Paul, Duzza, I guess this is for you guys mainly. Paul made a comment in another thread about being at a convention recently (and I'm assuming it was somewhere there, please correct me otherwise). The U.K. is not an area that one normally thinks of as having much sasquatch activity, so that got me wondering:

Are there more people involved in research over there than we realize here in North America? Do you have very many people you can network with, are there larger organizations? Are your conferences big or smaller gatherings, and are there many throughout a typical year?

Hope you don't mind all the questions. It's just not something I'd really wondered about before, and now I'm curious. Thanks in advance!

Good question,

There are a small number of hominid researchers in the UK, but I could count the serious ones on my left hand (including myself), although we do share information, research, and get together from time to time to share a beer or seven, we also have a great researcher in Switzerland, and a few in Russia.

Because we can't get out into the field as often as you guys, we do most of our research pouring over books and papers, and tracking down sightings in strange parts of the world including Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Mongolia and the middle east.

Most researchers in the UK are Cryptozoologists rather than Hominid researchers, and I think it is fair to say that whilst my research is 90% hominids, I do also fall into the wider Cryptozoology field.

The convention I was at recently was a Cryptozoology convention organised by the Centre for Fortean Zoology and was indeed in the UK. the CFZ hosts one smallish meeting every year, and we have a larger 'Fortean' convention hosted by the Fortean Times every year, which is attended by hundreds of people every year - this year we were treated to Loren Coleman's 'Sex and Bigfoot' talk. The CFZ also puts out a fascinating magazine every couple of months.

The UK is, and always has been one of the major centres for cryptozoology - I have friends that have recently been to sumatra to look for the Orang-Pendek and the Cigau, to Mongolia to find the Mongolian Death Worm, to Tasmania to look for evidence of the Thylacine in addition to the sort of stuff we find in the UK and Ireland.

In addition, we have a number of academics that are open to the idea - foremost is Dr. Karl Shuker, whos books I can thoroughly recommend.

We have had sightings of BF in Britain, but I still find these suspect - I just can't see it myself. - PM me if you want any more details.

The main Cryptozoology society (and now the biggest in the world) can be found at www.cfz.org.uk, although it is fair to say that their forum is no where near as active or as friendly as BFF.

We have a number of projects slated for the next few years, including a return trip to Sumatra, a return trip to Mongolia with the intention of capturing a pair of death worms, a long trip to St Helena and a return trip to puerto rico.


The best project though, and the one I am most excited about is a project to visit schools and talk to the kids about cryptozoology - to show them Bigfoot casts, the patterson film, the thylacine films etc. - we are just in talks with the education authorities at the moment.

Thanks for such a detailed reply!


That makes sense, actually...again, out of curiosity, have you been to Loch Ness?



Mongolian death worms....that's a new on one me, but I'm imagining some pretty nasty little buggers.



I'll do that, thanks!



HOW FUN! You won't find a more receptive group to teach about this kind of thing either...their minds are open, they'll be excited to learn about the "weird" stuff, and you might wind up steering a few future researchers in the right direction! This sounds like so much fun. Kids are a riot to work with in groups.

Thanks again!

I don't have much to add... since I don't know half as much about the subject as Paul... But I know there's no bigfoot or cryptozoology organisations around my way of the country.... There's quite a lot of woodland thought, but the only thing i've ever seen there was a group of Napalese soldiers...that appeared outta nowhere one day..

But the only cryptozoology type things there even is around here is sightings of big cats, and these little black things that look like small Scorpians... But you only ever see out after there has been real heavy rain, I'm told they live in the sewers... and I'm not even sure they're cryptids...

But, Paul, how do you become a member of the cfz? Do you have to pay? I always wanted to visit Puerto Rico ...

What the heck is that!?!

Uhm...soldiers. From Nepal. :rolleyes:

No, really? What the heck would Nepalese soldiers be doing there?

They got seriously lost in a Nepal temple ball haze?

What? Y'all don't have Nepalese soldiers over there? Ya dunno what you're missing... They're a friendly bunch...but once they take their knive out of their holder, they can't put it back in till it's drawn blood

When I stumbled upon them in the woods, one of them asked me, in his broken English, if I was lost and needed directions

The next town accross from me is the home of the British Army, and I think the Nepal and English are friends or something, because they've got a lot of soldiers from Nepal here... and now I think about it, there's just a lot of people from Nepal around my way... Ah well..they cook nice food...

Nepalese soldiers = Gurkhas.

Professional soldiers for the Crown since Great Britain controlled
that part of the world. Very good and extremely tough soldiers
known worldwide. The blade that Duzza mentioned is as much
a part of a Gurkha as are his hands. Very efficient hacking blade,
much like a long bladed axe. Gurkhas serve with the Royal Army
and train worldwide. We've had training opportunities with them.

Yeah Gurkhas. That's the guys. I didn't know how to spell the word, so I didn't wanna look like a idiot by mispelling it really badly...

Hey, Howlingmad, do you know what the name of the blade they carry is called? I'm sure it's got a specific name, but I can't remember it...

Gurkha knives are called a Kukri...no idea if I got the spelling right, but that is how they sound...

Tip o' the hat to Brer Nightwing

spelling is correct too...