Corinna Newton Downes

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Cryptozoologist


Corinna Downes with Kellas Cat, March 2007
Biography

Name:	Corinna Newton Downes
Born:	1956 Uxbridge, England
Resume

Field:	Author Journalist Administrator Novelist Conservationist
Paranormal Area:	Cryptozoologist
Affiliates:	Centre for Fortean Zoology Tropiquaria

Corinna Newton Downes (born Uxbridge, England, in 1956) is a novelist, author, zoological journalist, zoo owner, conservationist, and administrator. She is currently Administrative Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, and is married to CFZ Director Jonathan Downes.^{[citation needed]}

She was born Corinna Newton James in 1956, and married first husband Peter McCarthy in 1984. They have two daughters, Shoshannah (b. 1985), and Olivia (b.1987). They divorced in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

After several years voluntary work with the CFZ she was confirmed as Administrative Director in April 2006.^[1]^[2] She has also appeared in several of the CFZ films^[3] including Eel or No Eel (2006).^[4]

She is an associate editor of the CFZ Journal Animals & Men and sub editor of the magazine Exotic Pets^[5] She has a blog^[6] and is particularly interested in horned frogs and budgett's frogs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Zoo and Conservation work

She is one of the three partners who run Tropiquaria - a small, privately owned zoo at Watchett, near Minehead, North Somerset.^[7]

It is based around a Grade 2 listed building, namely a 1930s BBC broadcasting station of historic interest.^[8].^[9]^[10] The main building has been converted into a tropical hall for reptiles and birds.

The zoo was founded in the late 1980s, but Corinna Downes, together with Chris Moiser and Jane Bassett, took over the management of the park in August 2007.^[11]. The team intends to change the emphasis of the animal collection towards endangered species from Sub-Saharan Africa.^[12]

They achieved the following breeding successes of endangered species in 2007:

Pancake tortoises
Jamaican boas
Northern Helmeted Curassow.^[13]^[14]

The zoo is a member of BIAZA.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Books

She has written or edited the following books:

Ethna's Journal (CFZ Press, Bideford, 2007)
CFZ Yearbook 2008 (CFZ Press, Bideford, 2008)

Ethna's Journal is a historical novel which tells the story of a few months in an alternate Dark Ages, seen through the eyes of Ethna, daughter of Lord Edric. She is an unsophisticated girl from the fortress town of Cragnuth, somewhere in the north of England, who reluctantly gets embroiled in a web of treachery, sorcery and conflict.^{[citation needed]}

With the CFZ Yearbook 2008, however, she has taken over from Richard Freeman the task of co-editing the publication.^{[citation needed]}