Book | Live Pterosaur

March 22, 2016March 22, 2016

About Umboi Island in Papua New Guinea

James (Jim) Blume interviewed this old native. The glowing ropen was trying to rob a human grave.

To some Americans and other Westerners, Umboi Island is known as the home of the ropen, reported to be a large long-tailed surviving pterosaur (Rhamphorhynchoid type), also called pterodactyl. Yet most Westerners have never heard of Umboi Island, even those who know that Papua New Guinea is an independent nation of islands between Australia and the Philippines. The following should be informative.

I recently got an email from a young man who asked seventeen questions about Umboi Island. At first, I was reluctant to give him any information until I knew his intentions, for it sounded like he wanted to go on an expedition there, to search for ropens. His questions were inadequate to prepare him for such a dangerous adventure, even if all of them were answered adequately.

He then told me that he was a high school student (perhaps with fewer years of life than the number of questions he was asking) and had no intention or ability to go on an expedition on Umboi Island. After he told me he was writing a novel, I felt that it was safe to give him the following answers, which are slightly edited in this post:

Question-1: Do most of them [natives on Umboi Island] speak English or is Tok Pisin more dominant (if at all)?

Answer-1: Tok Pisin is probably used more than English when the natives are communicating with each other. But within a village, the local language is used. A number of these local languages exist on Umboi. When a visitor comes from an English-speaking country like the USA or Australia (which is rare), then some of the natives will try to communicate in English or in a mixture of English, Pisin, and village-language words. Be aware, however, that most natives know very little English, if any, or they do not get enough practice in English to be able to use it if it’s needed.

Question-2: [Is] the estimated population around 15,000?

Answer-2: 15,000 population seems a little high to me, but I only explored a small part of the island in 2004. An average village might have about 150-300 persons living in it, but a few other huts may be found around a typical village.

Question-3: Is the island frequented by tourism and how is the overall opinion of this matter by the locals?

Answer-3: Rarely will a foreign tourist visit Umboi. Maybe a few natives from the mainland will visit Umboi on occasion, or from other smaller islands in the area, but many of those visitors will be natives who originally lived on Umboi and are just returning to visit relatives or friends.

Question-4: How is the infrastructure on the island? I’ve seen on google maps that they have at least one airfield, but how is it with cars, roads, electricity and communication (cell phone and satellite phone)?

Answer-4: The air field is not regularly maintained and is rarely used. If a native wants to communicate with someone on the other side of the island, he or she will walk there. Cars seem to be rare, except that two or three may be operating in or near Lab Lab (I was given a ride in a pickup there). Broken down bridges are not generally repaired, so cars have limited use.

Question-5: How diverse are the different cultures on the island itself?

Answer-5: Natives walk from one village to another [so ideas and attitudes can be shared]. I saw three churches in or near Gomlongon Village: Catholic, Baptist, and another Protestant one. To outsiders, however, many villages may look very similar.

Question-6: On your ropen blog, you mentioned that the inhabitants had strict property and trespassing laws, and that they had “man traps” as well. Would you say that the inhabitants would take violent actions against trespassers? Where you ever told any tales of punished trespassers?

Answer-6: The man traps were meant to keep native thieves from stealing a battery on Mount Bel. The battery was for powering a radio tower. In general, village leaders resent uninvited trespassers on what they consider their property, but my experience is that threats are more common than actual violence when outsiders are accused of trespassing.

Question-7: I’ve seen on google maps, two villages at the coastline (at the only part with high enough resolution to see them), are most villages at the coast or 50/50 coast-inland?

Answer-7: I have not explored all of Umboi, only mostly around Gomlongon and Opai villages and one other village near Mount Tolo (what is called “Mount Tangulop” on maps but that’s a mistake on the maps). Maybe half of the villages are on the coast, but I’m only guessing. I believe that malaria is more common on the coast than in the inland villages that are higher in elevation. Mosquitos are uncommon in Gomlongon. [I was giving my reasons why I thought so many natives live in higher elevations on this island, but I did not get into that reasoning in my answer to this high school student: Gomlongon Village is less hot in the evening than coastal villages and mosquitos appeared, to me, to be far less common up in the interior.]

Question-8: How is their will/opinion on modernization? Or are they more inclined to continue a more traditional life?

Answer-8: In Gomlongon and Opai, they are happy to use whatever technology they can get, if it’s not expensive.

Question-9: On google maps there seem to be vast areas of lighter green (especially one place in the south), is this an indication of open grass fields/low bushlands?

Answer-9: Some of the rain forest has been cut down [or burned off] for cultivation of crops.

Question-10: Is there any significant import and export of wares?

