I recently received an email from a man in Windhoek, Namibia (southwestern Africa). A few weeks ago, just after breakfast, at about 10:00 a.m., while sitting in his garden, he saw what he first thought was a large gliding bird. He later thought it more like a “prehistoric animal.”

[It was] moving its wings very, very slowly, very much as we see raptors or eagles do when they circle in the air scanning the land for prey. I paid attention to the wings as it would allow for identification – but this bird did not have any feathers, at least not any spread primary feathers (as eagles often show).

It looked more like a large bat with distinctly brightly coloured (yellow-brown, orange?) protrusions, where birds have carpal joints (like some ‘spur-winged birds’). It showed a long, very long, slim neck (like of cranes or flamingos), with a thickening in the middle . . . ending into a long beak (like storks). At the joint of the neck to the wing (or body) there was a type of thickening or collar (like the fluffy doughnut collar of a ‘white backed vulture’).

The overall colour . . . was bright (whitish?). The colour of the body-and-wings was brownish, with a lighter patch of greenish-brown covering 3/4 of the underside of the wings (form of patch like can be seen on the underside of the wings of a ‘bat hawk’). . . . I cannot remember details of the tail, but thought that two legs and a strange looking longer tail or appendix were visible, parallel to one another.

. . . Estimated altitude of bird above ground (based on comparison to small planes taking-off from or landing at the small airport of Windhoek) was about 200+ metres. For the wingspan I would venture to say (based on comparison with again overflying aeroplanes’ wingspan . . . that it was half of that of a small plane’s wing span . . .

I am a Belgian national, retired from a 40 years career with the Namibian public service in the field of [a specific technical field. Identity is being protected for this eyewitness].

Flying Snake in Southwest Namibia

In 1942, a flying-snake like animal swooped down from a cave in the vicinity of a farm near Kirris West sixty miles east of Keetmanshoop, in southwest Namibia. The flying snake, or whatever it was, frightened Michael Esterhuise, a farmhand, severely, and left a trace on the ground and a burning smell. It was investigated by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer of Coelacanth fame. It shot into the air again and made a sound like “wind blowing through a pipe”

Kongamato and Ropen Compared

The boy froze as the creature stretched its wings and hopped toward another roof, passing a few feet over the boy’s head. He dropped the metal tray of dishes that he had been carrying and the creature flew away. The eyewitness was sure about the head crest and the long tail. [Pterosaur sighting in Sudan, Africa]

Pterosaur Extinction (or nonextinction)

According to Jonathan Whitcomb, the many eyewitnesses of the ropen and the indava do not come from any hoax; they are genuine eyewitness sightings.

Are all fictional stories based upon people or animals that never existed? Let’s be careful not to rush to conclusions about dragons, for fantasies, though fictional, are often based upon some truth. The old story of Little Red Riding Hood is fictional, but grandmothers and wolves are both real.

Monster in Super 8 film

This film could have been much better had it been longer with strange things prepared for, or had it given less emphasis on preparing us to love those kids and more emphasis on preparing us for the weirdness of that monster.

Recently, Eskin Kuhn has provided us with more detail about the long tail of the two pterosaurs he saw at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. (I now call this cryptid the “Gitmo Pterosaur.”) He describes the end of the long tail: “long strands of hair in a tuft . . . a brush, not flesh covered as the rest [of the creature].” This reminds me of the description of the pterosaur seen by a boy in Sudan, for that boy mentioned being reminded of the tail of a lion.

Kuhn also said, ”That detail has become muted by the many copies of the drawing, the original newsprint type coarse paper and pencil.” In other words, the original sketch better showed a hairy appearance of the ends of the tails. That certainly counters the objection of a few critics who declare that eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs do not see anything like fur or hair so those sightings cannot be valid.

In addition, he has also recently said, “The fleshy hide would probably be more akin to a bat’s than any other creature.” That statement also discredits the objection of some critics who imply that any modern pterosaur should be covered with fur that would be obviously seen as fur by any eyewitness. It reminds me of the testimony of the scientist in Perth, Australia, who carefully observed a giant flying creature with a long tail and a texture that could have been something like fine fur (he was just too far away to tell for sure about fur).

In a recent letter to me, Kuhn also said the following.

On my way home . . . this morning I turned the corner at the base of my property . . . and saw a relatively familiar sight . . . a Great Blue Heron in flight. . . . The Heron in flight would make many a person wishing to see a pterosaur think they had. It’s great wings, short body, long heavy beak and crooked neck, prow-like chest and very long legs trailing behind with curved toes resembling a tail . . . it puts you in mind of such creatures as pterosaurs . . . unless you have actually seen pterosaurs. Then the differences are dramatic.

That dismisses any potential suggestion that Kuhn saw two herons in flight.

The following old photo shows Kuhn at Gitmo, Cuba, probably in 1971.

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Cryptozoology Book (Live Pterosaurs in America)

Southeast of Fresno, several  eyewitnesses reported two featherless flying creatures with wingspans of fifteen feet. Reportedly reputable residents around Reedley described the two “dragons” for the newspaper.

Let’s begin by being precise. I do not insinuate that in Africa all sightings with the label “kongamato” are of the same species of pterosaur or even any kind of pterosaur; the same applies to the label “ropen.” But specific sighting reports have similar details, namely this: a large or giant size, a long tail with a Rhamphorhynchoid-like structure at the end, and a lack of feathers. Sightings involving those details—those I believe to have come from sightings of living pterosaurs.

