Karl P. N. Shuker (born 1959) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
zoologist, cryptozoologist, and
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
living in the
West MidlandsThe West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of 2,591,300. 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...
,
EnglandEngland 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 and the North Sea to the east, with 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
cryptozoologyCryptozoology refers to the search for animals which are considered to be legendary or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology...
.
Shuker has a BSc/Honours in pure
zoologyZoology, also spelled zoölogy, is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. The zoologist's pronunciation of "zoology" is , though a common spelling pronunciation is .-Systems of classification:...
from the
University of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire and, with over 33,000 full-time students, is the second largest single site university in the United Kingdom. In the world university league tables published in November 2008, the university's ‘employer...
and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the
University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British 'Redbrick' university located in the city of Birmingham, England...
.
He is a Scientific Fellow of the
Zoological Society of LondonThe Zoological Society of London is a learned society founded in London in April 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Auckland, Sir Humphry Davy, Robert Peel, Joseph Sabine, Nicholas Aylward Vigors along with various other nobility, clergy, eminent naturalists and gentlemen...
, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a consultant for the
Centre for Fortean ZoologyCentre 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 AuthorsThe 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.
Karl P. N. Shuker (born 1959) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
zoologist, cryptozoologist, and
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
living in the
West MidlandsThe West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of 2,591,300. 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...
,
EnglandEngland 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 and the North Sea to the east, with 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
cryptozoologyCryptozoology refers to the search for animals which are considered to be legendary or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology...
.
Academic
Shuker has a BSc/Honours in pure
zoologyZoology, also spelled zoölogy, is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. The zoologist's pronunciation of "zoology" is , though a common spelling pronunciation is .-Systems of classification:...
from the
University of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire and, with over 33,000 full-time students, is the second largest single site university in the United Kingdom. In the world university league tables published in November 2008, the university's ‘employer...
and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the
University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British 'Redbrick' university located in the city of Birmingham, England...
.
He is a Scientific Fellow of the
Zoological Society of LondonThe Zoological Society of London is a learned society founded in London in April 1826 by Sir Stamford Raffles, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Auckland, Sir Humphry Davy, Robert Peel, Joseph Sabine, Nicholas Aylward Vigors along with various other nobility, clergy, eminent naturalists and gentlemen...
, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a consultant for the
Centre for Fortean ZoologyCentre 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 AuthorsThe 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...
.
Career
Shuker is one of the leading cryptozoologists in the English speaking world. He has authored numerous articles and fifteen books, including the cryptozoological works
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). He is also a published poet - his first volume of poetry,
Star Steeds and Other Dreams, 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 birdThe 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" 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 carcass of the Gambo was reported to have been discovered by 15-year-old Owen Burnham and his family on the morning of June 12 1983...
the Gambian sea serpent, Goodenough Island mystery bird, New Guinea
ropenThe 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
waheelaThe Waheela is a wolf-like cryptid reported from Nahanni Valley in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson thought that the waheela might represent a relict population of Amphicyonids, prehistoric bear-dogs .The waheela is similar to the Shunka Warakin, but inhabits a...
,
Kellas catThe 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 WormThe Mongolian Death Worm is a cryptid purported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is generally considered a cryptozoological creature; one whose sightings and reports are disputed or unconfirmed....
, Hungarian reedwolf, Fujian blue or
Maltese tigerThe Maltese tiger, or blue tiger, is a suspected coloration morph of a tiger, reported mostly from the Fujian Province of China. It is said to have bluish fur with dark grey stripes. The term "Maltese" comes from domestic cat terminology for blue fur, and refers to the slate grey coloration...
as shown on the cover of
Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), Welsh cenaprugwirion,
bigfin squidThe bigfin squids are a group of rarely seen cephalopods with a very distinctive morphology. They are placed in the genus Magnapinna and family Magnapinnidae...
, St Helena sirenian, Timor Sea ground shark, and crowing crested cobra.
Aside from his own publications, Shuker pens two regular cryptozoological columns ('Alien Zoo' and 'The Lost Ark') in
Fortean TimesFortean Times – "The World of Strange Phenomena" – 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 February 2009, its...
, is a contributing editor and cryptozoological columnist for
Strange Magazine, and is a regular contributor to
Fate and related publications. In addition, he is the zoological consultant for the
Guinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing an internationally recognised...
.
He has acted as a consultant for several television specials and series, including Discovery TV's
Into the Unknown. He has also served as a question setter for the BBC's quiz show
MastermindMastermind 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 contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the contestant's choice, the...
.
In November 2001, Shuker became a £250,000 prize winner on the British version of
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?In the United Kingdom, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television reality/game 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 honoured by the naming of a new species of
LoriciferaLoricifera is a small phylum of 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. 1 mm...
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
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)
External links