Cryptid Eyewitness – Page 2 – Especially for the eyewitnesses of strange creatures

October 22, 2018

Important Ropen Sightings

A significant number of the eyewitnesses of ropens have given their real names, and most of them are still living, as of early 2018. Here is a list of sightings of these long-tailed modern pterosaurs, although this is only a partial list of the more important encounters, by eyewitness name, or by place if the eyewitness is anonymous:

Patty Carson

Her sighting was in 1965, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when she was only about six years old. She immediately tried to tell her family about the flying “dinosaur,” but they did not believe her . . . at least not at first. Within about a year or so, however, her sister saw what may have been the same species of pterosaur, and her older brother also had a sighting.

Brian Hennessy

In recent years, he has worked as a psychologist, making it less likely that he had any mental health problem when he saw the large long-tailed flying creature on Bougainville Island, New Guinea, in 1971.

Keep in mind that Mr. Hennessy did not use the word ‘pterodactyl’ while reporting his sighting to Whitcomb in 2006, but on the other hand he did not say anything that contradicted the possibility that it was a pterosaur.

Duane Hodgkinson

With his army buddy next to him, this American saw a “huge” “pterodactyl” in a jungle clearing just west of Finschhafen, New Guinea, in 1944, after all the Japanese military had left that area. The wingspan he estimated as similar to that of a small private airplane.

Gideon Koro

This native of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, was interviewed face-to-face by Whitcomb in 2004, in his village. He estimated the length of the tail of the ropen at seven meters. It was obviously no fruit bat. Gideon was one of seven boys who had hiked up to the crater lake Pung around late 1993 or early ’94. This sighting, by seven boys, was in clear daylight, as the ropen flew over the surface of Lake Pung.

Eskin Kuhn

This U.S. Marine saw two “pterodactyls” flying together at close range to Eskin and at fairly low elevation, in 1971, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Being a talented artist, he commenced sketching, from memory, those two long-tailed pterosaurs, within minutes of the sighting.

Lakewood, California (two eyewitnesses)

Two sisters each had a sighting of a long-tailed dragon-like flying creature, near the same backyard. Their sightings, however, were made with each sister unaware of the other’s encounter, and these views were in different years.

Sandra Paradise

This young lady saw a huge “pterodactyl” that flew in front of her car, while Sandra was driving east of Winder, Georgia, early one morning in August of 2008. She was shocked but quickly phoned a friend to report what she had encountered. She later reported her sighting to Whitcomb

Perth, Australia (two eyewitnesses)

In December of 1997, a couple was taking a walk between two residential neighborhoods, well into the evening, when they saw an approaching flying creature. Even at a distance, it looked huge. As it flew closer, it became obvious that it was indeed gigantic.

The husband, who was a scientist, estimated the wingspan to be between 30 feet and 50 feet. The tail was very long and the creature appeared to have no feathers. It may have had fine hair or small scales, but it was too difficult to make that out completely.

Susan Wooten

This young lady was driving on a major country highway in South Carolina, around 1986, when a huge long-tailed featherless creature flew in front of her car. She was shocked, as a number of drivers in other cars pulled over to the side of the highway.

Sketch by the eyewitness Patty Carson (sighting in Cuba in 1965)

A blog post by the investigative journalist Jonathan David Whitcomb

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New book on eyewitnesses (children & adults) of living pterosaurs

I quote from this nonfiction book, although this is a preliminary form of these sentences in this book, The Girl who saw a Flying Dinosaur [long-tailed ropen in Cuba]

Press release: living pterosaurs in North Carolina

Jonathan Whitcomb, author of nonfiction cryptozoology books, has suggested that flying creatures reported in Raleigh, North Carolina, over several years, may be related to what Americans in other states have reported to him over the past fourteen years.

Ropen sightings in the USA

The author Jonathan Whitcomb looks into a storm channel in Lakewood, California, near where a “dragon-pterodactyl” was reported to have flown in mid-2012.

Live Pterosaurs for Kids

Patty Carson was about six years old when she and her brother saw this animal. Patty is grown up now. She is a good artist and drew this picture of what she saw . . .

