Richard Freeman

Cryptozoologist

Richard Freeman is a full-time cryptozoologist. He searches for and writes about unknown animals. He has hunted for creatures such as the yeti (a dark haired, giant, upright ape in North India), the Mongolian deathworm (a much feared burrowing reptile of the Gobi), the giant anaconda (a monster constricting snake in South America), the ninki-nanka ( a dangerous dragon like beast from the swamps of West Africa), the almasty (a relic hominid in the Caucasus of Russia), orang-pendek (an upright walking ape in Indonesia), the naga (a giant, crested serpent in Indo-China) , the gul (a relic hominin from Tajikistan) the Tasmanian wolf (a flesh eating marsupial in Tasmania) and the Caspian tiger (an strain of tiger from Central Asia thought extinct since the 1960s). He is the Zoological Director at the Centre for Fortean Zoology. This is the world’s only full time mystery animal research organization. It is based in North Devon.
He has lectured at the Natural History Museum in London and the Grant Museum of Zoology. Richard is also a regular contributor to the magazine Fortean Times.
He has written books about cryptozoology, folklore, and monsters including Dragons: More Than a Myth? , Explore Dragons, The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia: An A to Z of Japanese Monsters and Orang-Pendek: Sumatra’s Forgotten Ape. However, he has recently branched out into horror and weird fantasy with Green Unpleasant Land: 18 Tales of British Horror and Hyakumonagatari: Tales of Japanese Horror Book One. His latest work is an overview of cryptozoology entitled Adventures in Cryptozoology and its sister volume Searching for Real Monsters. He is currently working on a book about high strangeness Fortean cases.
Richard is a massive fan of classic Doctor Who (60's/ 70's not the gender-flipped pc modern rubbish) and a lover of gothic music, weird fiction, and horror.