched for giant anacondas in Africa and the Indonesian equivalent of Bigfoot, are due to arrive in Tasmania today (November 1, 2013) to join an expedition searching for the tiger, which has a dog-like appearance and a striped body.

‘This is very serious and we’re putting aside all the other crazy things like Bigfoot hunts and concentrating very much on getting the first convincing evidence that the Tasmanian tiger still exists,’ expedition leader Mike Williams told the MailOnline from the search base in the island capital, Hobart.
While there have been reported sightings of the tiger, known scientifically as a thylacine, Mr Williams said the evidence has never been strong enough to be convincing.
‘The problem with a lot of the sightings from members of the public is that they’re generally caught by surprise and their photos are taken on things like mobile phones and aren’t very good.

‘It will take really good quality video to really convince anyone so we’ve brought as much gear as we can to improve our chances of being ready if we do see one.’
Dr Clark and Mr Freeman, from Britain’s Centre for Fortean Zoology, have explored many of the world’ outstanding mysteries and remain dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals.
The centre is based in an old country house in Devon, parts of which are over 200 years old, and which is said to be home to several ghosts.
The Tasmanian tiger features strongly as a ‘most wanted’ animal among the centre’s members - a picture of one is used as the group’s emblem.

The British researchers, along with Mr Williams and his expedition members, will be searching densely forested areas in the island’s north and south west.
‘If we didn’t think there was even a slim chance of stumbling upon evidence in the form of droppings, hair or footage then we wouldn’t have committed to this expedition,’ said Mr Williams.
‘Thylacine sightings are still being reported right across the state of Tasmania, 27 years after it was declared extinct by the Tasmanian government.’
The team will be using two powerful four-wheel-drive vehicles which will be loaded with cameras, dashboard video cameras and powerful binoculars.
The thylacine is believed to have roamed the Australian mainland in ancient times before it became extinct there about 2,000 years ago - but it continued to thrive in Tasmania.
But the arrival of Europeans sealed its fate. The animal was hunted for its fur and because it was responsible for attacks on settlers’ sheep, resulting in alarming photographs showing gunmen standing proudly beside the corpses of piles of animals they had shot down.
With the death of the last known tiger - referred to as Benjamin - in the Hobart zoo in 1936, all that has remained of the elusive animal in recent times has been reported sightings in isolated parts of Tasmania.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2483670/Could-Tasmanian-tiger-roaming-islands-forests-British-scientists-join-new-hunt-extinct-creature.html#ixzz2kHkLI75o

Day 3 of the CFZ Weird Weekend 2012

Sunday at the Weird Weekend 2012 In Woolfardisworthy, Devon.

By Tania Poole - from the CFZ Australia, now living in the wilds of a Yorkshire valley...

Apparently, during the night, here in Woolfardisworthy, a leopard was heard calling nearby! Jon McGowan, a large cat expert and hunter, heard it at about 5am, while he camped by the local Community Centre. Jon has heard many large cats before, so he should know. Yes, all manner of weird things come to the Weird Weekend, even cryptids like out-of-place leopards.

First of the day was Richard Muirhead’s ‘The Flying Snakes of Namibia’ where he looked into old stories from the 1950s where someone saw a flying snake – or thought they did. Since then and in many areas of this south western part of Africa, people who see lights in the sky at night, don’t say it’s a UFO like we would, but that it’s a flying snake with glowing lights on its head.

Lars Thomas gave us a run down on the cryptids of Denmark, ranging from bugs, beetles, wolves, and chipmunks, to trolls, hominids and lake monsters. Lars not only reads a lot, and travels to see  location of sightings, but he uses the microscope to discover what is out there – and has tested many hairs under a microscope, finding leopards, out-of-place cats, hominids, and even a platypus hair…from New Zealand. The old stories in Denmark of hominids and hairy creatures are found in many old documents from wooden carvings to old manuscripts. He also knows of a colony of Siberian Chipmunks that live in forests in Denmark, but is uncertain how they got there. The questions at the end even involved Trolls, and it was clear to Lars and many others that questions were asked in relation to the ‘Troll Hunter’ movie, released in 2011.

Richard Freeman spoke about the Sumatra expedition of 2011 – so far the largest group to go on an expedition, splitting 3 teams up to cover more ground to try and see the Orang-Pendek. Even our fair Rebecca Lang was mentioned, as she and Mike Williams were two of the explorers. There was no success in seeing the cryptid this time round, like the sighting in 2009, but Richard still has hopes to see something one day and tick this off as ‘found’ for the CFZ.

Lars and Jon teamed up to talk about the nature walk they took people on the grounds of the community centre, and Lars came back with photos of several bugs and flies – including over a dozen types of hover fly.

