Umboi Island | Live Pterosaur

May 17, 2013December 30, 2013

Ropen Expeditions of 1994 and 1996

In the 1990's, native eyewitnesses were interviewed by American Carl Baugh and missionary Jim Blume. This native saw a ropen hanging onto a tree trunk.

We have been awed by eyewitness reports from recent years; but we must not forget those who made possible recent investigations: The explorers of the 1990’s who searched for the ropen and interviewed native eyewitnesses in Papua New Guinea. Without those expeditions in 1994 and 1996, where would we be? Without Carl Baugh’s early expeditions, we would not have had Paul Nation’s expedition in 2002 nor my expedition in 2004 nor Guessman and Woetzel’s, also in 2004. Without Carl Baugh interviewing natives in the 1990’s, we would not have had the historic 2006 expedition by Paul Nation nor the Destination Truth expedition of 2007. Without Carl Baugh, we would not now have the live-pterosaur branch of cryptozoology nor the word “ropen” on Wikipedia. Baugh opened the door for these investigations.

Paul Nation accompanied Baugh and missionary James Blume in the 1994 expedition but not the one in 1996. He sent me his video footage in the fall of 2003, and I edited the videos into a mini-documentary that we called “Searching for Ropen.” But those original videos did more for me that provide material for a mini-documentary: They inspired me to go on my own expedition in 2004, searching for living pterosaurs.

The following are brief summaries of some of the early interviews (mostly 1994).

Tree-Trunk Hugging Ropen

Two native men were interviewed briefly, possibly by Baugh himself (through an interpreter) with videotaping by Paul Nation, perhaps. The two men reported how they had strung up some game meat and later encountered a ropen that they believed had followed the smell. The creature held itself upright on a tree trunk and looked down at the men by turning or twisting its head or upper body.

Native shows how the ropen was upright, holding onto a tree trunk

Another videotaped interview (probably also from the 1994 expedition) involved a native man who was shown an illustration of a pterosaur. The man said that they see those creatures and that they catch fish and live in caves.

Native tells interviewer that the creatures catch fish

Attempted Grave Robbery in 1993

Carl Baugh interviewed a young family regarding a sighting on the northwest coast of Umboi Island. The husband, a school teacher, interpreted for his wife. She was part of a funeral procession, in 1993, around the northwest coast of Umboi, when a flying creature with a glowing tail approached the body. The mourners chased the creature away, but the memory would not leave.

School teacher interprets for his wife, who saw the glowing ropen one night

First Videotaped Interview, in 1994, of Gideon Koro

Gideon was just a teenager in 1994, when he was first interviewed in front of a video camcorder. He was nervous talking about the giant ropen, for it had been only a few months or so since the terrifying encounter. The Baptist missionary from the mainland, Jim Blume, and a native interpreter questioned the boy about what he had seen.

The creature was skinny and its size was “house to house.” Some time after I had watched the original video footage, I came to realize what he probably meant: The flying creature was as long as the distance from one nearby village hut to the next hut.

When I myself interviewed Gideon, face to face in 2004, he told me that the length of the tail was seven meters. He was positive, in my interview with him, that the ropen had no feathers.

Gideon Koro was interviewed on Umboi Island in 1994

Ropen Expedition of 1996

I don’t know if anyone has any video footage from the 1996 expedition. Carl Baugh and Jim Blume may have visited more than one island in Papua New Guinea that year. They had one sighting of an apparent ropen as it was glowing at night; it was not flying but sitting above a beach, on the coast of a small island.

###

Wife of a school teacher saw a glowing ropen

“Eunice, a school teacher’s wife, described to Carl Baugh an attempted grave robbery. One night, in April of 1993, near the northwest coast of Umboi Island, after a large funeral procession arrived at the burial location, a creature with a glowing red tail came from the sea. . . .”