Answer-10: They have limited access to money. Crops are difficult to move because of the broken bridges. They have crops to sell but no easy way to get them out of their areas to where they could sell them.

Question-11: What’s the environment like? Welcoming? Harsh? Wet? I’ve read that it’s a temperate rain forest, is that true?

Answer-11: This is a tropical rain forest. It’s hot and humid on the coast, but up higher in elevation, inland like at Gomlongon and Opai, you can get some relief with a pleasant breeze in the evenings. Whenever you go higher in elevation you get lower temperatures, although the humidity may not change much: It’s still humid.

Question-12: How did you get to Umboi? Specifics would be nice. Example: You went to the San Diego Airport, flew to Lae, then took a boat to the island.

Answer-12: I took a flight from Los Angeles to New Zealand. I later took a flight from NZ to Cairns, Australia. From AU, I flew to the capital of Papua New Guinea, which is Port Moresby. My last flight was to the city of Lae (PNG). I waited a few days in Lae for when a ship would [take me] to Umboi.

Question-13: What are their villages like? Are the houses sturdy? Are the people nice?

Answer-13: Read my book: the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God.

Question-14: What food did they commonly eat? What food is considered a delicacy to them?

Answer-14: Locally grown food mostly. Coconuts are so common that they have tired of eating them. [See #13]

Question-15: Do you know the PNGs government interest in the island? Is it just another island to them or is it the crown jewel?

Answer-15: See #13

Question-16: What’s most unique about this island? Besides the fact that there might be a living fossil that lives there.

Answer-16: Umboi appears to be similar to many other islands in PNG. [In fact, ropens may live on many islands of Papua New Guinea, for these large long-tailed pterosaurs are mostly nocturnal and relatively rarely seen by people in daylight.]

Question-17: Have you ever heard or encountered of people that have misinterpreted some kind of bird for being a juvenile ropen? [meaning people may have seen a bird but thought it was a ropen]

Answer-17: The natives know the local wildlife. They do not make a mistake like misidentifying a ropen or a bird or a Flying Fox fruit bat.

Conclusion

I wish the young man success in writing his fiction book. The ropen, however, is real.

###

Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

In the non-fiction book Searching for Ropens, the cryptozoological investigations of this creature are analyzed and compared with standard models that are popularly taught regarding science.

Ropen of Umboi Island

American cryptozoology author Jonathan Whitcomb believes the ropen of Umboi is related to the “Gitmo Pterosaur” of Cuba.

Ropen in Papua New Guinea

After he [Duane Hodgkinson] and his buddy walked into a clearing, 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. It had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long” . . .

What is a Ropen?

The tradition [from some natives on Umboi Island] says that [the long tail] is always straight except at the base where the tail connects to the body. This correlates precisely with the biology of the tails of Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs. They could not (or cannot) move except by a few vertebrae closer to the tail base. This is more cryptozoological evidence that “basal” long-tailed Rhamphorhynchoids are extant, not extinct.

Living Pterodactyls

An American World War II veteran says that he saw a live “pterodactyl” in New Guinea in 1944. . . . If this press release referred to an isolated account, we might dismiss the veteran’s report, but natives on the island of Umboi (in Papua New Guinea) have reported the same thing: the long-tailed bat-like “ropen” eats fish. This is just north of Finschhafen, where the American veteran saw a giant pterodactyl that had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long.”

April 3, 2015April 3, 2015

Sense of Truth – Nonfiction Book

Gitmo Pterosaur of Guantanamo Bay Cuba, sighting in 1965

My paperback Sense of Truth should be published within the next two months or so. One chapter will be devoted to modern pterosaurs. The following are from the early-April version of the text.

From Introduction

Did a long-tailed flying dinosaur just glide over your house? Maybe. But you might not remain popular with your neighbors if you publicize the event. Telling them that pterosaurs have returned from extinction or that the next-door Chihuahua may become a snack to the local dragon—that may be a truth for which your neighbors are unprepared. . . .

This book is not an alethiometer, telling the possessor of that tool the truth even when that person tells lies, as in the film the Golden Compass. Tell the truth. As you live honestly, you may become an alethiometer yourself, reading the truth in the uncountable swarming statements that shout for attention. You can learn to distinguish truth from falsehood, at least some of the time, as you live the truth, to the best of your ability.

From Chapter Three – Modern Pterosaurs

Look at a box of mac ‘n cheese or frozen chicken nuggets, the ones with tasty shapes of dinosaurs. Notice that some of those shapes have wings, like what many of us call pterodactyls. Did you notice the word prehistoric on the box? Now notice what small children are taught.

