Umboi Island | Live Pterosaur

November 14, 2018November 14, 2018

Hot Spots for Pterosaur Sightings

ropens or living pterosaurs seen in Cuba

By investigative journalist Jonathan D. Whitcomb

Let’s begin with areas outside the United States, then we’ll get into the major hot spots in the USA, for sighting reports of these featherless flying creatures.

Shropshire, England

In September of 2017, I received an email from a lady living in England, near the border of Wales. She is the mother of four children, and some members of the family, including the mother, have seen an apparent pterosaur, very much non-extinct. This family had two sightings in September of 2017.

In August of 2018, I received an email from a man living in that same general area of Shropshire, but this sighting was in February of 2017. Here’s a bit of what he reported to me:

A creature with a wingspan of about 4-6 feet and a mottled greyish brown colouration flew directly overhead and onwards towards a field . . . this was way too big to have been a native bat species. . . . I recall a short tail, but it became thinner and more tapered out towards the end of it.

Shropshire, England (West Midlands), east of Wales

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (mid-20th century)

I’ve written a great deal about two sightings in eastern Cuba, about the flying creatures witnessed by Patty Carson (1965) and Eskin Kuhn (1971). An important point is that their sketches reveal similarities with many other apparent pterosaurs seen in other areas of North America.

These sightings, and others, are covered in my new nonfiction book for children and teenagers: The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur.

Ropens seen by Eskin Kuhn (left) and Patty Carson (right)

Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

So much has been written about ropen sightings on this remote tropical island that we’ll only consider a brief summary of some sightings here:

Seen by seven boys/teenagers around late 1993 (Lake Pung)
Jonathan Ragu and his daughter saw one in 2004
Jonah Jim saw one flying towards Lake Pung in 2001
Rex Yapi Epa saw a huge ropen. It was mostly under water.

The crater lake Pung, Umboi Island (photo by G. Guessman)

We now turn to pterosaur sightings in the United States

Raleigh area of North Carolina

Some of these sighting reports have received negative reactions from popular press in North Carolina, but the news professionals, apparently, had only a limited number of sighting reports to go by. I’ve written much about these sightings elsewhere, so let’s move on.

Mansfield, Ohio, area

We don’t have many sighting reports to examine from here, but the city of Mansfield has a human population of less then 50,000. In that context, the two sighting reports that I have received are significant, for only a tiny fraction of the eyewitnesses ever contact me, wherever the sightings take place.

A man saw an apparent pterosaur on June 30, 2016, at about 4:00 a.m., and the report did not appear noteworthy to me when I got it; when I got another report from another eyewitness from Mansfield, Ohio, however, I saw it as more significant.

Ten days ago (Nov 4, 2018), I got an email from another eyewitness in that little city. Here’s a portion of what he told me:

I was taking my brother to work at 6 am. We live in a heavy wooded area where a creek runs through and when we made a left turn and my dad hollered deer. It flew in front of the truck about street light level and I said that’s not a deer that’s a bird. It was huge. My dad said that’s a pterodactyl. . . . It’s neck was long, it’s skin was like leather . . .

That would seem to make two sightings by three eyewitnesses in Mansfield, but there’s more. A few decades before, the mother of that eyewitness (the man who was taking his brother to work at 6 a.m.) also saw a “pterodactyl.” To bad for her but her parents did not believe her. That was also in Mansfield.

Los Angeles County

These sightings in this area of Southern California have been so numerous that one blog post alone will not properly hold all the details in many of them. Since I have written about those encounters in many other publications, we’ll let them suffice for now. (See the link below: . . . Los Angeles County.)

Draper, Utah

Just a few days ago, I interviewed an eyewitness face-to-face, in this community in the Salt Lake Valley. Last year, my wife and I interviewed another family in that same general area of Draper, also a face-to-face interview. Those two locations are only about two miles apart.

I’ve written elsewhere about those encounters. To summarize, three sightings involved four eyewitnesses, within a period of about eighteen months. I have no major doubt: They encountered a large ropen. I am not speculating about whether or not it was the same exact animal; I believe it was the same species.

How to Support this Investigation

Please support this work by purchasing your own copy of the new nonfiction book The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur (or buy one or more copies to give as gifts to children or teens).

I’ve been told that the title should have the word ‘pterosaur’ and not ‘dinosaur,’ but the girl referred to in the title seems to have used the d-word when she reported her sighting to her family (Patty Carson in Cuba in 1965). I also came to see that people would remember the title better (and find it easier) by using the word that is technically incorrect.

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Living pterosaur in England

These extraordinary flying creatures are nocturnal, at least most of them and for most of the time.

