I’m sure I’ve read this book at least once, in my youth long ago. On the Track of Unknown Animals, by Bernard Heuvelmans, is now considered a classic in cryptozoology, originally in French but often encountered in its 1958 or 1959 English edition with its 120 sketches, a well-crafted assortment of strange creatures and a few monsters. Yesterday I found a library copy and took notes on sightings of apparent pterosaurs. This classic now deserves quoting, again.

Chapter twenty-one, “Kongamato, the Last Flying Dragon,” begins by quoting Charles Kingsley (The Water-Babies): “People call them pterodactyls; but that is only because they are ashamed to call them flying dragons, after denying so long that flying dragons could exist.” On page 485 the author digs into the meat of a live pterosaur in Africa.

In 1923 Frank H. Melland published an account of his travels entitled In Witchbound Africa . . . [It included] rather vague rumours about a much-feared animal called “kongamato,” said to live in the Jiundu swamps in the north-west corner of No. Rhodesia near the frontier of the Bengian Congo and Angola. . . . The natives told him that it was a bird, but not exactly a bird, more like a lizard with wings of skin like a bat’s . . . the beast’s wingspan was between four and seven feet . . . it had no feathers at all . . . [with skin] bare and smooth, and its beak was full of teeth. . . . he showed the natives pictures . . . They immediately [pointed out] the Pterodactyl, excitedly muttering “kongamato!”

Amazon gives two prices for this out-of-print cryptozoology book, On the Track of Unknown Animals: $135.00 and $339.66, revealing its collectible status.

Kongamato or Pterodactyl of Africa

The kongamato is sometimes compared with the ropen of Papua New Guinea or the long-tailed pterosaur seen in Eastern Cuba in the mid-20th century. This kind of cryptid has been reported in many parts of the world, including North America, Australia, Europe, and Africa.

Kongamato Crossing the Atlantic?

One species of crane flies over the Himalayan Mountains regularly, sometimes at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Large nocturnal pterosaurs, under the right wind conditions, could cross the Atlantic, from Africa. As more sighting reports come in from Africa and North America, we need to look at the possibility that some of the flying creatures on different sides of the Atlantic may be closely related or even the same species.

Books About Live Pterosaurs in North America

It seems we now have three nonfiction books about extant pterosaurs in North America . . . These paperback books are Big Bird (by Ken Gerhard), Live Pterosaurs in America (by Jonathan Whitcomb, third edition), and Bird From Hell (by Gerald McIsaac, second edition).

Books on extant pterosaurs are not so rare as they were when On the Track of Unknown Animals was first published.

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Get the details lacking on the online blog posts and web pages. Buy Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, by the nonfiction author who interviews eyewitnesses from around the world, the live-pterosaur expert Jonathan David Whitcomb. Get the facts, eyewitness accounts from many U.S. states: California, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, New York, and other states.

From a review of the second edition of this cryptozoology book, on Amazon, by “stevie” (the third edition is slightly expanded, even better than the second edition):

“This is an updated review of the book and I am changing my rating to 5 stars. This book has been on my shelf for almost a year now. I pick it up every now and then and a part of me becomes more impressed by the book every time. . . .

“Whitcomb painstakingly reviews every account for credibility and reason. This man is not a crank. He tries to weed out would be hoaxes and miss-identification. This is not a guy looking to create evidence to confirm his own beliefs. On top of this, I have great respect for a guy who follows his dreams so passionately. He has traveled to Papua New Guinea to search for the creature there and this book is somewhat of a sequel . . .

“I do believe the author tried hard to deliver these stories and was very good at it. This is well written and very hard to put down.”

Cryptozoology Books

Yesterday my friend and associate Garth Guessman called me about the nonfiction book Bird From Hell, by Gerald McIsaac, now in the second edition; I had never heard of it. It seems we now have three nonfiction books about extant pterosaurs in North America, so let’s take a look at some basic facts (before I insert an ad for my own book). These paperback books are Big Bird (by Ken Gerhard), Live Pterosaurs in America (by Jonathan Whitcomb, third edition), and Bird From Hell (by Gerald McIsaac, second edition). The first comparison surprised me.

Basic Exposure Online

This test was done by using a Google search with each book’s title in quotes, followed by the surname of the author. Gerhard’s book seems to have much better exposure on the internet, compared with the other two, and it seems to have little to do with the “Big Bird” of Sesame Street.