Pterosaur encounters in the United States and around the world

I, Jonathan David Whitcomb, proclaim that not only are not all species of pterosaurs extinct but more than one species is living, and they range in extensive areas of the planet. During the past fifteen years, I have received reports of apparent living pterosaurs from six continents, most of which reports were directly from the eyewitnesses themselves. [Direct accounts were received by Whitcomb from five continents.]

Nonfiction books about the ropen

From the author: “Both nonfictions include the two sightings in Cuba, encounters by Patty Carson (1965) and Eskin Kuhn (1971), both of which were at Guantanamo Bay. [The books referred to on this site are Searching for Ropens and Finding God and Live Pterosaurs in America.]

Not all pterosaurs are extinct

Many species of pterosaurs have lived on this planet at some time in the past. What evidence is there that all of those species have become extinct? NONE!

September 15, 2017May 3, 2019

Pterosaur Sighting by Scott Norman

By living-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

Ten years ago this summer (2007), the young cryptozoologist Scott T. Norman had a sighting of an apparent Pteranodon in Central California. I will not allow his encounter to evaporate from the memory of cryptozoology enthusiasts. He was a highly respected investigator, having gone on an expedition to Cameroon, Africa, in 2001, in search of the Mokele-mbembe, what some cryptozoologists believe is an extant sauropod dinosaur.

I think it’s time to say more about the sighting location than I have done in the past. It’s been ten years now, long enough, I think, for the explorers to have done their searching in secrecy. I will not reveal the precise location, only that it may be in the Fresno area of California. Scott Norman would probably have agreed for that general revelation to be made, since it’s been ten years since his pterosaur sighting. Chad Arment had already revealed the general location (Fresno area) in early 2008.

Scott Norman talks about his pterosaur sighting (about two days after the encounter)

Overview of Encounter

Sighting was at about 2:00 a.m.
It flew overhead, over a building and into a field
At least 8-10 feet in wingspan
The wings were bat-like
The flying creature had a head crest: at least two feet long
It flew completely silently
Sighting was for 15-20 seconds
Scott was the most skeptical of the observers
It looked like a pterosaur, but he was not 100% sure

Garth Guessman also lectured on living pterosaurs (2007, in California)

From Garth (at the same meeting in 2007)

Big flying creature in that area
Has a big head crest
Long tail has a diamond-shaped flange
Pterosaur-like wings

Missing Persons: Strange Cases in National Parks

One of the American national parks that has been long plagued by strange cases of missing persons is Yosemite, in central California. I doubt that it is only a coincidence that some of the eyewitnesses of pterosaurs in California have reported huge flying creatures.

I do not speculate that the apparent Pteranodon observed by Scott Norman, in the Fresno area of California in 2007, was one of the those that may have attacked people, but some of the apparent pterosaurs seen in this state seem to be even larger than the one seen by Scott.

Youtube Video on Pterosaur Sightings in the USA

Watch the following mini-documentary on these flying creatures:

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Scott Norman and the “Pterodactyl” Photograph

. . . the large sizes of apparent extant pterosaurs, reported by some eyewitnesses in North America, may be connected to some of the more mysterious missing-persons cases that have never been solved.

LDS Author Jonathan Whitcomb

Nonfiction dragons, or “pterodactyls,” as described by eyewitnesses around the world, beginning in Papua New Guinea . . . the “Bible of modern pterosaurs” . . . Searching for Ropens and Finding God [nonfiction book]

Scott Norman, Pterosaur Eyewitness

Scott T. Norman, American cryptozoologist and explorer, passed away on February 29, 2008, at the age of forty-three. He was a passionate investigator of cryptids, even taking part in an expedition in central Africa to search for the Mokele-Mbembe.

Missing persons and modern pterosaurs

Some of the strangest missing-persons cases may relate to a few individual animals of one species of ropen in North America . . . [a theoretical example follows] When a person is alone in a wilderness area in the United States, a large hungry ropen may attack, subduing the human by a mist or vapor that is debilitating when inhaled by prey.