“Flying Dinosaur” Book for Ten-Year-Old Girls and Boys

To the best of my knowledge, no other nonfiction cryptozoology book about living pterosaurs has ever been written specifically for English readers between the ages of about eight and fourteen years old. The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur . . .

Living pterosaur in Cuba

“I communicated with another eyewitness, in 2011, by emails and phone, about what I’d eventually call the “Gitmo Pterosaur.” Here is some of what I received from Patty Carson, whose father worked at Guantanamo Bay in the mid-1960’s . . .”

The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur

One new nonfiction . . . takes the reader into a little explored jungle, figuratively and literally: human encounters with living pterosaurs, what some persons call “dinosaur birds” or “pterodactyls” or “flying dinosaurs.” One eyewitness was a little girl in Cuba in 1965: Patty Carson. [about the non-fiction book for kids and teens]

Living pterosaur in Los Angeles County

“Dragon Pterosaurs in Southern California”

Flying Dinosaur book for ten-year-old

About a new nonfiction book for children and teens

August 10, 2018

Do Reports of Live Pterosaurs Come From Lies?

cryptozoology book, nonfiction, on modern pterosaurs in the USA - "Live Pterosaurs in America"

By the modern-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

Soon after I had returned from my expedition on Umboi Island, I saw that somebody had published an online article attacking the possibility of modern dinosaurs and pterosaurs, with a URL containing the words “stupid” and “lies.” The following long sentence appears to have been removed from that site, but it illustrates a point: When a critic writes in anger, mistakes are easily made, not just errors of judgment but errors of fact. The following sentence contains a number of errors of fact, at least in this case, indisputable falsehoods:

“Another claim of an alleged pterosaur sighting is made in Africa where a team of explorers led by John Whittcomb who are sponsored by Carl E. Baugh a staunch creationist and other creationists regard him as a kook, just like Baugh they are kooks themselves.”

As best as I recall, that old site also had a sentence declaring that I had led a group of creationists on an expedition, but that is false. Let’s concentrate on the above sentence.

That was on the critic’s web site Stupid Dinosaur Lies, a dot-com, on February 24, 2005, and the following are the most obvious errors, probably made and published because the person jumped into writing before doing reasonable digging to get to the facts:

1. Both my first name and surname were misspelled.
2. Never in my life have I set foot in Africa.
3. Nobody on my expedition was sponsored by Carl Baugh

That critic seems to have become confused in a number of ways. From the above sentence, she (I believe it was a woman; I could be mistaken) appears to have thought that only one alleged sighting was involved and that only one expedition took place. Baugh led a few brief expeditions in the 1990’s, but most expeditions have been in the 21st century, none of which included Baugh. And no ropen expedition was in Africa, only in Papua New Guinea, which is north of Australia.

I see a glimmer of truth in the sentence, for a number of Biblical creationists have been encouraging ropen expeditions in Papua New Guinea. A few weeks after my expedition, the Americans Garth Guessman and David Woetzel, along with the native Baptist minister Jacob Kepas, interviewed natives on Umboi Island. I don’t know of anyone who doubts that Guessman and Woetzel are Biblical creationists, but I’ve never read or heard anything to suggest that some creationists consider such explorers to be “kooks.”

To that critic’s credit, that sentence (beginning with “Another claim of an alleged pterosaur sighting”) was removed from the old site Stupid Dinosaur Lies. In fact the whole site disappeared in 2010 (the old dot-com version). The errors in that sentence, however, show the importance of careful research over a period of time rather than a quick shotgun blast, without any careful aim, at an idea that upsets the skeptical writer. I hope that critic continues to improve in thinking and eventually comes to recognize the truth behind the worldwide sighting reports of these animals.

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Stupid Dinosaur Lies

Within the past few weeks [late 2014], at least two posts have accused me, Jonathan Whitcomb, of deceiving people. The second writer, “idoubtit,” seems to have been convinced by the first one, Dr. Donald Prothero, regarding my online writing behavior. But when Prothero responded to me, he appeared to reveal two sources for his conviction that I have used deception, and the earliest source is the site Stupid Dinosaur Lies . . .

Modern-pterosaur expert

When a non-scientist observes a featherless flying creature that looks like a pterosaur, that eyewitness might say “pterodactyl” rather than use the correct name: pterosaur.

Critic of living pterosaurs

Scientific skepticism can be useful, when a scientist is criticized on a particular point. It can sometimes allow him or her to make a needed correction and improve the original idea. But when extreme bias exists in either that scientist or the one doing the criticism, problems arise.

Bulverism from a critic

Early yesterday morning, November 30, 2010, I posted a short announcement on the “Cryptids on the Wing” forum of Cryptozoology.com [which site has disappeared]. The quick, negative responses were no surprise to me, for I have received similar dismissals, for years, on this forum. The first criticism deserves attention here, as an example of bulverism.

