An organization founded in 1982 (one of its founders was Roy Mackal) to promote the study of cryptozoology. It publishes Cryptozoology and ISC Newsletter and acts as the discipline’s professional body. Its president is Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans, recognized as the founder of the discipline, a professor of zoology and the author of On the Track of Unknown Animals (1995).
The society now initiates studies and expeditions, researching as many as 150 possible animals. To dismiss their findings as mythological, pseudoscientific, or merely folkloric legends would be mistaken. The work of cryptozoologists in the last 50 years has resulted in acceptance of the existence of several animals hitherto thought to be either extinct or mythical. It is reasonable to expect that more will be discovered. There is a certain urgency to this work because so much of the relatively inaccessible areas of the world, where such animals might be found, are being destroyed to meet the demands of the expanding population and its expectations.