Flying Creatures and Missing Persons

I’ve finished reading the nonfiction [book] Missing 411 Western United States & Canada, by David Paulides, an extraordinary book that brings up many questions.

May 11, 2017July 10, 2017

Civil War Soldiers With a Pteranodon

Whitcomb's nonfiction book about an old photo of a pterosaur

By the cryptozoology author Jonathan D. Whitcomb

Let me make this clear at the beginning: I do not proclaim that the animal in the Ptp photograph must have been a species of Pteranodon very similar to what has been already discovered, in pterosaur fossils, before 2017. Early in this year, the missile defense physicist Clifford Paiva and I came to an agreement, after a phone conversation, that the animal was a modern pterosaur. Yet we did not make any declaration, then or since, that it must have been extremely similar to some species of Pteranodon that is now known to scientists.

The photograph being discussed, now called “Ptp”

A vocal critic of living-pterosaur investigations

One skeptic has written a long online article, orchestrated to discourage people from taking living-pterosaur investigations seriously. It mentions the Civil War photograph but emphasizes every possible detail, that the writer could imagine, that could throw it into the most unfavorable light.

I don’t exaggerate when I call it a “long” article, for it contains about 13,000 words (only a small portion of it is about the Ptp photograph). Obviously I won’t be responding to all of it in this little post, but we can look at some of it.

“Giant Pteranodon-like pterosaur” in the photo

Those are his own words, that skeptic who wrote that long online attack against modern-pterosaur research. He may remove that sentence, should he eventually read what I here write, yet the point remains: After many years of writing and rewriting and refining his long online article, those were his own words, “giant Pteranodon-like pterosaur,” and he apparently was not quoting anyone else’s words. In other words, he got the impression that the image resembles that kind of pterosaur, at least in some way.

Not that he supports the idea that the animal shown in the Ptp photograph greatly resembles what is now known, from fossils, about Pteranodons. But he and others get the impression that it is like that kind of pterosaur, so let’s look briefly at his two lists of reasons he gives for how it is NOT like a Pteranodon. (I’ll not go over every item in the list, for Paiva and I are not contending that it must have been a Pteranodon.)

1) It has teeth, but Pteranodons were toothless

Look closely. The beak of that apparent pterosaur does NOT have teeth anything like Rhamphorhynchoid teeth. In fact those are not necessarily “large teeth” in the technical sense, but could very well be an irregular shape of the beak. And why should paleontologists have already discovered fossils of all the species of Pteranodon that ever lived?

2) The beak is the wrong shape

In the real world, beaks of flying creatures come in many different shapes, even in pterosaurs. In fact, it seems that there is no such thing as a wrong shape for a beak.

3) The head is “too small” (in comparison with the rest of the animal)

Perhaps this was a species of Pteranodon that has not yet been discovered, one with a smaller head. Maybe it is different enough that it should be classified as a different species of pterosaur. The point is this: It was a pterosaur. Remember that Paiva and I have agreed with the point made by this skeptical writer: The animal in the photograph gives one the impression that it was a Pteranodon.

I’ll go no further on this subject, for those two lists have little relevance. The animal was an obvious pterosaur.

Civil War soldiers in the photo

The skeptic mentioned missing fingers on the hand of one of the apparent Civil War soldiers. I have written extensively about this elsewhere, and it’s on my Youtube video “Introduction to the Old Photograph Ptp.” The skeptic said that it relates to “modern photo editing.” Nonsense. I’ve worked in animation and have experience with a number of software systems for editing images (including Photoshop). The only imaginable way those missing fingers could have come about through digital image processing, to the best of my knowledge, is ridiculous. It would require finding a photo with a Civil War soldier who had his hand out, as if holding a rifle, when HE HAD NO RIFLE. An image of a rifle would then be pasted onto that image, causing the ends of the man’s fingers to disappear. I feel sure that never happened.

