Live Pterosaur Media Center Live Pterosaur Media Center Gideon Koro, 2004 interview                   (click image) Gideon Koro In the early 1990’s seven native boys on Umboi Island, Papua New  Guinea, climbed up to a crater lake near their village. Within minutes of  their arrival, their joy at the beautiful sight of Lake Pung turned into  horror as the legendary flying creature of the night came down in daylight  to fly a hundred feet above the surface of the lake. The boys ran home in  terror. One of them, Gideon Koro, in 1994 was interviewed by an  American visitor, Carl Baugh, and a missionary, James Blume, for they  were interested in the possibility of living pterosaurs.   In 2004, the American forensic videographer Jonathan Whitcomb found  Gideon on Umboi Island and interviewed him, along with two other men  who were boys with Gideon when they saw the ropen fly over Lake Pung.  The other four eyewitnesses were unavailable for interviews.   Whitcomb returned to the United States convinced that one large  pterosaurs lives on Umboi Island. He concluded that it protects its  territory from smaller ones of its species that sometimes visit that island.   From a Paper in a Journal of Science:   “According to Gideon Koro, who speaks some English, a few minutes  after they had arrived at the lake, ‘it came down.’ I tried to ask about  wingspan but at that point had to rely on an interpreter (using the Kovai  language), and only later did I realize that he probably thought that I  meant the length of one wing. In either case, his answer is astonishing:  ‘seven meetuh’ (seven meters). When I asked about the tail length, he  pondered, seeming to recall and estimate; then he said, ‘seven meetuh.’   “Gideon was sure that the creature was a ropen. He hesitated before giving  the color (probably searching for the English word): ‘brown.’ When I  asked about feathers, he at first appeared to be puzzled; his answer and  mannerisms then seemed to me to reveal that he was surprised that I  should ask that question: ‘There’s no feathers.’ I then asked, ‘Was there  just skin?’ The Kovai word ‘byung’ came up as did the English term  ‘flying fox.’ Gideon agreed that the skin was like that of a fruit bat.   “When I asked about the back of the head (hoping for information on a  head crest), another villager interpreted: Gideon had not seen the head  clearly enough to answer that question. I asked about the mouth, and  Gideon thought for a while before answering, ‘Its mouth like a crocodile.’   “Soon thereafter I made three drawings in the dirt. I drew two similar  versions of the creature’s head; one with crocodilian-like eye sockets and  the other without the eyes at the top of the head. Gideon immediately  chose the non-crocodilian head. I also started a drawing of a large head  (with a long snout), which Gideon completed by drawing the body, wings,  and tail. His drawing suggested a tail length of about half the wingspan, or  about the length of one wing.”   Creation Research Society Quarterly Volume 45, Winter 2009 “Reports of Living Pterosaurs in the Southwest Pacific” by Jonathan D. Whitcomb    Other Online Resources Villagers Near Lake Pung Hills Near Lake Pung   Whitcomb, 2004   (expedition on Umboi Island) Press Release: Expeditions on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea Wesley Koro interview Mesa Agustin interview Photographs by Jonathan Whitcomb Questions and Answers about Live Pterosaurs