Dear friends,

Welcome to another issue of the CFZ members newsletter. There are all sorts of things going on within the Centre for Fortean Zoology, but most of them are relatively dull in nature. For example, Graham has spent much of the last month emulating The Drifters, and spending most of his time up on the roof finishing off the adhesion that needs to be applied to the rubber sheets we put up there a couple of years back. The weather was so crappy last year that although it should’ve been done then, it wasn’t. 

Carl, Graham and I have all been unwell to a greater or lesser extent, and have not been as functional as we would’ve liked. However, Graham went to see his mother in South Devon, and whilst he was away, Carl and Sarah sorted out an awful lot of work that needed to be sorted out in the dining room. Sarah is now working on making the library actually look like a library rather than a storeroom in some sort of itinerant transit camp.

I am happy to be able to inform you all that our two Web TV shows Are going from strength to strength; Louis has been talking to his business contacts and seems to have unearthed various pieces of information which are allowing us to be more successful in our viewing numbers. Specifically, I have been very lax over the last few years about utilising the YouTube community page. ‘Very lax‘ actually means that I have done bugger all about it. However this is now changed, and already it seems that by trying to do things that I should do on the YouTube section in question is having the desired result. However, if there is anybody out there in reader land who fancies taking on part of this job I would be very grateful.

Regular readers will, I am certain, be aware that Louis has earned himself the nickname of ‘Computer boy‘. I am happy to announce that he is now joined by ‘Social Media boy’ in the shape of a young man called Brad Onstott from summy Michigan who will be trying to make my CFZjon Twitter account actually be some use for us

One of the most important jobs that my late wife Corinna did for the CFZ was coediting the yearbook with me. The year we are working on at the moment, as it goes without saying, will be the first since she died, but I am pleased to announce that her role as co-editor has been taken over by Richard Muirhead. As you may know I have known Richard since he was a schoolboy over fifty years ago and I can’t think of anybody more suited to help me get the yearbook back on schedule. One thing I would like to say however, at first at least, we are only going to be doing a yearbook every two years: This volume is 22/23. Richard and I are also getting Animals & Men back on track too, with Carl Marshall taking Corinna’s place as co-editor on that project, but I am trying not to bite off too much more than I can chew… because as I keep saying I am more rapidly coming to face my dotage than I care to admit. 

Thank you to everybody who has supported us over the last month - and once again to all the people who have been kind enough to offer to become CFZ volunteers. We are always looking for more people to help, so if you are interested in joining our happy band of brothers and sisters, please email me on Jon@cfz.org.uk because we have a lot of work that needs to be done, both in research and administration… and I very very much look forward to hearing from you. 

Yours, as ever

Jon Downes

Oh those Tortoiseshells
 

Many of you will be aware that I am a regular habitué of the excellent Butterflies UK Forums, particularly the one that specialises in sightings. I get a lot of interesting information from there. And though last year was slightly dull, this year has got off to a flying start again, regular readers will be aware that I have been following the saga of the British large tortoiseshell butterfly for many years. It is widely believed that this creature was extirpated from the British Isles sometime in the 1950s and that any sightings of it which do take place are the result of vagrants blown over from the continent, or unofficial re-introductions five people or persons unknown. However, there are so many sightings of it every year now, that it seems certain that it is breeding here again. Last time there were well-attested sightings of caterpillars in Norfolk, Sussex, and Portland in Dorset, As well as sightings all across the bottom third of England.

This year has not had quite so many sightings as there was last year, but there have been a respectable number of them in southern England over the past few weeks. Check the current list out:

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11277

But the tortoiseshell sagas don’t end here.

