Centre de Cryptozoologie
Centre de Cryptozoologie
Founded by zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans for the study of animals whose existence is conjectural (i.e., on a borderline between fact and myth). Heuvelmans has coined the term crypto-zoology to characterize the study of such creatures as sea monsters, dragons, hairy dwarfs, and yetis or abominable snowmen.
Heuvelmans was born in Le Havre, France, in 1916, and earned his doctoral degree in zoological sciences at Brussels. His books include On the Track of Unknown Animals (1955) and In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents (1968), both translated from the French. Several of his later books have not been translated. In 1982 he became one of the founders of the International Society of Cryptozoology.
The center has a library of some two thousand volumes and a large collection of magazine articles and illustrations, fully indexed by a card catalog. Address: Verlhiac, St. Chamassy, 24260 Le Bugue, France.
Sources:
Clark, Jerome. Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.
Heuvelmans, Bernard. "The Birth and Early History of Cryptozoology." Cryptozoology 3 (1984): 1-30.
——. In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.
——. On the Track of Unknown Animals. New York: Hill and Wang, 1958.