We’ve been indoctrinated into the ancient extinctions of dinosaurs for generations, in Western cultures, even since (what my grandchildren would consider) ancient human history: before I was a child. Pterosaurs, those winged wonders, have been put into the same box as dinosaurs, and some of my critics have tried to shove me into that same box, head first.

###

************************************************************************************

Ad:

Live Pterosaurs in America – third edition – by Jonathan David Whitcomb

From the title page of the book:

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.

December 16, 2014January 19, 2015

Pterodactyl Attacks in Yosemite?

Eskin Kuhn drew this sketch one of the two pterosaurs he saw flying in Cuba

I’m only about half through reading the nonfiction book Missing 411 Western United States & Canada, by David Paulides, as I compile information that might tie some of the cases to a large flying predator. I still need to finish this book and then analyze the data from these many reports of persons who go missing in the USA and Canada; but from what I have seen so far, I see what is probably responsible for some disappearances.

Strange Missing Persons Cases in North America

These weird disappearances are not confined to Yosemite, nor even to the United States. Several factors do seem to tie together cases that are separated by long distances and sometimes separated by decades. To understand what may be happening in Yosemite National Park, we need to see in a broader sense. Look to Canada and to Mexico.

People see large flying creatures in North America, featherless animals that appear more like “pterodactyls” than like any bird or bat known to science. A small portion of these reports at least suggest that a few of these creatures will sometimes attack a human. Much of the evidence may be circumstantial, but it appears that attacks take place in Northern Mexico and in northern British Columbia, Canada. Why should the territories between those countries be any different? Why should Americans in wilderness areas be immune?

The Sherlock Holmes Approach

When the impossible has been eliminated, whatever is left is the answer. I’m paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes, but here’s the point: What is left? Consider the following:

Many persons go missing in or near national parks in the United States. David Paulides has researched many cases and is convinced many more of them exist. What do most of these appear to have in common? People disappear in or near a wilderness.

From I can tell so far, from reading his book, most persons in these cases are never found, alive or dead. When a person or a body is found, it is often miles away and where that person or body should not have been found. It’s often at a much higher elevation, even on or near a mountain peak or ridge or it’s a body at the base of a cliff.

What bear, Grizzly or Black, would catch a human and then drag him or her up a cliff or steep mountainside? Winter cases eliminate bears right away, for they hibernate; but even in summer a bear would not try to drag a person miles away, up to a higher elevation, even thousands of feet higher and then remove clothing before eating. There’s more against a bear interpretation, but that will do for now: Those animals are not responsible for these weird cases of missing persons.

What mountain lion would drag a man or woman up into the mountains for miles, even to thousands of feet higher than the catching location? And why would a mountain lion remove one or both shoes and possibly some other clothing and then leave the human’s body uneaten high up on a mountain? Any cougar foolish enough to attack a human would not take that person, dead or alive, far away just for stealing clothing. There is no such cougar.

What about a animalistic human predator? Could not a sexual predator remove a victim’s clothing? That could happen, but many of these disappearances cannot reasonably be applied to human criminal activity. Sexual predators do not usually subdue a human victim for the purpose of dragging that person for miles over mountainous terrain, to elevations of up to 3,000 feet or more than where the victim was captured. And why exert such a super-human effort when a snow storm is beginning to make such a long wilderness journey almost impossible, even without a victim to drag along? And consider this: How would a human predator pull an adult man up a sheer cliff many hundreds of feet high? If Superman had fallen into the depravity of kidnapping people to carry them up into wilderness areas, for decades, to steal one or two shoes or sometimes other clothing, he would have found it too tiring to continue that perverse activity for many decades. No. Human criminals have not been involved in many of these cases.

What about a Bigfoot? I suggest that such a large mammal would have a larger brain than that of an amoeba. Even an earthworm can use good judgment in deciding whether or not to ascend. Why would a Bigfoot choose a time right before the coming of a storm to kidnap a human and then carry that person far up into the mountains, to a much higher elevation, sometimes as a snow storm is beginning? Those weather conditions are common with many of these strange missing persons cases, but that can appear baffling to investigators and search-and-rescue people.

Pterosaur Attack Possibilities

If ropens or some other unclassified flying creatures have been responsible for many of these attacks, what about the weather? Think of it this way: When would a very hungry ropen be most likely to attack a human? Maybe right before a cold storm, for starvation may result without some kind of food. If such a flying creature had some sense of a coming storm (the lowering air pressure perhaps), its fear of humans could be overcome by hunger. That would explain why so many persons go missing right before a storm.