August 13, 2012January 10, 2017

Ropen Close to Bunsil Station, Umboi Island

crater mountain in Papua New Guinea - "Mount Sual"

In Papua New Guinea, in 2004, I explored part of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, with my interpreter, Luke Paina. We were hoping to get photographs and video footage of a ropen, from Luke holding a film camera and me holding a video camcorder. Unfortunately, no ropen showed up for the cameras. We found many eyewitnesses and I interviewed them while videotaping them, but I longed to get a more.

But in 2009 I received an email from a young man from Tarawe Village, Umboi Island. He was a student at the time: business accounting at the University of Technology in Lae City. He did not get a photograph of the ropen, but he had a wonderful sighting:

I was on an outboard motor [probably a banana boat] as early as 9 am when we saw a giant creature floating along the coastline near Bunsil Bay [central-south coast of Umboi Island]. Its body was submerged under the sea but its tail was emerged. I saw that its tail is about 6-7 meters long [about twenty feet long] with sharp diamond shape. It was an awesome scenerio . . . It was floating 10 meters away from the boat . . .

Being in fear, we stopped the boat to let it pass by. . . . I wish I had a camera at that time because it was a frightening scene. Right now I’m looking for a camera to monitor this beast. . . .

Coastline just to the east of Bunsil Station, Umboi Island (that native fishing boat has one or two sails that may have originally been common bed sheets)

Flying Creature in Southern California

On June 19, 2012, an eyewitness saw, at close range and in clear daylight, in a residential neighborhood northeast of Long Beach, California, a “dragon-pterodactyl.” Details in the description . . . make it highly unlikely to be anything other than a ropen.

Ropen in California

Ropens, or “pterodactyls” or “dragons,” have also been reported in other states of the USA and in many other countries around the world.

September 14, 2011December 8, 2011

Hodgkinson’s Sighting in Perspective: Waking From Noise

How does Duane Hodgkinson’s 1944 sighting of a “pterodactyl” relate to flying lights on Umboi Island? Seven years after my first interviews with this World War II veteran, I still marvel at the value of his testimony; but that value is best understood when the sighting is taken in perspective. Look at the other reports of living pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific. Those sightings that give us the most information about the appearance of ropens are usually daylight encounters, when details of form and feathers are most apparent. So how do a few eyewitnesses see nocturnal pterosaurs in daylight?

Hennessy Sighting of “Prehistoric” Flying Creature

He described the “prehistoric” flying creature that he saw on Bougainville Island, New Guinea: long tail, no sign of feathers, head “disproportionately large compared to the body.” His choice of identification sketches (survey examination) resulted in a head sketch very similar to the one chosen by Hodgkinson. They probably observed the same species of pterosaur.

But how do these two daylight sightings of apparent pterosaurs relate to a nocturnal flying creature on Umboi Island? Let’s consider why Hodgkinson and Hennessy saw what they saw in daylight; what did those two sightings have in common? Hodgkinson and his army buddy were startled by a wild pig running through the clearing they were in; immediately the giant “pterodactyl” flew up from wherever it had been (out of view before that pig crashed through the bush), so could it have been startled out of sleep? About a quarter of a century later, on Bougainville Island, New Guinea, the truck Hennessy was riding in was probably roaring along that mountain road; the “prehistoric” flying creature then flew overhead, so could it have been startled out of sleep? Both creatures could have been nocturnal, sleeping through most daylight hours undisturbed.

1994 Sighting at Lake Pung

When seven boys hiked up to that crater lake on Umboi Island, in daylight, the wonder of that view of the lake may have caused them to yell out loud in teenage delight. Very soon after they had arrived at Pung, the giant ropen flew over the surface of the lake, terrifying the boys. Was it a coincidence that the flying creature known to be nocturnal flew in daylight, very soon after seven teenagers had arrived at that lake? I think not: Boys will make noise. Surely the noise of Gideon, Wesley, Mesa, and the others, was what awakened the ropen, not a thirst to get a drink of lake water at the precise time (halfway through a good day’s sleep) seven adolescent humans happened to arrive.

