“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 a nonfiction book on Amazon or from the publisher—Live Pterosaurs in America.

I just received an eyewitness sighting report from somebody in Papua New Guinea. Reports of nocturnal glowing creatures flying near the coast of Manus Island are hardly new; we assume that they are related to the ropen of Umboi Island. Here is part of the recent account:

“I was born and brought up in Manus Island . . . there are lights swooping over fish shoals . . . Two years ago  we took a boat out to investigate and could see the lights soaring over us and heard flapping of wings though we never could make out the actual animal, we observed they did dive into the sea and then erupt out of it with a great flapping sound.”

I am waiting for this eyewitness to answer detailed questions, such as “Did they flash for a few seconds or were they always on?”

I just received a sighting report from a man who was about eight years old when he saw a “featherless flying animal” near Jefferson, Texas. Several details suggest that this is no hoax: a genuine sighting.

He estimated the wingspan at 4 1/2 to 5 feet with a long tail that had a “diamond type shape” at the end. The creature had leathery skin rather than any hair or feathers. One unusual feature was a series of highly contrasted stripes on the animal’s topside (back); the underside (stomach), however, had a much more neutral coloring. It had a “long mouth/beak” with teeth. It was flying only about eight feet above the ground, making a noisy flapping. Nothing obstructed the boy’s view of the creature.

The boy was alone at the time. The creature left before the boy’s mother came outside; she told him “it was just a bird and it was my imagination.” I believe the boy’s version of what happened, for several aspects of his report are supported by other eyewitness testimonies for other sightings in the U.S.

More: Boy sees pterosaur in Texas [Yes, this eyewitness has confirmed his good credibility]