Why is a variety of clothing missing from living persons and bodies that have been found? Sometimes the clothing is found far from where the person or body is found. A large flying creature that tries to carry away an adult or child—that animal will often grab hold of clothing, eventually allowing the person to fall out of that clothing. If a ropen had the best hold on one or both shoes, that would remain in the creature’s grip. If the pants were what the animal best held onto, they might turn inside out as the human fell out of the trousers. That is why pants are sometimes found inside out.

Sometimes the creature might return to where it had been flying and find the body of the human on the ground but sometimes not. One of these cases we can now consider:

Kenny Miller, north of Yosemite

I hope that knowledge of this case may help save at least one human life in the future.

Although the disappearance of this child was 22 years ago, I offer my condolences to the family. Such a tragedy is hard to live with, and the mysterious nature of the twelve-year-old’s death does not make it easier. I have only some of the information on what happened, so I admit that other details may suggest some explanation other than what I here offer; but this is the best that I can do for now in providing one possible answer.

What happened to Kenny? Why was his body found far above where he had disappeared? No bear or mountain lion would drag the boy so far and leave him intact, high up on a mountain ridge, at an elevation 1400 feet higher. And why did so few of his clothes remain, just a T-shirt and cotton shorts according to the author David Paulides? If none of the additional facts disagree, the following explanation appears to me mostly likely:

One large ropen, or other unclassified flying creature, carried away the boy. The animal was trying to reach its cave or hiding location but the child kept falling out of the clothing and shoes. Eventually the creature lost track of where the boy had fallen or it assumed that he had fallen off the mountain. The falls may have been at just a short height above ground with limited, if any, injury to the boy. Why? The creature would have little reason to fly far above the ground with a heavy load, for that would require more energy. It eventually was able to reach a higher elevation but still without any need to ever be far above the ground. That would explain the cause of death that was given in the book: exposure.

I hope that this particular ropen then became discouraged from ever again attacking people in this area of California, but other creatures may have continued similar attacks. We need eyewitnesses to come forward and report any attack by a large flying creature, whether the attack was carried through or was aborted before the person was grabbed.

###

Pterodactyl Attacks and Human Deaths

I hope that no pterosaur was responsible for any of the human deaths in British Columbia, Canada, along the 500-mile stretch of highway from Prince George to Prince Rupert . . . we now face a present danger, a warning from Gerald McIsaac, author of Bird From Hell, who believes that “most of the hitchhikers [on this highway at night] who disappear have been killed by this animal. It is also my opinion that many of the people who have disappeared have not been reported.”

Missing Persons in Western USA

Those who know about eyewitness reports of ropens need little persuasion to be careful in open areas of wilderness. The automobiles of both Mayo and Tolhurst were found at or near the Donnell Vista, an open area overlooking a lake. Especially do not allow children to ever be alone in such an open area above a body of water. In addition, adults should be aware of anything that might be flying overhead.

Attacks From a Ropen in New Mexico?

A speculation can fail, under scrutiny, but when human lives are in danger we need action. I’ve recently been reading the nonfiction Missing 411 – Western United States & Canada, by the former lawman David Paulides. On page 200, the author points out that all six of those missing persons listed in New Mexico disappeared in the Santa Fe National Forest.

Pterosaurs Reported in the Southwest Pacific

There have also been reports of attacks: large or giant flying creatures attacking natives in Papua New Guinea. Some of the encounters have caused human deaths, in particular on the mainland west of Finschhafen.

Nonfiction Searching for Ropens and Finding God paperback by J. D. Whitcomb

From the back cover of this astonishing book:

A handful of Americans have explored remote jungles in Papua New Guinea, searching for living pterosaurs, called by most Americans “pterodactyls.” . . . This resulted in the publication of several books, two scientific papers in a peer-reviewed journal, and over a thousand blog posts . . .

October 28, 2014October 28, 2014

Look Overhead, not Underfoot

On page 191 of the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God I wrote:

You cannot see what’s overhead when you focus on what’s underfoot, and you cannot perceive what you believe cannot be seen. C. S. Lewis was aware it’s not “seeing is believing:” Believing allows us to see.

“Extinction” – Really?

A skeptic may look down on those of us who publicize reports of apparent modern pterosaurs, yet where is the explanation for universal extinction of all species of those flying creatures? Consider the following, quoting from three nonfiction books on these extraordinary flying creatures:

From the Book Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition

My experience interviewing natives [in Papua New Guinea] and reviewing interviews done by other explorers—that suggests it’s easier to catch a giant ropen in a fishing net than to find a native eyewitness who disbelieves personal experience because of what American professors assume. Eyewitnesses in a culture that dogmatically teaches pterosaur extinction—they sometimes have problems dealing with an experience that they feel should not have been experienced; native eyewitnesses in New Guinea have no problem. [from page 95 of the book]

From Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea

The first discovery of a pterosaur fossil by a Western scientist, in 1784, was decades before Charles Darwin began writing about his ideas on extinctions and evolution. Before Darwin, Western scientists had assumed that all species of pterosaurs were extinct for a simple reason: Those who discovered the fossils had no experience with any similar animal that was living.