How much better is the following explanation! The man was holding onto the ramrod of the rifle, with his finger tips. Since the ramrod is also not visible in the photo, we can assume it was, from the camera perspective, behind the body of the rifle. In other words, don’t be surprised that those finger tips are unseen.

If one were to look deeply into the origin of accusations of Photoshop manipulation, that person would most likely discover that the person responsible is not any kind of expert on digital image manipulation.

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Pterosaur news release

Two American scientists have declared that a photograph, that was previously assumed a hoax made through Photoshop, was not created through any digital image-manipulation trickery.

Civil War pterosaur photo

I had come to recognize witness credibility, as a forensic videographer, and I noticed that almost none of the natives mentioned anything about their superstitions or legends of the ropen. In fact, almost none of them had any clear sighting of the animal, admitting they had seen it only briefly and at a distance . . . with one exception.

The Bible and a photograph of a pterosaur

I just finished writing the nonfiction Modern Pterosaurs, which supports a Biblical timetable regarding the Flood of Noah [although this is not a religious book; it is in the nonfiction-cryptozoology genre].

Photo of a Pteranodon

I’ve recently been communicating, by emails, with a skeptic who has written much to persuade people to disbelieve in modern pterosaurs. Here’s part of what I told him in reply to a couple of his questions . . .

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Cryptozoology book Modern Pterosaurs

This new nonfiction book is subtitled “Human encounters with living pterodactyls.”

April 4, 2017July 10, 2017

Are Modern Pterosaurs Paranormal?

By extant-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

I’ve lost count of the number of radio/podcast talk shows that have interviewed me over the past twelve years; many of those shows are considered paranormal. Most Americans, and Westerners in general, would classify modern-pterosaur investigations as paranormal. I can understand that. But more than once I’ve encountered a paranormal explanation that involves something like a time tunnel in which a pterodactyl can fly into our time and space and then disappear from our modern reality; I’ve struggled to find words that express how displeased I am with that imaginative interpretation. Why are so many Westerners so averse to considering the obvious implications of worldwide sightings of living pterosaurs?

How deeply we have been indoctrinated into the assumption that all dinosaurs and pterosaurs died out many millions of years ago! Yet how rarely, if ever, has any scientist explained, in the media of television or widespread print, why all of their species must have become extinct so long ago!

From the introduction in the nonfiction cryptozoology book Modern Pterosaurs:

Take the time to insulate yourself against generations of indoctrination into the Western philosophy of total extinctions of basic types of life. Without protection, your skin will become numb, and your eyes, snow-blind. You need to know what people have been encountering around the world, before you can see clearly what’s in the Ptp photo.

In that same book, we read the following about the apparent Civil War photograph called “Ptp:”

The real “problem” in this photo of a Pteranodon-like thing is that the thing looks like a Pteranodon.

Skeptics say that fact proves it must be a fake; I say that fact, taken with the most credible testimonies of eyewitnesses, proves that the universal extinction assumption is a dogma needing to be put on a leash.

Conclusion

Why do so many Americans (and other Westerners) seem to take it for granted that all species of pterosaurs much have become extinct many millions of years ago? It comes from generations of deep indoctrination into the dogma of the universal extinctions of basic forms of life, especially dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

As a side note, the cryptozoology book Searching for Ropens and Finding God says this:

Some authors of paranormal books have served the cause of truth by including modern reports of these featherless flying creatures: Big Bird (Gerhard), and Bird From Hell (McIsaac). Even The Min Min Light, The Visitor Who Never Arrives, by Fred Silcock, enlightens us to the possibilities of bioluminescence in large flying creatures, although he writes only about owls.

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Why the Ropen is Real

Scientific methods may be used in researching and searching in cryptozoology, yet a cryptid, by definition, is not an animal being studied in a laboratory, by a science professor; it is a creature known more from eyewitness testimony.

Sense of Truth – Nonfiction Book

Look at a box of mac ‘n cheese or frozen chicken nuggets, the ones with tasty shapes of dinosaurs. Notice that some of those shapes have wings, like what many of us call pterodactyls. Did you notice the word prehistoric on the box? Now notice what small children are taught.