Before we begin, however, we need to clear up a misunderstanding about an implied association with “science-fiction movies and old cartoons such as The Flintstones.” Dale Drinnon has mentioned this, in commenting on another post, as if it damages the credibility of sightings, notwithstanding he did not mention any particular sighting. But he does not seem to appreciate or realize that specific sightings are by eyewitnesses who have probably never seen any science fiction movie or Flintstones cartoons in their entire lives: The boy who saw the flying creature in Sudan, Africa, for example. And what about all the native eyewitnesses that were interviewed in the two expeditions on Umboi Island, in 2004 (I led the first expedition)? I asked Gideon Koro if he had ever seen a picture of a ropen in any book at his school; he thought about it for a second or two and then replied, “No.” Yet his description of the ropen flying over Lake Pung in daylight corresponds to details in the sighting reports by Westerners such as Duane Hodgkinson and Brian Hennessy.

Let’s examine details in Gideon Koro’s sighting report. I interviewed him in person, on Umboi Island, in 2004. He and his six friends had hiked up to the crater lake, arriving there in the middle of the day. The creature flew over the lake, just meters over the surface, with no reasonable possibility that the boys could have seen a common bird or bat and misidentified it.

1. No feathers—Gideon was positive about that
2. Tail seven meters long—He thought about it for a few seconds before giving me his estimate
3. Mouth “like a crocodile”

Now let’s examine details in the Sudan, Africa, sighting report. By email, this man reported to me his 1988 encounter, which I now summarize (adapted from a post on the blog Live Pterodactyl):

While walking from one mud-brick hut to another, one night, the boy noticed something on the roof of a nearby hut. Lit up by the patio light, perched on the edge of the roof, the creature appeared to be four-to-five feet tall, olive brown, and leathery (no feathers). A “long bone looking thing” stuck out the back of its head; its long tail somehow reminded the boy of a tail of a lion (I suspect there was hair at the end of the tail).

The boy froze as the creature stretched its wings and hopped toward another roof, passing a few feet over the boy’s head. He dropped the metal tray of dishes that he had been carrying and the creature flew away. The eyewitness was sure about the head crest and the long tail.

Science Fiction Movies and the Flintstones are Irrelevant

Eyewitnesses who have never seen a movie or television are not influenced by science fiction movies and TV cartoons, but there is more. Those Americans and Australians who have seen movies and cartoons are not necessarily influenced in any way that would cause them to report sighting details that were distorted by those media experiences. How many media experiences do Westerners have that involve people being shot by guns! Yet we do not dismiss eyewitnesses from testifying in court, in a shooting case, just because they had seen gun fights in movies and on television.

Another problem shoots down this science-fiction-movies-and-Flintstones insinuation. Why are no details given? Why not mention details about portrayals of pterosaurs in media? Why not mention details in particular eyewitness reports? Why try to shoot down a large long-tailed pterosaur by blowing smoke at the poor flying creature?

Kongamato Pterodactyl

Namibia, Africa, Pterosaur (sighting in the Spring of 2011)

“The wings span was about double the distance of beak-tip to end-of-tail. I cannot remember details of the tail, but thought that two legs and a strange looking longer tail or appendix were visible, parallel to one another . . .  he estimated the flying creature had a wingspan about half of that of the airplanes he sees flying overhead . . .”

The Wikipedia post for “kongamato” includes “the area concerned is advertised as a prime birdwatching site,” bringing up the question of why birdwatchers do not report living pterosaurs in Africa. Wikipedia gives no answer, implying that the possibility of a live pterosaur in Africa is therefore doubtful. From Wikipedia’s “birdwatching” page, we learn that many birds “are more readily detected and identified by ear.” That makes sense if many birds are often hidden by vegetation, and they are. The photos on that page make even more sense, for birdwatchers are watching in daylight, when they can see. The point? Many reports of living long-tailed pterosaurs suggest that the creatures fly at night.

But the Wikipedia implication includes no hint of just what “area” is involved. It covers at least hundreds of square miles of remote wilderness, mostly far removed from any organized birdwatching activity. The commenter who inserted the sentence about birdwatching fails to see what is needed here. Hundreds of millions of dollars would need to be raised, to bring every birdwatcher in North America and Great Britain together in Africa; night-vision equipment would need to be used for countless weeks. After all that, if there were no living-pterosaurs reported by any birdwatchers, then the commenter could proclaim that no pterosaurs appeared while they were all beating the bushes.

The implication has another problem. Birdwatchers need to be credible (according to traditional interpretations of “credible”), otherwise nobody will pay attention to their reports. And what credibility rating does Wikipedia give to reports of living pterosaurs? The birdwatchers who receive most attention come from Western countries, and reporting (to Westerners) a living pterosaur in Africa (instead of a Red-billed hornbill) gets you medical attention. Birdwatchers could very well be watching living pterosaurs in Africa, but they are more likely to report what they see to knowledgeable natives, not to fellow birdwatchers.

No “pterosaur” category can be found on any birdwatcher’s report form, and no lack of pterosaur sightings by organized birdwatchers counts against the many reported sightings of living pterosaurs. This Wikipedia implication could just as well be used as if evidence against the existence of bats (or against UFO’s or against Fourth-of-July fireworks displays).

More: “Ropen Light” post has a comment on so-called UFO