Also important, probably no scientist at that time had considered that a few species of pterosaurs might still be alive, rarely seen because they’re both uncommon and nocturnal. Today, some cryptozoologists believe that one or more of their species are indeed uncommon and nocturnal—and still alive.

From Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition (Chapter 23)

The paleontologists are rare who take notice of my associates and me, at least through mid-2014. When one has commented on what we declare about modern pterosaurs, it’s usually with a word like “extinction” but in a difference sense: the demise of all species of pterosaurs. Am I slicing quarks? I know of nobody who denies that many pterosaurs may have lived without leaving any fossil. Beware of the fog around two meanings of a word. Even if all species of pterosaurs known from fossils had become extinct long ago, we live in the real world of the present, a world in which people report encountering living pterosaurs.

Why do I often use the phrase “apparent modern pterosaurs?” Since I firmly believe that some species of these flying creatures are still living, why do I use the word apparent? Take any particular sighting as an example: We probably cannot come to any certain conclusion if that one encounter was with a modern pterosaur. But the overall reports worldwide, over years, over decades, and over generations—they prove the case, for it is practically impossible for all of those countless sightings to have come from non-pterosaurs, when so many descriptions so clearly point to pterosaurs.

Consider sighting reports of a rare bird that may become extinct. One reported encounter alone, in a particular location, is not proof that the species is living there. But a number of reports can make it obvious.

Sketch drawn by eyewitness Eskin Kuhn

Extraordinary Declarations Demand Extraordinary Evidence

Why should any paleontologist insist that all species of pterosaurs must have become extinct many millions of years ago? That’s an extraordinary assumption, an extreme position that demands explaining. Remember, this is not about one or two or fifteen species or varieties of pterosaurs but ALL of them that ever existed.

How many species of them have lived on this earth? It’s impossible to say, but the experts believe that most of them left no fossil evidence for their existence. Taking that point of view, how can anybody point to fossils as if they are evidence for universal extinction?

Is Pterosaur Extinction for Real?

I have estimated that millions of eyewitnesses, worldwide, have seen a modern living pterosaur, perhaps as many as 128 million persons. How can I make such an extraordinary statement? From the number of eyewitnesses who have contacted me, over the past eleven years, from around the world. Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population has the knowledge, desire, and ability to communicate with me about the flying creatures that they have encountered in their lifetimes. Consider some of the reasons so few of them have contacted me:

Natives of Africa, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere have no internet access
Where pterosaurs are more common—that’s where people don’t talk much about them
Eyewitnesses who have a computer—they have other things to talk about
Most eyewitnesses do not know English
Most of them do not know a few Americans are looking for pterosaurs
Few eyewitnesses can afford to communicate by email

Please be aware: When I say that few eyewitnesses have contacted me, I mean compared with all of the probable eyewitnesses worldwide. I continue to get emails from those who have encountered these flying creatures, and the great majority of them hold up under my credibility examinations. So how do fossil experts reply?

One prominent paleontologist explained, during an interview, that the reason pterosaurs are extinct is that people would have seen them, if they still existed. Unfortunately, that paleontologist seems to have neglected to question any of the cryptozoologists involved. He seems to have assumed their investigations are somehow invalid or of little or no consequence. He has mentioned misidentifications to explain native testimonies, yet he has kept quiet about critical non-native testimonies of giant flying creatures that could not have been birds or bats. He says nothing about Duane Hodgkinson or Brian Hennessy or the couple in Perth, Australia.

Conclusion

Look overhead, rather than underfoot, for these worldwide sightings of modern pterosaurs refute the old universal-extinction proclamations. Take a break from swimming in your imagination, Mr. paleontologist, and open your eyes to the real world of the present, where people see these extraordinary flying creatures.

###

Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition (2014)

Nonfiction paperback on modern pterosaurs worldwide

This overshadows common true-life adventures, revealing the early stages of what may become the most unsettling scientific discovery since Galileo and Copernicus. It soars above disputes about religion, revealing why an official discovery of an extraordinary animal was delayed for so long. Above all, this explores human experiences—of eyewitnesses and those who interviewed them. People have become connected by common encounters: Persons of various faiths, with various levels of education, from various countries and cultures, have seen a living pterosaur. [From the title page of the book]