Ropen of Papua New Guinea

The credibility of these young men impressed Whitcomb (who was a forensic videographer at that time). Their demeanor convinced the American that they were telling the truth about the huge ropen that they had seen flying over Pung. The descriptions suggest that the ropen of Umboi Island is indeed a living pterosaur.

Pteranodon photo in Civil War

In addition, a scientist (Clifford Paiva, a physicist) has found a number of evidences for the authenticity of the image of the apparent Pteranodon in the older Ptp photo. These include consistent shadows under the boot of the soldier who stands in front of the animal, shadowing consistent with those found on and under the animal. In other words, no Photoshop manipulation was involved in pasting that soldier onto an image of an apparent modern pterosaur.

February 2, 2017July 10, 2017

Apparent Civil War Pterodactyl Photo

By modern-pterosaur expert Jonathan Whitcomb

Have you ever checked out two books from a library, finding one fascinating but the other boring? When the due date approaches, which one will you remember to return to the library?

The following photograph has been around for a long time. It may be the image that caught my attention around 1968, while I was browsing the shelves of a public library in Pasadena, California. Other persons seem to remember this “pterodactyl” photo from about that time. Perhaps it was in one of the old “Believe it or not” books, or something similar, from the mid-20th-century.

Figure-1: Apparent Civil-War Photograph of a Modern Pterosaur (Ptp)

Unfortunately, the two-books story is only symbolic. I do not have the old library book gathering dust on my book shelf and waiting for someone to open it and gaze at the above image. But the photo itself has been sitting around for a long time, visible online but not recognized for what it is: evidence for a modern pterosaur. It is now labeled “Ptp.”

The point is this: The accumulating fine is a delayed confirmation that people all over the world have not been crazy for seeing large featherless non-bat flying creatures overhead. Eyewitnesses in Western countries have mostly kept quiet, not wanting to be labeled “crazy” or “foolish.” It’s time to stop that accumulating penalty and take that image off the shelf.

Don’t confuse the Ptp Civil War photograph with the Freakylinks-TV-show hoax photo. That television series, on the Fox Network, aired from 2000 to 2001, and Civil-War reenactors were used to create an imitation of what is now called “Ptp.” Notice the difference in Figure-2:

Figure-2: Hoax reenactment on the left and the original on the right (click)

Evidence for Authenticity

Both photos have some origin in photographic recording. The Freakylinks hoax was staged with real men who were not really Civil War soldiers, and the photo was manipulated to look old, possibly through Photoshop. The other photograph, now declared to have a genuine image of a modern pterosaur—that one shows evidence of authenticity in more than one way. Detailed image-analysis by the physicist Clifford Paiva confirms my own examination: A recently-deceased modern pterosaur was indeed photographed.

Much has already been written, early in 2017, on this. Let’s take a look at two clues on the ground in front of the apparent Pteranodon. These would not be expected from a Photoshop hoax creation of a pterosaur model (digital, inside a computer) or from a physical model. They could be expected, however, if a real animal had been photographed.

What would we expect if a large animal had been shot dead by Civil War soldiers? Would the creature likely have fallen to the ground in a perfect location to be photographed: perfectly visible in a clearing? No, it would probably fall dead in a poor location. When the photographer arrived, however, he would ask the soldiers to drag the carcass into a nearby clearing, out from under the bushes or other hindrances to photography. Would not the dragging leave a mark on the ground? Quite possibly, if not quite likely.

Now click on the Figure-1 image. Notice the drag mark on the ground: from the lower right to near the end of the beak of the dead flying creature. Now look at the ground just in front of the wing on our right. Below the second soldier from the right is a broken-down little tree; it’s just in front of the wing.

Now combine those two pieces of evidence. To be properly photographed, a large animal would need to be dragged out into a clearing where it could be seen clearly and have sufficient light. Before getting to that final resting place, however, the small tree would have been broken down and leveled to the ground. It looks small enough that the sapling could have been stepped on to do that.