Ronan Coghlan, the CFZ’s ever hilarious trickster talked about Sinbad the sailor, and the cryptids he had encountered. This re-introduced us to creatures like the Roc, and the ‘Old Man of the Sea’ – from Sumatra and probably like our Orang-Pendek or even the Flores dwarf.

Jon ended the Weird Weekend by remembering those lost to us this year – Jeanett Thomas, the late wife of Lars, and Lionel Beer’s long term partner Joy who passed away this week. And there was acknowledgment of a CFZ birth and a wedding too.

The dinner was held in the hall this year, with a wonderful meal presented to us by the lovely ladies of the community centre, and we all ended the night eating a CFZ cake too. After dinner, a small few of us stayed behind and watched ‘Occasional Monsters’ a British film that, I think, was inspired by Nick Redfern’s book ‘Three Men seeking Monsters.’

Due to the excitement about possibly having a leopard nearby, Max Blake, Jon McGowan, Darren Naish, and Mark North appeared to walk away from the Community Centre equipt with headlights, torches and wet weather gear, into the dark fields of the Devon countryside in search of it. The rest of us (now an even smaller group) listened to Silas Hawkins read out a third story of Richard Freeman’s book ‘Green Unpleasant Land’ – this one a rather creepy one about the Bodmin little people. Richard is an excellent writer of the macabre and I recommend this book, and not just to those interested in forteana, but those who love ghost stories.

This ended the XIIIth Weird Weekend for 2012, and as a representative of the Australian CFZ gang, I was honoured to be there (It certainly helps when you are currently living in Yorkshire). Thanks to Jon and Corinna Downes, and all other members of the CFZ that helped me out this weekend. And thanks to Joe Thomas who taught me how to say Haribo properly! Those of you who have not been to a Weird Weekend, make an effort, DON’T MISS IT!

A sneak peek at the new Orang Pendek book...

Isn't it grand? We'll be ordering a copy of Orang Pendek: In Search of Sumatra's Forgotten Ape ASAP after it has rolled off the printers.

Artist Mark North is the man behind the stunning cover; CFZ Zoological Director Richard Freeman is the author whose writing, multiple trips to Sumatra and unique insight will combine to make this an unforgettable tome; and CFZ Director Jonathan Downes is the brains behind bringing this book to publication.

Tell Santa you want this one for Christmas cobbers!

And for those who want a taste of what might be contained therein, watch our CFZ Sumatra Expedition video here:

Fortean Times Unconvention 2011

This year's Fortean Times Unconvention already has some great talks slated for the weekend. There's plenty of time to buy tickets (and book flights!) for the weekend of November 12-13.

Australian Tania Poole will be covering all the action for CFZ antipodean readers.

After the huge success of last year’s event, UnConvention is back and presenting a wide-ranging, two-day programme of talks and events devoted to the odd, the intriguing and the inexplicable, including speakers and scholars from every realm of forteana, from cryptozoology and conspiracy to parapsychology and ufology – not to mention dog philosophers, cursed stones and a certain talking mongoose called Gef!

UnCon 2011 will be held in the Camden Centre, a central London location opposite King’s Cross station, ideally situated for transport links and providing a fully licensed bar and café.

Be sure to catch:

All Ape-men Great and Small - Richard Freeman
The search for unknown hominids continues – from the 10-foot-tall Yeti to the rather les imposing Orang Pendek. In November 2010, the Centre for Fortean Zoology took an expidition into the Garo Hills of Northern India in search of the yeti, or mande burung as it is know locally. They uncovered not only eyewitness reports and tracks but also stories of a monster snake unknown to science. In September of 2011, the CFZ mounted their fourth expedition to Sumatra in search of the Orang Pendek, building on the 2009 trip, where the creature was sighted and hair found. Richard Freeman will be giving full accounts of the results of these latest expeditions.

and...

Science and Sasquatch: the life of Grover Krantz - Brian Regal
Physical anthropologist Grover Krantz (1931-2002) was the most well known scientist to publicly champion the existence of the North American cryptid called Sasquatch—also known as Bigfoot. While he did not originate it, he actively promoted the idea that this creature was an evolutionary descendent of Gigantopithecus. For his efforts, he was dismissed or ignored by academics who viewed the Sasquatch as at best a relic of folklore and at worst a hoax, and also received a negative reaction from amateur Bigfoot researchers, some of whom threatened and abused him.

Sumatra expedition covered by The Guardian

The CFZ's Richard Freeman wrote these two articles prior to the CFZ Sumatra Expedition kicking off.

