Why do we not yet (as of mid-2014) have a good photo of a ropen? A skeptic may ask that, as a rhetorical question, but it’s answered by human experiences.
My wife Gladys and I took an early walk yesterday morning. In a shady area, narrowly enclosed by chain link fences on both sides of the sidewalk, we saw some beer cans and a torn paper bag on the ground; we started to walk past them before noticing more. The cell phone on the ground—that stopped us. We then noticed that the beer cans (about three cans) were full. This was not a case of littering.
It does relate to the absence of photographs of modern pterosaurs, indirectly; bear with me. My wife and I realized something bad may have happened to somebody. I first thought that somebody may have had a heart attack and dropped the groceries, including the cell phone that was in the grocery bag. I then thought somebody may have been attacked, causing that scattering of groceries. The point is this: My wife and I immediately continued our walk, determined to get home quickly to phone the police. That’s how it relates to photographing living pterosaurs.
Ropen Sighting Near Finschhafen in 1944
Remember the experience of Duane Hodgkinson during World War II, when he and his army buddy saw the huge “pterodactyl” fly up from the other side of a jungle clearing. What Hodgkinson first assumed must have been a bird, within a few seconds revealed itself to be something far different.
The shocking creature flew out of sight but soon returned, flying in the opposite direction and over that same clearing. That gave those two soldiers another view of it, before it again flew out of sight. It also gave those two soldiers another chance to use the military camera they were carrying. They missed both chances.
The Cell Phone and the Cryptozoologist
So why was I, Jonathan Whitcomb, carrying an old iPhone in my pocket as I was walking with my wife yesterday? It no longer functioned as a phone, but the camera still worked. Why did I not photograph the scene of a possible crime before rushing home to call the police? I carry the old iPhone in my pocket almost everywhere, almost every time I leave the house. Regardless of the rarity of clear sightings of modern pterosaurs, I cannot risk having my own sighting without a camera handy.
In other words, I carry around a camera for the tiny chance of photographing a living pterosaur; I do not carry it for photographing beer cans on the ground.
Critics fail to see an obvious reason for the lack of photographs of modern pterosaurs. People carry around cell phones to make phone calls or communicate by texting, with occasional use of the camera. The last thing on the mind of an eyewitness of a ropen—that’s the possibility of grabbing a cell phone to get a photo of a flying pterodactyl.
Getting Back to the Beer Cans
After talking with the police, I thought of another explanation for the scattered groceries. But why did Gladys and I first imagine a crime? We mostly gave up watching old episodes of Sherlock Holmes (having seen each episode many times), yet we’ve recently been watching old Miss Marple—almost the same thing.
The scattered beer cans lay near a zigzag in the walkway, the perfect place for an ambush. It’s the ideal place for a criminal to attack an innocent person who is carrying a grocery bag, yet there’s more.
It was after the second phone call with police, when I realized the greatest danger. Most of the walks Gladys and I take are on the trails along the Jordan River in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah. The big risk is on the narrow paved trails, for it’s not just for joggers and walkers; it’s for bikers. Our big concern on those paved trails is getting hit from behind by a bicycle. Now we can get back to the beer cans.
The ideal place for a bicycle to run into an innocent person who is carrying a grocery bag, yes it’s the same place: at the zigzag in the walkway where my wife and I saw potential evidence for a crime. If anything serious happened there, it was probably a biker colliding with a pedestrian, causing one of them to drop a bag of groceries, including a cell phone which was also in the bag.
Now, if only a ropen would collide with a net put up by cryptozoologists!
I’ll continue to carry around a cell-phone camera, but not for beer cans.
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Ropen on Destination Truth TV Show
I thought [I] remembered advising the production team “do not” enter a cave that might contain a ropen; oh well, it is a Hollywood production: The audience enjoys risk. . . . Jonathan Whitcomb has written extensively about the ropen of Papua New Guinea and was the first Western explorer to interview three native witnesses of the Lake Pung ropen sighting on Umboi Island . . .
Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor in Livingston, Montana, in 1944 was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea. . . . they were amazed as a large creature flew up into the air. The men soon realized that it was no bird that started to circle the clearing.
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