Do pterosaur sightings come from lies?

The following is in response to a statement about me, Jonathan Whitcomb, published on a web forum: “. . . that he lies about in his book . . .”

I believe that the total number of web pages and blog posts that I have written over the past eight years is well over a thousand, with perhaps more than a quarter of a million words related to the concept of modern living pterosaurs. That is in addition to two editions of one nonfiction book, three editions of another, and a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal of science. With hundreds of thousands of words to choose from, why doesn’t at least one of the critics on this forum thread find one or two of my sentences, to quote me? If one of my books includes a lie, why not quote that lie, bringing to light why it is wrong?

Live Pterosaurs in America — third edition of this nonfiction book

Live “pterodactyls?” In the United States? Many scientists have long assumed all pterosaurs died millions of years ago. Now take a whirlwind tour of many years of investigations in cryptozoology, and prepare for a shock: At least two species of pterosaurs have survived . . .

September 27, 2017

Evidences Jonathan Whitcomb was in Papua New Guinea in 2004

Jonathan Whitcomb in Lae, Papua New Guinea, standing by two natives

By the American cryptozoologist Jonathan D. Whitcomb

I don’t know of anyone who has disputed the reality of my expedition on Umboi Island in 2004, but a few skeptics have tried to pin the label “deception” on me and my associates or on those we have interviewed, and many Westerners have a tendency to come to disbelieve in historical events as time carries us further away from the past. The following is written as evidence that I really did go on an expedition in Papua New Guinea in 2004. See a post with my passport stamps if you will, as it offers additional evidence that I traveled to the southwest Pacific in that year.

A few weeks after my two-week expedition on Umboi Island, two other Americans explored there, Garth Guessman and David Woetzel, and some of the natives confirmed to them that I had indeed been on their island recently. In mid-2017, the native Rex Yapi spoke with Luke Paina, and my expedition in 2004 was confirmed. (Luke was my interpreter, bodyguard, and counselor during our expedition.) In addition, the village leaders Mark Kau, pronounced “cow,” and David Moke, pronounced “moe-kay,” can confirm I was there, if anybody wants to go to Opai Village and ask them.

Jonathan Whitcomb near Gomlongon Village, Umboi Island, 2004

Quoting from the fourth edition of my book Searching for Ropens and Finding God:

Preparing against foreign diseases and parasites went better. I purchased a generous supply of Malarone pills to reduce malaria risk, an expensive drug but with few side effects. Over several weeks, I was pumped up with standard inoculations: polio, diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid, and one or two kinds of hepatitis.

Jonathan Whitcomb’s prescription for malaria-prevention pills: Malarone

International Certificate of Vaccination (with the front page) for Whitcomb

Immunizations given – Long Beach (California) Health & Human Services

Boarding pass for Jonathan Whitcomb: Los Angeles to New Zealand

The flight from LAX to New Zealand was overnight and then some, and together with crossing the International Date Line put the date of Sep 21, 2004, for my arrival in the southwest Pacific (I left California on Sunday, Sep 19th).

Whitcomb’s boarding pass for Air New Zealand flight-NZ171 to Cairns, Australia

Air Niugini flight-PX-102 from Port Moresby to Lae on September 22nd

Currency exchange between U.S. dollars and kina, Sep 23, 2004, in Lae

New Expedition Expected Late in 2017

We hope that a new ropen expedition will begin on Umboi Island before the end of 2017, although no such search has happened there since 2004. Look for future details on this Live Pterosaur blog.

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Flying Dinosaurs in Papua New Guinea

From 1994 through 2009, about nine Americans have intermittently (and usually two or three at a time) visited remote islands of Papua New Guinea, searching for flying creatures: living pterosaurs.

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor in Livingston, Montana, in 1944 was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea.

Cryptozoology books for LDS readers

I offer the following three nonfiction books that I have written, each of them about evidences for non-extinct pterosaurs, what many Westerners call “pterodactyls.”

Living Pterosaurs

Ropen Sighting Near University of California at Irvine

Ropens, or flying dinosaurs

When a Child Sees a Pterosaur
Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs in Acambaro
Ropen-Pterosaur in Oregon and Washington?
. . . Expedition by Woetzel and Guessman
Ropen Only Extinct on Wikipedia
New Book on Living Pterodactyls
Destination Truth Ropen Episode
No “Ropen Myth” in Washington State
. . . Flying in Los Angeles County
Pterosaur on Destination Truth
Ropen Dismissed by Smithsonian
[and more about these flying creatures]

Expedition on Umboi Island

Paul Nation, the most active LP explorer
Garth Guessman, another active cryptozoologist
Hoaxes Fail to Explain U. S. Living-Pterosaur Reports

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.

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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.”