When I interviewed Gideon Koro, Wesley Koro, and Mesa Agustin, on Umboi Island in 2004, I never thought to ask them if they and their four friends had made any noise when they had arrived at Lake Pung; but it now seems obvious.

Live Pterodactyl

“Eskin Kuhn . . . in Cuba in 1971, saw two long-tailed ‘pterodactyls’ in clear daylight, at close range . . .” That does not necessarily mean that the two flying creatures were not nocturnal. Like other daylight sightings of “pterodactyls” or apparent pterosaurs, this sighting in the day could have been from an unusual daylight disturbance, rather than a usual daylight flying habit.

About one year ago I saw a large owl, in daylight, fly over a freeway in Long Beach, California. Large owls are still nocturnal, notwithstanding some of them sometimes fly a little in daylight.

Lake Pung – a crater lake on Umboi (Would you not shout for joy if you were a teenager who had just hiked up to this wonderful place?)

August 24, 2011August 24, 2011

Ropen Sighting by Cottingham

An email interview in 2007 is hardly news now, but this account of a sighting of a possible pterosaur has not previously been covered on this blog.

The Australian Steven Cottingham was the government’s Officer-In-Charge (Kiap) of Umboi and surrounding islands, and he lived on Umboi Island for one and a half years (natives call this island “Siassi,” although that word is also used for the group of islands that include “Big Siassi”).

His first email included:

My sighting occurred at night near Lab Lab on the southern tip of Umboi. The light lasted for four to five seconds, and until reading your reports now, have never been able to explain the sighting. The natives I was with simply said it was a spirit light!

I asked him a few questions:

Thank you, Steven

Thank you for telling me about your sighting. May I ask some questions?

1) Do you recall the time of night?

2) What direction was the light traveling (or was it stationary)?

3) Was there any color to the light or was it just white?

He answered:

1) Approximately 7 pm. I had been out fishing off the reef.

2) Horizontal, across the top of the Coconut palms. It was moving slowly and in a wavelike motion. It was too high and covered too much distance to be a person walking with a lantern, but I checked at daybreak to see if there was a walking track on a hill behind the coconut palms. There was nothing at that height. The coconuts were on flat ground.

3) Yes, dull orange. Not as round as the moon, but bigger than what a Coleman lantern would be.

I suspected that the “wavelike motion” related to wing flapping, but I asked him an open question: “Was the wavelike motion from side-to-side or up-and-down?” He answered, “Rhythmic, gentle UP-AND-DOWN as the light flowed in the direction of left to right.” This confirmed the possibility that he had observed a flying creature.

Cottingham in Context

A sighting by the biologist Evelyn Cheesman, a few decades before Cottingham’s sighting, is described in one of her books:

In her book, The Two Roads of Papua, she said that the flash lasted “about four or five seconds, but that flash had been a little distance away from the first. Flashes continued at intervals. . . . a most intriguing mystery; because by no possibility could there be human beings out there using flash-lamps at intervals . . .”

Cheesman’s sighting was on the mainland of what is now Papua New Guinea, west of Umboi Island.

Notice that the government official said, “The light lasted for four to five seconds,” and the biologist said that the flashes lasted “about four or five seconds.” That is very close to what natives on Umboi Island have said about how long the ropen light lasts.

On a different note of the same composition:

Are Live Pterodactyls Only Misidentified?

“Some skeptics have suggested that this flying creature is just a misidentified bird. One or two skeptics have even suggested it is just a Manta Ray or Singray, for those fishes, at times, can jump out of the water and might appear to fly.

“There are major problems with a gliding-fish interpretation, however. One skeptic said a little about two sightings in New Guinea: the Hodgkinson sighting of 1944 and the Hennessy sighting of 1971. Details were entirely absent in this critic’s writing, however. Neither sighting could have been from any fish.”