interview | Live Pterosaur

August 18, 2013December 20, 2014

Blog Radio Broadcast on Aug 18, 2013

Susan Wooten's drawing of the large pterosaur she saw in South Carolina

I am scheduled to talk on Monster X Radio this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. California (Daylight) time (11:00 pm, UTC, Coordinated Universal Time):

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mxr/2013/08/18/living-pterosaurs-with-jonathon-whitcomb

Possible subjects could include one or more of the following (although I may have only limited control):

Pterosaur Sightings Worldwide
“Pterodactyl” Encounters in the United States
The Ropen of Papua New Guinea
Common Characteristics of Descriptions
Bioluminescence of Modern Nocturnal Pterosaurs
Sizes of Reported Pterosaurs
Credibility of Sighting Reports
Origin Philosophies, Religion, and Science
Extinction of Pterosaurs or not
Possible Hoaxes
Possible Misidentifications

I would be delighted to talk about pterosaur sightings in Papua New Guinea and how they may relate to encounters in other parts of the world. The ropen has been my specialty for years.

For those who would like to ask questions of me, on this online radio show, I believe you can call in at around 5:00 p.m. (California time) at this number: (347) 326-9859 (“Press 1 to talk.”)

This seems to be a New York area code, so here is the Eastern Daylight Time when the show starts: 7:00 EDT. Calls for questions may be made in the second hour, if I understand correctly.

Addendum

The two-hour interview last night went well. The first hour covered expeditions and sightings in Papua New Guinea and typical sighting descriptions of apparent pterosaurs in the United States. In the second hour, Susan Wooten and Laura Dean called in and gave their sighting reports, with descriptions of the flying creatures they had observed in South Carolina and Arkansas respectively.

Bioluminescence and flying lights were discussed in both hours of the interview.

The title of the interview talk show is “Living Pterosaurs with Jonathon Whitcomb” (my first name is really spelled “Jonathan.”)

Host Shane Corson afterwards told me, “. . . it was a fabulous and very informative show thanks to you! We have had great feedback so thanks again!” I am grateful to Shane and Johnny and to Susan and Laura for making this talk show a success.

Wooten’s sketch of the creature she saw in South Carolina

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October 3, 2012December 20, 2014

Whitcomb on Radio Talk Show in Australia

On September 25th, I was interviewed, by telephone, by Aaron Wright of Mysterious Universe, in Australia. It was not a live radio show but was audio-edited and broadcast (or published) on a podcast around September 28th.

The interview lasted about an hour, as I remember, but because of audio problems only a fraction of it was used in the podcast (online radio broadcast). Here is part of the beginning:

Aaron: Joining me today is Jonathan David Whitcomb, author of Live Pterosaurs in America and a new book which has just come out: Live Pterosaurs in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Thanks for joining us, Jonathan; how are you today?

Jonathan: Oh, great! Thanks very much for inviting me.

Aaron: Oh, you’re very welcome. So let’s just talk about ropens . . . and pterosaurs. What are these creatures? I thought they were extinct.

Jonathan: Most species of pterosaurs have become extinct at some time in the past . . . What we’re trying to portray to the world is that we’ve discovered a large number of eyewitnesses, from different parts of the world, who testify of something that couldn’t be anything other than one or more species of living pterosaur.

I’ll give you an example. In Papua New Guinea, some of the villagers, the language that they speak, they have a word called “ropen,” and that designates a large nocturnal flying creature. And we know from eyewitnesses that it has a long tail, and it has a bioluminescent capacity. It glows for a few seconds at a time at night, as it’s flying.

Aaron: So how large are these creatures?

Jonathan: The largest ones are very rare. But they’re so large that they cannot be mistaken if a person sees one. I’ll give you an example. In Perth, Australia, (I believe the year was 1997), it was in December, a couple was taking a walk. . . . They saw a creature flying up, and eventually they came to the conclusion that it could be as large as fifty-foot wingspan, from tip-to-tip of the wings.

Aaron: Fifty foot!

Jonathan: But we have a number of other sightings across the southwest Pacific and in other parts of the world, including California in the United States, in which there are rare cases of a very large creature being sited in the daytime.

Just a few years ago, a man was driving in the daylight, in clear daylight, in Orange County, in Southern California, and he was startled to see this creature fly up from the marshy area on his left. It flew over the road—it’s . . not too far above the road in front of him. And he says that the length from the nose (the front of the beak or whatever it was) to the end of the tail was the same as the width of the road. Now I went out there and I measured it: It was thirty feet. And he said about sixteen feet of that length was tail.

Jonathan Whitcomb Interviewed for Canadian Television Show

For many years my associates and I have searched for living pterosaurs and interviewed many eyewitnesses. . . . Those who believe in modern pterosaurs have been ridiculed for years, with no end in sight for the ridicule. But cutting down ridicule by cutting down one of these amazing animals [shooting an animal for evidence] would be wrong. We need to protect precious life, not destroy it.

April 21, 2010January 10, 2017

Woetzel ropen sighting of 2004

David Woetzel, American cryptozoologist and explorer

“Ropen” is what natives of Umboi Island call the nocturnal flying creature, and legends abound. Most eyewitnesses have only seen it from a distance, at night, and they describe a strange flying light.

David Woetzel led the second ropen expedition on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, late in 2004, accompanied by fellow-American cryptozoologist Garth Guessman. One night, near Arot Village (northern Umboi), Woetzel saw a strange light flying towards the mountains near Lake Pung. Consider this excerpt from my interview with him in 2005:

“My sighting was so quick that it was impossible to get a video—maybe 2 seconds . . . [The flying light was] almost golden and shimmering around the edges. It looked like an old-fashioned street light in the fog.

“There was no tail and it was flying horizontal from Mt. Barik toward Mt. Tolo . . . The size, color and speed made it immediately stand out as unlike any other thing I’ve ever seen in the sky.”

Woetzel estimated the angular-size of the light: about 20%-25% the size of a full moon. With a lack of any meteor tail and horizontal movement, a meteor interpretation is unreasonable. This must have been the same object observed by my interpreter (Luke Kenda) a few weeks earlier and a few kilometers to the east: a horizontally-flying light with a mountain background. I believe that both sightings were of the ropen.

Although this sighting, by itself, obviously does not prove that pterosaurs are still living, it validates the honesty of this cryptozoologist: Woetzel could easily have reported some kind of pterosaur-feature, rather than only a glowing object, were he to have been dishonest. This is one example (among many) of the honesty of the explorers who searched for living pterosaurs from 1994 through 2004, for they interviewed many eyewitnesses but admitted never observing any pterosaur-like animal themselves. It disproves the careless general accusation (from some critics) that they are dishonest.

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Did you know that living pterosaurs have been reported in North America, even in the United States? Read the many eyewitness sighting reports by purchasing this incredible nonfiction book on Amazon or from the publisher—Live Pterosaurs in America.