Karl Shuker
Encyclopedia
Karl P. N. Shuker is a British
zoologist, cryptozoologist, and author
living in the West Midlands
, England
. He works as a full-time freelance zoological consultant, media consultant, and noted author specializing in cryptozoology
.
from the University of Leeds
and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the University of Birmingham
.
He is a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London
, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a consultant for the Centre for Fortean Zoology
, and a member of the Society of Authors
.
Shuker is one of the leading cryptozoologists in the English speaking world. Some of his larger works include Mystery Cats of the World (1989), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993; expanded in 2002 as The New Zoo), and In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), as well as two worldwide bestsellers - Dragons: A Natural History (1995; reissued in 2006), and The Unexplained (1996; reissued in 2002). Shuker also published Star Steeds and Other Dreams, a book of poetry which appeared in 2009.
Shuker was the first cryptozoologist to bring to widespread public attention a considerable number of cryptids that were previously little-known. These include the Sri Lankan horned jackal
and devil bird
, Gambo
the Gambian sea serpent, Goodenough Island mystery bird, New Guinea ropen
and devil pig or gazeka, Scottish earth hound, Indonesian veo and horned cat, New Caledonian du, Irish dobhar-chú, Shatt al Arab venomous mystery fish, Zanzibar makalala, Ethiopian death bird, Zululand kondlo, Arctic North American waheela
, Kellas cat
, Mongolian Death Worm
, Hungarian reedwolf
, Fujian blue or Maltese tiger
as shown on the cover of Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), Welsh cenaprugwirion, bigfin squid
, St Helena sirenian, Timor Sea ground shark, and crowing crested cobra.
Shuker pens two cryptozoological columns ('Alien Zoo' and 'The Lost Ark') in Fortean Times
, and contributes regularly to Strange Magazine, to Fate Magazine, and to Paranormal Magazine
. In addition, he is the zoological consultant for the Guinness World Records
.
He has acted as a consultant for Discovery TV's Into the Unknown, and served as a question setter for the BBC's quiz show Mastermind
. In November 2001, Shuker became a £250,000 prize winner on the British version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
.
In 2005, Shuker was honored when a new species of Loricifera
was named after him, Pliciloricus shukeri.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
zoologist, cryptozoologist, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
living in the West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He works as a full-time freelance zoological consultant, media consultant, and noted author specializing in cryptozoology
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...
.
Career
Shuker received a BSc(Hons) in zoologyZoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
from the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
.
He is a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London
Zoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...
, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a consultant for the Centre for Fortean Zoology
Centre for Fortean Zoology
Centre for Fortean Zoology is an organisation dedicated to cryptozoology, and allied disciplines. It is a non-profit organisation registered with the British Government, and its Hon. Life President is the British explorer John Blashford-Snell....
, and a member of the Society of Authors
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights .It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson The Society of Authors (UK) is a...
.
Shuker is one of the leading cryptozoologists in the English speaking world. Some of his larger works include Mystery Cats of the World (1989), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993; expanded in 2002 as The New Zoo), and In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), as well as two worldwide bestsellers - Dragons: A Natural History (1995; reissued in 2006), and The Unexplained (1996; reissued in 2002). Shuker also published Star Steeds and Other Dreams, a book of poetry which appeared in 2009.
Shuker was the first cryptozoologist to bring to widespread public attention a considerable number of cryptids that were previously little-known. These include the Sri Lankan horned jackal
Jackal's Horn
The Jackal's Horn is a boney cone-shaped excrescence which can occasionally grow on the skulls of golden jackals. It is associated with magical powers in south-eastern Asia. This horn usually measures half an inch in length, and is concealed by fur...
and devil bird
Devil Bird
The Devil Bird, locally known as Ulama, is a cryptid of Sri Lanka said to emit bloodcurdling human sounding shrieks in the night from within the jungles. In Sri Lankan folklore, it is believed that the cry of this bird is an omen that portends death...
, Gambo
Gambo
"Gambo" is the name given to a carcass of an unidentified large marine animal that was reportedly washed up on Bungalow Beach in The Gambia....
the Gambian sea serpent, Goodenough Island mystery bird, New Guinea ropen
Ropen
The Ropen is a flying cryptid alleged to live in the vicinity of Papua New Guinea. According to the book Searching for Ropens, it is "any featherless creature that flies in the Southwest Pacific, and has a tail-length more than 25% of its wingspan." On Umboi Island the word "ropen" refers to a...
and devil pig or gazeka, Scottish earth hound, Indonesian veo and horned cat, New Caledonian du, Irish dobhar-chú, Shatt al Arab venomous mystery fish, Zanzibar makalala, Ethiopian death bird, Zululand kondlo, Arctic North American waheela
Waheela
The Waheela is a wolf-like cryptid reported from Nahanni Valley in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It has also been reported in areas of Michigan and Alaska...
