In 2004, the American living-pterosaur investigator Jonathan Whitcomb explored part of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea,
and interviewed a number of native eyewitnesses of the large nocturnal ropen. Gideon Koro was one of those eyewitnesses.
copyright 2005-2017 Jonathan Whitcomb
Gideon was
Terrified by the Ropen
Gideon Koro’s Interview in 2004
Enlightening and dramatic testimonies in the book Searching
For Ropens and Finding God include interviews of a young
man named Gideon, who had been quite nervous when he
had been questioned in about December of 1993. Jonathan
Whitcomb, an American forensic videographer, interviewed
Gideon, on October 7, 2004, on the island of Umboi in Papua
New Guinea and confirmed the reliability of the young man’s
testimony that he saw a giant long-tailed flying creature when
several other boys hiked up Mount Tolo. Gideon was more at
ease during his videotaped interview in 2004.
Whitcomb, whose profession involved interviewing persons
on camera for attorney firms, found nothing in his interview
with Gideon Koro that suggested any dishonesty or any gross
errors in what this young man reported to him.
When asked about the ropen’s head, the young man replied
that he did not have a good look at it, yet he did see a series
of bumps or ridges, starting at the back of the head, and con-
tinuing over the neck, back, and tail.
Gideon told Whitcomb that the creature had a tail. The young
man answered “how long was the tail?” with an estimate of
“sefan meetuh” (seven meters or 23 feet long), yet he did not
answer immediately: He thought for a moment, gazing at the
ground and looking back and forth, apparently imagining how
long the tail was and how many meters it would measure. He
gave his estimate only after he had finished that process.
He had also mentioned gave an estimate of seven meters
when Whitcomb asked about the size of the wings, but the
American later realized that Gideon probably was thinking
of one wing alone. The word wings is almost the same as
the word wing, for that is how plural and singular forms are
constructed in English, with few exceptions. But Gideon was
not proficient in English.
Why did Whitcomb conclude, while later writing about his
interview with Gideon, that the native was thinking about
only one wing length in his estimate of seven meters? After
all, a flying creature with a wingspan of more than 45 feet
is unheard of among Westerners, except in fictions about
dragons. Several factors led to Whitcomb’s conclusion.
It was not just the possibility that Gideon might have mis-
understood, missing the significance of “s” in wings. The
overall proportions would have been too far off if the tail
length was equal to the wingspan. Duane Hodgkinson saw
a “pterodactyl” in New Guinea in 1944 and estimated the
wingspan to be in the vicinity of 30 feet and the tail length
to be around 10-15 feet, with an emphasis suggesting it
was more likely closer to 15 feet. In spite of that enormous
overall size, the ratio does make sense. It makes little sense,
however, for a flying creature to have a tail length equal to
the wingspan.
In addition, Gideon was videotaped in 1994, and he said
something about “ten or twenty.” The interviewers thought
he referred to the number of ropens he had seen, but on
closer examination of the video footage, it is much more
likely that he was estimating the overall size of the animal.
Since he uses meters, that would mean the total length or
the wingspan (which could be the same) could have been
around fifteen meters. That makes sense, if Gideon had
given Whitcomb an estimate of the length of ONE wing,
rather than the wingspan.
On top of all that, Gideon gave his approval to a drawing
that he and Whitcomb had made in the dirt, at the end of
the interview in 2004, and the tail length in that crude sketch
is not nearly as long as the total wingspan could be.
When talking about the tail, Gideon volunteered the word
“diamond.” A flange at the end of the tail suggests the ropen
is a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. The other two young men
who were briefly interviewed by Whitcomb confirmed this
“diamond” on the tail. Whitcomb did not suggest or bring up
the subject of a diamond-shape. The drawing that Gideon
made in the dirt (at the end of the interview session) didn’t
show anything that Whitcomb identified as a “diamond.” The
American concluded that Gideon made an oversight, leaving
out that detail when he drew the ropen.
From this and other eyewitness accounts and other sources
of information, Whitcomb concluded that there is only one
ropen living regularly in the interior of Umboi Island and
glowing at night and that it is a giant Rhamphorhynchoid
pterosaur, albeit much bigger than any discovered fossil of
that type.
Conclusion
Contrary to what some critics have said, the idea that living
pterosaurs still fly over some islands of Papua New Guinea
is not well countered by any reference to the large bat know
as “flying fox.” On the islands where there are accounts and
testimonies of very large long-tailed flying creatures, natives
are perfectly aware of fruit bats. They have another name
for this fruit bat, but natives of Umboi Island use the word
ropen for a larger nocturnal flying creature that is a predator
and a scavenger. The witnesses from this remote village who
describe the ropen they saw in the daytime, refer to a tail with
a “diamond” at the end. The flying fox has no tail in any way
resembling this description. And it does not attain nearly the
size of “seven meters,” regardless of what is 23 feet long.
Whitcomb interviewed Gideon deep in the
interior of Umboi Island. The native told
the American about the ropen that he and
his six friends had observed flying over a
crater lake (Pung) ten years earlier.
Gideon made it clear that they had seen
only one ropen on that day of terror.
Gideon agreed with the crude outline of
the head drawn by Whitcomb and he then
continued with his addition: bumps or
ridges beginning at the back of the head
and continuing along the neck and back.
According to the forensic *videographer,
Jonathan Whitcomb, who interviewed
Gideon, “I found this witness to be very
credible. There’s no reasonable alternate
possibility other than that this young man
honestly told me what he had experienced.
Two others, who were also present when
the sighting was made, upheld Gideon’s
account of the giant flying creature.”
(*certified court videographer) The ropen
is nothing like the flying fox fruit bats of
Papua New Guinea.
Take Gideon’s testimony in the context of
Western eyewitnesses of gigantic flying
creatures that have no feathers but do
have long tails. The animals are obviously
living pterosaurs.
Wesley Koro, brother of Gideon, was one
of the seven boys who were terrorized by
the huge flying creature they saw flying
over the surface of Lake Pung.
The ropen of Umboi Island may be
related to the long-tailed featherless
flying creatures seen in North America.
Lake Pung, where seven island boys had
a frightening encounter with a huge ropen
around December of 1993. (photograph
by Garth Guessman, 2004)
Support the living pterosaur investigation
of Jonathan D. Whitcomb by purchasing
your own copy of the nonfiction paperback
cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in
America (now in its third edition).
Another cryptozoology book about these
sightings of modern living pterosaurs