>>> On the trail of the Orang Pendek, Sumatra's mystery ape

>>> Orang Pendek quest begins in Sumatra

Enjoy!

Sumatran Stories: Debbie Martyr

The CFZ's Richard Freeman is one of Britain’s few professional cryptozoologists, and has worked at the Centre For Fortean Zoology since 1996. He is currently writing a book about the Orang Pendek.

This is an interview Richard did with Debbie Martyr, an ex-pat British journalist who now works in tiger conservation. Debbie has seen the Orang Pendek firsthand and started up the website www.orangpendek.com to document her research into the mystery beast. The interview originally appeared in a 2004 edition of the Fortean Times.

~~~

RICHARD FREEMAN: Tell me how you first became interested in Orang-Pendek?

DEBBIE MARTYR: I was travelling in Sumatra as a journalist in 1989. I was climbing Mount Kerinci and heard of a legendary animal that I thought would add a bit of colour to my travel piece. Then I started meeting people who claimed to have seen something. At that stage I didn’t believe or not believe; I was trained as a journalist, which is a respectable profession, so I took a look into it.

RF: Can you tell me about the first time you saw orang-pendek?

DM: I saw it in the middle of September; I had been out here four months. At that time I was 90 per cent certain that there was something here, that it wasn’t just traditional stories. I thought it would be an orang-utan and that it would move like an orang-utan, not bipedally like a man. I had my own preconception of what the animal would look like if I did see it, and I had been throwing away reports of the animal on the basis of colour that didn’t fit what I thought the animal would look like. When I saw it, I saw an animal that didn’t look like anything in any of the books I had read, films I had seen, or zoos I had visited. It did indeed walk rather like a person – and that was a shock.

RF: What did it look like?

DM: A relatively small, immensely strong, non-human primate. But it was very gracile, that was the odd thing. So if you looked at the animal you might say that it resembled a siamang or an agile gibbon on steroids! It doesn’t look like an orang-utan. Their proportions are very different. It’s built like a boxer, with immense upper body strength. But why an animal with immense upper body strength should be lumbering around on the ground, I don’t know. It makes no sense at all.

It was a gorgeous colour, moving bipedally and trying to avoid being seen. I knew there was something in the vicinity, because the action of birds and primates in the area meant that there was obviously something moving around. So I sent a guide around as far as I could to where the disturbance was. Whatever was concealed in the undergrowth would try to avoid my guide and move away in front of him. I was concealed, looking down over a small shallow valley. We didn’t know what we were going to see. It could have been a bear, it could have been a tiger, it could have been a golden cat, or anything. Instead, a bipedal, non-human primate walked down the path ahead. It was concentrating so hard on avoiding my guide it didn’t look towards me. I had a camera in my hand at the time but I dropped it, I was so shocked. It was something so new my synapses froze up for a minute trying to identify something I hadn’t seen before.

RF: You have seen it a couple of times since. Could you tell me about those sightings?

DM: I saw it again about three weeks later. Again, it was on Mount Tuju and, again, I had a camera in my hand but I froze, because I didn’t know what I was seeing. It had frozen on the trail because it had heard us coming. All I could see was that something across the valley had changed. I looked through a pair of binoculars. Something didn’t look quite right in the landscape. By the time I trained on the area the animal had gone. Those were the only times I could have got a photo of it. I have seen it since, but fleetingly. Once you have seen an animal you can recognise it. If you have seen a rhino you can recognise a bit of a rhino.

RF: Can you tell me a bit about your theory of why orang-pendek walks bipedally?

DM: Everyone has pet theories. I think the only thing that makes sense is the massive volcanic event about 50,000 years ago that created what is now Lake Toba up in northern Sumatra. It created a [geographical and biological] divide. You get the Malayan tapir down here but not up there. You get the Thomas’s leaf monkey up there but not down here. In recent geological history it was the biggest volcanic event. It was absolutely immense and would have caused massive habitat destruction right across Sumatra and into Malaysia. All I can think is that surviving animals down here would have had to become terrestrial. They would have found themselves with very few trees.

RF: But 50,000 years is a very short time for something to change so radically.