1. Big Bird                            295,000
2. Bird From Hell                     25,300
3. Live Pterosaurs in America   20,200

This has little, if any, relevance to the books themselves, just how broadly they are covered online.

Amazon sales ranking on January 9, 2012

These were sampled early in the day. A one-day ranking has limited relevance if books are selling reasonably well recently, but none of these three have sold on Amazon recently. This Amazon number refers to ranking, not to number of copies sold, unfortunately (author’s want a low score here, like in golf). McIsaac’s book has not sold on Amazon.com (paperback version) in many days, perhaps many weeks. I would keep in mind that earlier editions can take sales away from the latest editions of a book; I have noticed this with my book. If this were taken into account, Live Pterosaurs in America (with three editions) would probably be the best-selling of these three, on Amazon.

1. Big Bird #1,051,985
2. Live Pterosaurs in America #1,120,918
3. Bird From Hell  #4,802,158

Number of Pages

My book is the clear winner here.

1. Live Pterosaurs in America  154 pages
2. Bird From Hell  124 pages
3. Big Bird  108 pages

Publication Date

1. Live Pterosaurs in America – Nov 2, 2011
2. Bird From Hell – April 21, 2011
3. Big Bird – February 1, 2007

Present Sale Price on Amazon (on January 9, 2012)

This is the sales price, not the suggested retail price (SRP). Authors have limited control here, if any. Names are abbreviated.

1. LPA – $9.82
2. BFH – $11.04
3. BB – $11.75

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From two of the unsolicited recommendations for this cryptozoology book:

“I couldn’t put this book down. It is absolutely fascinating to read about eyewitness accounts of the people who have seen these creatures. To learn about these testimonies from such an open minded perspective is refreshing in the extreme! . . . Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books!” (From StrangeDream, second edition; review published on Amazon on Oct 11, 2011)

“This seems to be the author’s second book on the subject, and this one is worth the effort. He has focused on the accounts of witnesses who saw something, and that adds credibility. The writing is easy to read and he adds comments and analysis to make it all more useful. Mostly, the author lets the sightings speak for themselves, which is good. A worthwhile book.” (From Red Rabbit, first edition; review published on Amazon on Nov 26, 2010)

A recent post on this blog, (“Strange Flying Creature – Bioluminescence in Pennsylvania . . .”) received a critical comment that deserves attention in more detail than I feel is appropriate through my own reply-comments on that post. The comment was by S. Hill.

“An investigation of what she may have seen should come first”

It seems that Hill thinks that I should have evaluated non-pterosaur explanations before publishing this brief report on a blog post. I suspect that Hill may not be familiar with this blog and its purposes, or was simply trying to discredit this account. Most critics I have encountered during the past eight years have actually tried to discredit the general idea that modern pterosaurs still fly, that they are not extinct; I will not get into that here, for Hill does not explicitly state that. This appears a good time for explaining some of the purposes of this blog.

Some eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs may never send me an email or give me a phone call. I can understand that. But some of them may be comforted in reading about other eyewitness accounts, for it eases their minds: They are not crazy for seeing something that Western indoctrination proclaims cannot exist. I feel that is a worthy purpose. But there is more.

Eyewitnesses who have sent me an email or given me a phone call usually had read something online, often something I had written about reports of apparent live pterosaurs; in other words, publishing reports of living pterosaurs results in more eyewitnesses coming forward. I suspect that some of the eyewitnesses might never report their sightings to any cryptozoologist if they had not learned of someone (me) who specializes in listening and taking such reports seriously. Part of the purpose of this Live Pterosaur blog is to encourage more eyewitnesses to come forward.

What if another eyewitness in Pennsylvania has had a close encounter with a ropen-like flying creature: a glowing pterosaur? How could that person find the courage to report such a weird experience? The December 15, 2011, post “Strange Flying Creature” (mentioned above) gives few details, mostly because the eyewitness has not yet given me much more than that. But what an impact it could make on another eyewitness! This short report, imperfect as it is, might result in a much more detailed sighting account, a report that will be much more useful, for it could give another eyewitness the courage to come forward.

