Pterosaurs
Still Living
Does only one ropen live
continuously on Umboi Island?
Why the living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb
believes one ropen defends Umboi against other ropens
Indava lights videotaped by Paul Nation in Papua New Guinea in
2006 (likely bioluminescence of flying creatures related to the ropen)
By Jonathan Whitcomb
I believe that at least a few giant ropens live in Papua New
Guinea. So why did I return to the United States, in 2004,
proclaiming that only one giant ropen lives on Umboi Island?
I had several reasons, but I came to the following conclusion:
Only one ropen still flies regularly, at night, over mountains
and reefs of Umboi.
I don’t imply that this species of living pterosaur, what some
natives call ropen, is in danger of extinction within the next
few years. These flying creatures, in all their species, are
widespread across the planet. Yet we need to do what we
can to preserve them. The first step is in learning more about
them and publicizing the wonderful news that a few species
of pterosaurs are not extinct.
I have too many reports to let me fear pterosaur extinction.
This includes interviews several eyewitnesses of what seem
to be gigantic long-tailed pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific.
One report is from a couple who lived in Perth, Australia, in
1997. Although the creature seen by this couple may be a
different species than the large ropen of Umboi, it is a giant
with a long tail, apparently lacking feathers, as does the
nocturnal flying creature of Umboi. This kind of animal is
called by some people a "dragon."
Consider a pterosaur-like thing seen near Indonesia, in the
southwest Pacific, in June of 2008. Soon after the sighting, I
got a phone call from one of the two pilots: His small airplane
almost collided with what at first appeared to be another
plane. But on passing it, the pilot who was in control saw it
flapping its wings, obviously a large flying creature.
As he and his co-pilot were approaching Bali, Indonesia,
having taken off from Broome, Australia, they were shocked
to find themselves on a collision course with something. He
put his plane into a dive to avoid the collision but both men
realized that they had just missed a non-plane. Right away
they came up with the same word: "pterodactyl," another
shock. After my interviews with the men, they decided to
avoid labeling what they had seen as a "ropen," at least on
the record. Still, they did notice a few things that made them
doubt that it was any common bird.
image copyright 2004 Jonathan Whitcomb
Mount Sual, as seen from the front porch of Mark and Delilah Kau's
house near Gomlongon Village, Umboi Island, Morobe Province,
Papua New Guinea. This is one of the mountains where the ropen
is seen. This image is taken from a video recorded by Jonathan
David Whitcomb during his 2004 expedition on Umboi Island.
Jonathan Whitcomb has concluded that the ropen
of Umboi defends that island and the surrounding
reefs, as its territory, from other competing ropens
The American explorers David Woetzel (top, second from right)
and Garth Guessman (lower right) met many natives on Umboi
Island and conducted a number of well-prepared interviews. The
islander Jonathan Ragu described the creature he had seen flying
near the coast in July of 2004. It was a lone ropen and Ragu chose
the Sordes pilosus, from among dozens of sketches the Americans
showed him of birds, bats, and pterosaurs. Woetzel and Guessman
also interviewed Jonah Jim, who had a sighting in 2001, in which the
ropen flew towards Lake Pung. This native also chose the Sordes
pilosus, without knowing what sketch Jonathan Ragu had chosen.
Is it just one ropen on Umboi Island?
Yet with all that said, why would only one ropen live on Umboi
Island? The gigantic long-tailed featherless flying creature seen
over Perth, Australia, in 1997—that one appeared to be alone,
as did the apparent “pterodactyl” that was, at first, mistaken for
a plane near Indonesia. We have more direct circumstantial
evidence, however, on Umboi.
The two expeditions of 2004 (the first led by me, Jonathan D.
Whitcomb, and the second by Garth Guessman and David
Woetzel) led us to believe that at least a few hundred villagers
have seen the ropen's light at least once in their human life
spans. But all the reports of which we are aware were of a
single glow, never more than one flying light at a time.
What is more, we have additional indirect evidence suggesting
that the gigantic animals, described like pterosaurs in the south-
west Pacific, are seen flying as individuals. Besides the sighting
by the couple at Perth and the sighting by two former marine
pilots, who saw only one over the sea near the island of Bali in
2008, we have similar encounters by other eyewitnesses in this
area of the planet.
The American soldier Duane Hodgkinson saw only one huge
“pterodactyl” in New Guinea in 1944 near Finschhafen, and
Brian Hennessy saw only one large flying creature in New
Guinea in 1971 on Bougainville Island, and seven native boys
saw only one at Lake Pung around December of 1993 on
Umboi Island.
There are exceptions to the lonely-ropen rule. Late in 2006,
deep in the interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea,
Paul Nation videotaped two indava lights. In addition, I’ve read
of reports of multiple-creatures, pterosaur-like, flying in daylight.
But each such report I can answer with many reports of one
creature, especially the largest ones. Uncommon exceptions
confirm the general rule.
Giant flying creatures that many modern Westerners would call
pterosaurs—those may be the descendants of what were called,
in old times and in many areas of the planet, “dragons.” From
historical records and the traditions of people in South America,
North America, and Europe, they were solitary creatures, spend-
ing much of their time on cliffs or on mountains overlooking
water. I admit that this fact is but secondary evidence: The
many modern sightings, of a lone flying light or one flying
creature, on Umboi Island—that is more important evidence.
Searching for Ropens and Finding God may be the first
book written specifically about living pterosaurs observed
worldwide. This nonfiction was written by the American
cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb (in its 4th edition).
The “pterodactyl” observed in the mid-twentieth
century in Cuba (above) may be related to the
ropen of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea
Duane Hodgkinson, in 1944, saw what he called a "pterodactyl"
that flew up from a clearing near the city of Finschhafen (on the
mainland of what's now called Papua New Guinea). The wingspan
of the creature he estimated to be similar to that of a Piper
Tri-Pacer airplane: about twenty-nine feet.
copyright 2005-2017 Jonathan Whitcomb