DM: What you could suggest is that 50,000 years would be sufficient time for something to change its muscles. Maybe there wouldn’t be much skeletal change, there would be some but not a lot. But the main change would be in the muscles. An adaptable animal that is being forced to walk erect. Gibbons can walk erect so perhaps another, larger ape could become bipedal. Speciation – that’s what makes the most sense.

RF: What do you think of reports of other bipedal apes in Asia?

DM: I don’t believe in the abominable snowman. My father was in Tibet and saw what he was told were yeti tracks, but they turned out to be bear footprints. They are just too big. I think three-metre-tall (10ft) apes are too big. Maybe there has been exaggeration through fear. I don’t believe in things like bigfoot. The yeren in China might exist. Orang-utans lived in China in the Pleistocene. It could be speciation in the orang-utan. The forests of Assam might be a good place to look as well.

Sumatran stories: Titan Arum

As we embark on the CFZ Sumatra Expedition, we have lined up a series of themed posts during our absence.

Pictured above is the CFZ's Richard Freeman (right) with a freaky-looking and rarely blooming Sumatran plant known as the Titan Arum, or ‘corpse flower’, which grows to the amazing height of 2-3 feet.

As well as being the world’s biggest flowering plant, it is also the smelliest as it goes into the final phase of its six-year life when it gives off a pungent odour, reminiscent of rotting flesh.

The plant is a distant relative of the ‘lords and ladies’, a British lily. It is distinguished by its yellowy, fleshy spike known as a spadix. This is wrapped in a single cream leaf which, when opened, reveals a rich crimson inside.

When the plant is ready to attract pollinators, the spike heats up and gives off the smell which disgusts humans but is very attractive to insects. Hence it's nickname 'corpse flower'. It then develops the fruit which attracts birds.

Recounting his 2004 trip to Sumatra, Richard wrote this rather poetic description of the beastly bloom for the Fortean Times:

"By a remarkable stroke of luck, a specimen of the Titan arum, the world’s largest flower (below), and one that blossoms only once every 10 years, was blooming nearby – an unmissable opportunity.

The village backed onto an area called "the garden", cultivated land that is used for growing crops but which merges with the jungle seamlessly and is, in some areas, very overgrown. Due to the garden’s more open nature, one usually encounters more wildlife here than in the jungle proper, and this is where the T. arum was to be found.

It lived up to its name; it is truly the Godzilla of flowers, looking like some strange surrealist sculpture or something made by the BBC special effects department. It stood 7ft (2m) tall, the elephant’s foot of a stem widening into a barrel-sized green bowl. This in turn flared out into the petal, which looked like nothing so much as a Spanish Flamenco dancer’s red dress. Finally, a phallic stamen of bright yellow stabbed upwards from within the petal’s folds.

The scent of the T. arum is said to be like rotting flesh; it is pollinated by flies attracted to what they assume is a cadaver. We could detect no such smell around our flower – but close by the fresh carcass of a bearded pig was stealing its thunder."

Richard Freeman at the Weird Weekend 2011

The CFZ's zoological director Richard Freeman (pictured above at right, with Dr Chris Clarke and Adam Davies) waxed lyrical at this year's Weird Weekend about the Centre's 2010 India Expedition in search of the Mande-Burung.

Jon Downes and Richard Freeman at Weird Weekend 2011

Who better to introduce the wonders and mysteries of cryptozoology than CFZ Director Jon Downes and CFZ Zoological Director Richard Freeman?

Richard (pictured above with CFZ girl reporter and Weird Weekend regular Harriet Wadham) has traveled all over the globe hunting for 'monsters', as has Jon, and both have written extensively about their various cryptozoological passions.

Two finer fellows you could not meet. And they put on a damn fine Weird Weekend!

Watch on...

CFZ TV: Riddle of the Hills

The latest feature-length film from CFZtv, directed and edited by Jonathan Downes. At the end of 2010, a five man expedition from the Centre for Fortean Zoology went to the Garo Hills, in Meghalaya, Northern India to look for the Mande Burung - an Indian analogue of the Yeti. This is their story...

Update: Sumatra 2011 - In Search of the Orang-Pendek

Details of the planning of the CFZ Sumatra expedition are almost finalised, and the trailcam fundraiser has been a great success, with four Bushnell trail cameras (aka game cameras) secured thanks to the generosity of CFZ supporters.

A big thank you to Glen Vaudrey, who drove the fundraising, and to Adam Davies and Andrew Sanderson who have worked hard on planning the trip.

The team, as it stands, will comprise the following members: Dr Chris Clark, Richard Freeman, Dave Archer, Jon McGowan, Lisa Dowley, Andrew Sanderson, Rebecca Lang and Mike Williams.

The countdown to September has begun!

Meet the Cryptozoologist: Richard Freeman

How did you first get involved in researching strange and mysterious creatures?