, Kellas cat
Kellas Cat
The Kellas Cat is a small black feline found in Scotland. Once thought to be a mythological wild cat, with its few sightings dismissed as hoaxes, a specimen was shot and killed in 1984 by a gamekeeper named Ronnie Douglas and found to be a hybrid between wild and domestic sub-species of Felis...
, Mongolian Death Worm
Mongolian Death Worm
The Mongolian death worm is a creaturereported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is generally considered a cryptid: an animal whose sightings and reports are disputed or unconfirmed.It is described as a bright red worm with a wide body that is long....
, Hungarian reedwolf
European Jackal
The European Jackal , also known as the Caucasian Jackal or Reed Wolf is a subspecies of golden jackal native to Southeast Europe, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. Its Latin name, moreoticus, means "of Morea"...
, Fujian blue or Maltese tiger
Maltese tiger
The Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a sub species coloration morph of a tiger, reported mostly in the Fujian Province of China. It is said to have bluish fur with dark grey stripes. Most of the Maltese tigers reported have been of the South Chinese subspecies. The South Chinese tiger today is...
as shown on the cover of Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), Welsh cenaprugwirion, bigfin squid
Bigfin squid
The bigfin squids are a group of rarely seen cephalopods with a distinctive morphology. They are placed in the genus Magnapinna and family Magnapinnidae...
, St Helena sirenian, Timor Sea ground shark, and crowing crested cobra.
Shuker pens two cryptozoological columns ('Alien Zoo' and 'The Lost Ark') in Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
, and contributes regularly to Strange Magazine, to Fate Magazine, and to Paranormal Magazine
Paranormal magazine
Paranormal Magazine is a glossy monthly magazine devoted to the subject of supernatural phenomena. It is published by in the UK and is sold throughout the English-speaking world...
. In addition, he is the zoological consultant for the Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
.
He has acted as a consultant for Discovery TV's Into the Unknown, and served as a question setter for the BBC's quiz show Mastermind
Mastermind (TV series)
Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...
. In November 2001, Shuker became a £250,000 prize winner on the British version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty...
.
In 2005, Shuker was honored when a new species of Loricifera
Loricifera
Loricifera is a phylum of very small to microscopic marine sediment-dwelling animals with twenty-two described species, in eight genera. Aside from these described species, there are approximately 100 more that have been collected and not yet described. Their size ranges from 100 µm to ca....
was named after him, Pliciloricus shukeri.
Books
- Mystery Cats of the World (1989), Robert Hale, ISBN 0-7090-3706-6
- Extraordinary Animals Worldwide (1991), Robert Hale, ISBN 0-7090-4421-6
- The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993), HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-219943-2
- Dragons - A Natural History (1995), Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-81443-9; republished (2006), Taschen
- In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), Blandford, ISBN 0-7137-2469-2
- The Unexplained (1996), Carlton Books, ISBN 1-85868-186-3
- From Flying Toads To Snakes With Wings (1997), Llewellyn, ISBN 1-56718-673-4
- Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), Carlton Books, ISBN 1-85868-679-2
- The Hidden Powers of Animals, (2001), Reader's Digest, ISBN 0-7621-0328-0
- The New Zoo: New and Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century (2002), House of Stratus, ISBN 1-84232-561-2
- The Beasts That Hide From Man (2003), Paraview, ISBN 1-931044-64-3
- Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007) CFZ Press, ISBN 1-905723-17-1
- Dr Shuker's Casebook (2008) CFZ Press, ISBN 1-905723-33-1
- Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals on Stamps: A Worldwide Catalogue (2008) CFZ Press, ISBN 1-905723-34-2
- Star Steeds and Other Dreams: The Collected Poems (2009) CFZ Press, ISBN 978-1-905723-40-9
- Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times (2010) CFZ Press, ISBN 978-1-905723-62-1
Consultant or contributor
- Man and Beast (1993)
- Secrets of the Natural World (1993)
- Almanac of the Uncanny (1995)
- The Guinness Book of Records/Guinness World Records (1997–Present Day)
- Mysteries of the Deep (1998)
- Guinness Amazing Future (1999)
- The Earth (2000)
- Monsters (2001)
- Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained (2007)
- Chambers Myths and Mysteries (2008)
- The Fortean Times Paranormal Handbook (2009)