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News from the CFZ Guyana expedition

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oll_lewis

Gone But Not Forgotten
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The Centre for fortean zoology are in Guyana at the moment searching for giant anacondas, the Didi and the water tiger and also evidence and new witness reports of those and any other cryptids and new species there.

On the expedition team are Richard Freeman, Dr Chris Clarke, John Hare, Lisa Dowley and Paul Rose (better know as Mr Biffo formally of teletext's didgitiser and writer of CITV series 'my parents are aliens').

I took the first satellite phone call from Richard yesterday, basicly it just confirmed they had arrived in the capital safely, and Jonathan Downes answered the phone to richard tonight.

As Jon was talking to Rich he was quite clearly getting very excited by the news and after he told me I can say I don't blame him:

They have discovered and filmed a new species of scorpion and heard a very disturbing and shocking witness report about the Didi (sometimes called the south American Bigfoot).

The full report is up on the Guyana expedition blog now:

http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/

please click on the blog to read the article and full reports of the expeditions exploits as and when we get news, we aim to update it at least once a day with news from the expedition and background essays about the cryptids from Jon Downes, Nick Redfern and me (and a few other very well known cryptozoologists are rumoured to be posting articles on it soon ;) ).

In this expedition the CFZ have been sponcered by Capcom to promote monster hunter 2 for the PSP so with the extra capital and resources we have been able to attempt our most ambitious expedition to date.
 
The blog has just been updated with today's events:

In summary today the team started to explore the savannah and heard more reports of the didi and have interviewed several people who have seen anacondas near to the known maximum size. The team have heard an exceedingly odd mermaid report as well. Richard has collapsed as a result of heat stroke under the intense beating sun, but has recovered this evening.

Read the blog for the detailed report into the days activities and more.

http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/
 
A fascinating expedition to a part of the world that needs more exploration and more individuals like Marc Van Roosmalen to uncover the undoubtedly dozens of undiscovered species still out there, my only concern with all of this are that the main sponser is Capcom, surely such a company would encourage dramatic stories from the locals and even dare I say it 'create' some dramatic encounters to create publicity for the upcoming release of thier game. I don't think such expeditions with such sponsers should be taken very seriously, Capcom would have a lot to gain if the Expedition turned out to be more 'exciting' than scientific. When there is a cash incentive, science can be misconstrued to great effect :(
 
Enigmania said:
my only concern with all of this are that the main sponser is Capcom, surely such a company would encourage dramatic stories from the locals and even dare I say it 'create' some dramatic encounters to create publicity for the upcoming release of thier game.
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The area the teem is in is so remote, in many places they are visiting they are the first europeons to do so in many of the natives lifetimes, and the only phone in the area is the satellite phone that the team brought with them. For Capcom or anybody in the west to organize or prep witnesses would be impossible (and as a fortean I don't use the word 'impossible lightly ;) )


I don't think such expeditions with such sponsers should be taken very seriously, Capcom would have a lot to gain if the Expedition turned out to be more 'exciting' than scientific. When there is a cash incentive, science can be misconstrued to great effect :(
Click to expand...

Why shouldn't it be taken seriously?

Capcom have nothing to do with the expedition or our blog other than kindly giving us the money to undertake the expedition. The expedition was planned long before Capcom were even involved and the blogs are being writain up by jonathan downs, directly after taking the phonecalls from the team, what you see on the blog is as near as to what as happenened as you can get, there are no Capcom employed spin doctors involved whatsoever.

Cryptozoological expeditions are both exciting and scientific, thats why we do it and that's also, I assume, why a lot of people enjoy reading about it.

Capcom gets their name associated with the expedition though their sponcorship and thats where they get their advertising. Most scientific expeditions are sponcered by someone or other whether that is overt or covert, that is a fact of life. These days if you work as a scientist in a university you often have to pick and choose what you research not based on what you want to study but more based on where you will be able to pick up research grants from.

Also for what it's worth I've played the monster hunter games and they are fun (before anyone accuses me of selling out I should say this is my personal opinion).
 
Back to the main topic of the thread now, the expedition itself:

Days 4 and 5:

Yesterday the team became the first Europeans to visit a cave system discovered only 2 years ago. the site appears to be pre-Colombian (as in before Columbus first landed in the Americas) and here the team found several skeletons in situ, one looked like it may have belonged to some sort of shaman or wizeman/woman.
They also spoke to another didi witness and a man who had seen a short-man with a painted red face in the area.
The teams hardships also continue with the temperature getting hotter, causing more heatstroke and with Lisa Dowley breaking her thumb.

Full report and all the gory details as usual up on the blog:
http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/
 
the day 6 update is now up

Snake hunts, manky feet (with bits falling off), bush fires, and giant anteaters are the stories of the day.

Read the blog for the full story.
http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/

(oh and there's a competition in there to win a year's subscription to 'Animals & Men and years membership to the CFZ, get reading and emailing quick to be in with a chance).
 
Ah, pre-Columbian - i.e., anywhere from 600 to 40,000 (if we accept the oldest dates for Monte Verde and the Mexican footprints) years ago!

I know, it's not possible to do any better under the circumstances, but I look forward to knowing what evidence indicates a pre 1492 date and get a notion of just how old it was. Ancient (as opposed to merely old) South America is unjustly neglected on the world stage, yet it has much to tell us about many of the most important questions of Western Hemisphere archeology.

I'm afraid I can't help writing the horror short story in my head as I hear about the malevolent dwarfs and the wonky phone connection, though. I hope the last transmission you get isn't anything like: "Oh my god, what is that? No, nothing's that big! Lisa! Look out! Aaaaargh!" Hisss, hisss, static, "Ia ia shub niggurath!" crunch...
 
Adding to a sort of potential horror story Richard told us today about Bush's catching fire while they watched them and it is worth noting that it was Lisa, who examined the bones the other day and it's Lisa who seems to be sustaining the most injuries in the course of duty at the moment, could the bones have been cursed??? :shock:

Well, probably not but it is fun to speculate on that sort of thing late at night....
 
No mention of any more heatstroke of injuries from richard's latest phonecall I'm sure you'll be happy to know.

Jonathan downes' latest report is up now and it seems the lads and lady have hit the motherlode in the last 2 days:

More didi sightings and stories,
Detailed water tiger sightings (and a few myths about the creature exploded),
More redfaced dwarfs,
And a completely new cryptid/ new species never before heard of in Britain and the USA!

Have a cup of tea and read detailed update on:
http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/
 
wishing all the team well!

Its great to have folks willing to go through all this crap to get us fortean folks info. :D
 
An update from Richard is up on the blog now about the short red faced fellows and giant anacondas.

They should be on their ludacrusly long and many plained flight back to the uk as I write this so in a few days they'll be able to share pictures from the expedition with everyone reeding the blog and post their summings up.


http://cfzguyana.blogspot.com/
 
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