Up until 2014 the Scarce Tortoiseshell butterfly, also known as the Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell, had a single confirmed sighting of a female specimen that was caught in Shipbourne, near Sevenoaks in West Kent on 2nd July 1953. It is believed that this individual could feasibly have occurred as a natural migrant, rather than an accidental introduction. However, some 61 years later, in July 2014, the ability of this butterfly to reach our shores was confirmed when sightings of this species were reported from a number of counties in south-east England, following an influx in the Netherlands. This species is resident in central and eastern Europe, but is occasionally sighted in Finland, and Germany, and although it is usually a vagrant to Denmark it arrived there in enormous numbers during 2014. 

It successfully colonised Sweden during its last big population explosion in the early years of the current century, and although it was claimed that it had bred a in the UK during 2014 and certainly a few specimens overwintered because a few were seen in East Anglia during the spring of 2015, the species then died off here.

On the Sussex butterflies blog for the 12th of March, Stuart Cooper wrote:

“Pristine Scarce Tortoiseshell on bracken under the pylons, sunning itself. Flew off before I could get a picture, but I have some video of it flying away. 😂 (Stuart Cooper, Flat rompers Wood - TQ86462282)”

https://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings/

One of the editors wrote:

“Hopefully it will be seen again, and photographed, Stuart. I note that in The Butterflies of Sussex it was a certain Stuart Cooper who photographed a Scarce Tortoiseshell on March 12th 2014. Martin K”

And there the matter rests. It is not at all impossible that this species has once again reached British shores, but the fact that the same person made two records eight years apart does push it into the realm of the Fortean coincidence.

Just sayin’

In 1957 Soviet historian and social scientist Boris Porshnev, inspired by the reports of the Yeti in the Himalayas, became interested in the possibility of similar creatures in the area of Europe and Asia then controlled by the Soviet Union. He was given permission by the Soviet Academy of Sciences to establish a Commission to examine the whole question of the 'Snowman'. After he wrote an article in Pravda he received over a thousand reports from all over the Soviet Union, giving a consistent picture of a wild creature, more closely related to human beings than any known species, surviving in mountainous areas all over Asia. An expedition to the Pamirs of Tajikistan was organised in 1958 to follow up the most promising reports. Unfortunately, more powerful figures in the scientific establishment subverted the original purpose of the expedition and it produced little result. From then on Porshnev's position declined. His theory that Asian wildman reports could be explained by surviving Neanderthals was attacked, in one case in terms that doubted his sanity. The defence he wrote could not be published in Moscow, and had to appear in a Kazakhstan literary magazine.

In 1963 he produced a book summarising the evidence the Commission had received, studies from other parts of the world, and further evidence from history. He built up on this basis a consistent picture of the creature and discussed its possible relation to Neanderthal man. The book was never actually completed, but 180 copies of a preliminary version were circulated to colleagues in Moscow. The book then disappeared for well over half a century. With the assistance of Porshnev's family the manuscript has now reached the West and is published here in an English translation with the addition of notes, maps, illustrations and an index. This book casts a wholly new light on the Yeti, Bigfoot and the possible survival of human ancestors into the present day.

Buy the book at a special low price today. 

As regular viewers of On The Track will know, we are in the early stages of setting up a, or at least carrying out a feasibility study, into a research project on the Japanese island of Iriomote. As you probably know, this island, one of the southernmost parts of the Japanese archipelago is home to a unique species of cat Prionailurus iriomotensis which some people believe is a subspecies of the Asian Leopard Cat. It was discovered in 1965 by Tetsuo Koura, who also looked into rumours of a larger mystery cat on the island. This, if it exists, will almost certainly turn out to be a clouded leopard of some description, but the important thing is to find out to which of the two species of clouded leopards to which it belongs. However, as recent evidence has shown that speciation within the clouded leopard complex is not unknown, could it be a new subspecies, and if so, what is its relationship to the semi-mythical clouded leopards of formosa. 

We are looking for some volunteers to help put this project together. This, in the early stages, will take completely on social media, but if there is anybody who speaks Japanese or who reads this and has family or friends on Iriomote and wants to have a bash at getting themselves a modicum of zoological immortality, please drop me a line at:

CFZJon@gmail.com