I discovered the magazine Animals & Men in the sadly defunct Potter’s Museum of Curiosities. I started to write for it, became the Yorkshire rep then finally moved down to Devon to become the Zoological Director of the CFZ.

What were some of the early influences in your life?
Doctor Who! When I was a boy the great Jon Pertwee was The Doctor. He had been trapped on Earth by the Time Lords, so most of the monsters he faced such as Sea Devils, Autons and Giant Maggots were in a contemporary setting. This made them all the more frightening; a monster on your doorstep is more scary than one on some distant planet. My life-long love of monsters led to an interest in real life ones.

Have you personally seen one of these creatures?
I saw a big cat, probably a dark phase puma a few weeks ago on the outskirts of Exeter. Back in 2002 I saw the monster of Martin Mere, an 8-foot wells catfish. In 2008 I may have come close to seeing an Almasty as it prowled around an abandoned farmhouse in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia.

What creatures particularly interest you?
Dragons, there are legends of these giant reptiles in every culture on earth and cave paintings dating back 25,000 years. Dragon-like beasts are still reported today.

What cryptids are most likely to exist in your opinion?
The thylacine - it has been seen by so many good witnesses such as zoologists and park rangers. I have little doubt it still exists. Orang-pendek, I’ve seen its tracks and heard its call. Sea serpents of various kinds (some reptiles, some mammals some fish). The Yeti, the Almasty.

What’s your favourite?
Dragons, thylacines, yetis.

What’s your favourite Australian cryptid?
Obviously the thylacine but I’m very interested in reports of giant crocodiles and giant monitor lizards too.

Have you developed any theories around where the more unusual animals - i.e. yowies/bigfoot - have come from?
I think yowie / bigfoot are apes or hominids. Some monsters may be tulpas (thought forms) raised from a gestalt sub-conscience of our race as a whole. Fossil memories made temporarily flesh.

Have you written any books/articles?
Dragons: More Than a Myth?; Explore Dragons; and The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia; An A to Z of Japanese monsters.

I’ve written so many articles I’ve lost count!

Do you have a website?www.cfz.org.uk

How many mystery animal reports would you receive a year?
I don’t keep count, dozens.

What’s the closest you’ve personally come to finding something?
Finding tracks from the Orang-pendek, hearing it call and finding hair that was later found to be from a ‘large unknown primate’.

What’s the farthest you’ve travelled to go ‘in search of’ mystery animals?
Mongolia for the deathworm, Sumatra for the Orang-pendek, Guyana for the giant anaconda, Thailand for the Naga, West Africa for the Ninki-nanka, Russia for the Almasty.

What’s next for you - any trips planned? Books or articles to write? Talks to give?
I’m heading back to Sumatra in September. I have a book of horror stories called Green Unpleasant Land and a book on the Orang-pendek called Orang-Pendek: Sumatra’s Forgotten Ape.

I have an article on the Indian yeti coming up in Fortean Times.

Could you share some of your favourite cryptozoology book titles with us?

• Out of the Shadows: The Mystery Animals of Australia by Tony Healy and Paul Cropper

• Here be Dragons by Ralph Whitlock

• The Yowie by Tony Healy and Paul Cropper

• On the Track of Unknown Animals by Bernard Heuvelmans

• Alien Animals by Janet and Colin Bord

• Images of the Wildman in South East Asia by Gregory Forth

• Abominable Snowman a Legend come to Life by Ivan T Sanderson

• In the Footsteps of the Russian Snowman by Dmitri Bayanov

• The Lost Ark by Dr Karl Shuker

What advice would you give anyone getting into the field of cryptozoology?

Follow your dream, never give up. Join the CFZ!

CFZ India Expedition report #5

CFZ India Expedition report #4

CFZ India Expedition report #3

CFZ India Expedition report #2

Another exciting snapshot of the recent expedition...

CFZ India Expedition report #1

The first in a series of videos about the recent CFZ India Expedition 2010:

Orang Pendek update - new species?

Danish zoologist Lars Thomas has finished his analysis of the suspected Orang Pendek hairs brought back from the 2009 CFZ Sumatra expedition - and it sounds very promising indeed!

Read all about it here: http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/11/lars-thomas-analysis-of-orang-pendek.html

CFZ @ the FT Unconvention 2010

There will be a strong CFZ presence at this year's Fortean Times Unconvention 2010. On the speakers list are: -

Jon and Corinna Downes: Texas Blue Dogs;

Rebecca Lang: Australian Big Cats (and plugging her new book);

Richard Freeman: Return to Sumatra - On the Trail of the Orang Pendek.

And on some decidedly non-zoological topics: -

Andy Roberts: Berwyn, The Welsh Roswell (the topic of Andy's latest book) AND Amazing Dope Tales;

Mike Hallowell: The South Shields Poltergeist.

You can see the rest of the speakers here: -

http://www.forteantimes.com/events/uncon2010/3952/talks_and_speakers.html