“To assume that it is a ropen or pterosaur is ridiculous”

The glowing pterosaur or bioluminescent ropen is not necessarily the only explanation for the Pennsylvania sighting, of course. But Hill needs to understand that the eyewitness gave her sighting report to me because she thinks it could have been a ropen. Nothing in that blog post suggests that it must have been a bioluminescent pterosaur; in fact, I mentioned, “it is sufficient to consider that it was a possible American ropen.”

We need to keep in mind that the eyewitness said, “I have found that a pterosaur is identical to what we saw.” That deserves some consideration, at least, unless and until a better explanation is found for her experience.

We also need to keep in mind the subtitle of this blog: “Investigating Reports of Living Pterosaurs.” The point is the continuing nature of the investigation of each sighting report. Although some reports have many sighting-details given, and may have been analyzed in detail, I do not wait for all that before writing a post about a sighting. The key is “investigating,” not “investigated.”

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Press Room for News Releases on Live Pterosaurs

Pterodactyl Reported in Papua New Guinea

Glowing Creatures Videotaped in Papua New Guinea

Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the U.S.A. not Hoaxes

Unmasking a Flying Predator in Texas

etc

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“How are sightings in the United States related to those in the southwest Pacific? How do some apparent nocturnal pterosaurs pertain to bats, and how are bats irrelevant? How could modern living pterosaurs have escaped scientific notice? These mysteries have slept in the dark, beyond the knowledge of almost all Americans, even beyond our wildest dreams (although the reality of some pterosaurs is a living nightmare to some bats). These mysteries have slept . . . until now.”

Purchase your own copy of this amazing nonfiction cryptozoology book, on Amazon or from select book-sellers. Don’t forget: the third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America.

The third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America is now available on Amazon. A sighting in Cuba deserves quoting:

In early October, Carson downloaded an image processing program and finished the sketch herself, perfecting the eye and giving the head three-dimensional shadowing. When I received the email attachment, her sketch stunned me: What an improvement! She was also delighted at the final product and told me, “THAT is the eye I saw looking at me!”

The end of the head crest shows a flattening that she explained to me in words, one of the words being “spoon.” To properly appreciate the top of the head crest in the sketch, we need to think of the head being at least slightly turned toward us, rather than in strict profile.

From a page regarding a sighting in South Carolina:

After months of email interviews, I became convinced that Susan was a credible eyewitness. I believe she saw something like a ropen—probably a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur—that flew in front of her car. The overall communications we have had are inconsistent with both a hoax and a mental health condition. Her descriptions of the creature, and the closeness of the encounter, repudiate a misidentification of a bird or bat.

From a reader who reviewed the second edition of the book on Amazon:

“I couldn’t put this book down. It is absolutely fascinating to read about eyewitness accounts of the people who have seen these creatures. To learn about these testimonies from such an open minded perspective is refreshing in the extreme! . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone! People should know the truth about what is going on. . . . Jonathan Whitcomb needs to write more books!” (StrangeDream – review dated October 11, 2011)

Other Languages, European

Although Live Pterosaurs in America is only available in English, we have a few web pages in various languages, on the subject of sightings of apparent living pterosaurs.

język polski – Polish Language

Gideon Koro zobaczył “ropen” w świetle dziennym. Gideon rozmawiał z Whitcomb. Gideon zna trochę angielski. Whitcomb wie trochę “Tok pisin” język

Die kritik der Idee, dass pterosaurs lebendig sind – Antworten (Deutsch Sprache - German Language)

Viele Jahre lang sagen Personen, dass pterosaurs in verschiedenen Ländern leben. Einige jener Länder sind in Afrika. Aber die meisten Entdeckungsreisen, um nach pterosaurs zu suchen, die lebendig sind, sind in Papua-Neuguinea, nicht Afrika gewesen.

Les renseignements sur pterosaurs dans Nouvelle Guinée Papua (dans la langue française – in French)

Les gens qui voient l’animal venir de différents pays: Papua Nouvelle Guinée, Australie, les États-Unis. Les gens ont de différentes langues et de différentes convictions. Mais ils voient la même sorte d’animal. Le ropen doit être un animal réel.

A kritika az ötlet, hogy pterosaurs él – Válaszok (in Hungarian)

Az ropen egy madár vagy egy denevér? Több tanú azt mondják, hogy az állat nem tollak, ez nem egy madár. Hodgkinson látta a farkát.

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