Notice that those two clues make much less sense if the soldiers had spent a lot of time constructing a physical model. In that case, the construction would have taken place in the clearing, with no need to drag the model anywhere. And that tiny tree would have been no real problem, hardly big enough to obscure the view of the model.

No consider the placement of the soldiers in Figure-1 (Ptp photo). Where would the photographer have asked the soldiers to stand? If it was a real animal, he’d want the men standing behind the body of the monster. If it was only a constructed model, however, they would have all agreed to stand in front of the fake dragon, especially placed for hiding the greatest weaknesses in their creation.

“What Happened to Pterosaurs?”

The following is taken from an old page I had published online many years ago: “A Weakness in Western Mentality.” I was afraid that it had become extinct when my web host discontinued service, but fortunately it was preserved. Here is part of it, partly revised:

It seems we have a conflict between reports of eyewitness encounters and “accepted” scientific ideas about pterosaur extinction. That needs careful evaluation. It’s unwise to summarily dismiss foreign testimonies simply because they seem to contradict popular assumptions of many Western scientists.

Accepting universal pterosaur-extinction blindly, without leaving open any door for objective investigation, is not scientific but smells of dogmatism. Such skepticism is not worthy to be associated with the word “science” unless there is some solid evidence for the extinction of ALL species of pterosaurs. There is no such evidence.

On the other hand, holding a skeptical eye to claims of pterosaur extinction is valid if there is a reasonable number of eyewitnesses of pterosaur-like creatures living alongside humans. The most recent estimate of eyewitness numbers is as follows (paraphrased from the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God):

Of the billions of persons now living, the number of those who have had some kind of encounter with a modern living pterosaur is quite possibly between 7-million and 128-million.

Conclusion

When taken in the context of countless eyewitness accounts of modern pterosaurs, the Ptp photograph must be examined with an open mind. Details in the image suggest a real animal was photographed. The resemblance of that winged creature to a Pteranodon is not evidence of a fraud but evidence that eyewitnesses around the world are telling the truth.

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Pterosaur in a Photograph

The photograph we’re examining here is called “Ptp” and has been around much longer. It was surely used, by the producers of Freakylinks, as a model for their crude imitation. . . . Ptp photograph, now declared to have a genuine image of a modern pterosaur

Ptp – Civil War Pterosaur Photograph

The photograph now called “Ptp” has been around for a long time, possibly in one or more books in the mid-20th century, according to a number of persons who report remembering it.

Don’t get Strung Along by the Smithsonian

Science writer Brian Switek, in an August, 2010, post for the online Smithsonian Magazine, titled his remarks “Don’t Get Strung Along by the Ropen Myth.” . . . [but that post has serious problems] Switek seems to have entirely failed to comprehend what is entailed here.

Civil War Pterosaur Photo

Pteranodon is a genus of pterosaurs that included some of the largest known flying reptiles. . . . For over 200 years, people in these areas of the United States have reported enormous birds.

May 17, 2016

Modern pterosaurs in caves

By Jonathan Whitcomb

A member of the Facebook group Living Pterosaurs of the World recently asked the following question (quoted here only in part):

“Would it seem likely to you that pterosaurs prefer to sleep in unexplored caves whenever they might be available? Perhaps the National Speleological Society might be helpful in locating unexplored caves. . . .”

This deserves attention, but it’s a deeper subject than one might suppose.

Part of the purpose of the National Speleological Society is “working every day to further the exploration, study, and protection of caves and their environments . . .” I doubt that they would be anxious to provide to non-members massive data on locations of unexplored caves. Inexperienced explorers often die or get injured or cause trouble for rescuers, and much of the cause is often from ignorance and an overly adventurous spirit. The wise course is usually to leave cave exploring to experts, unless you want to go through the ropes of learning alongside members of the NSS and become a member yourself.

Nocturnal Pterosaurs

Most modern pterosaurs, if not all of them, are at least mostly nocturnal. This includes long-tailed ropens, which appear to outnumber the short-tailed pterosaurs. This means they must be sleeping in daylight hours, at least for many of those hours. In the uncommon minutes when they are disturbed from sleep, they can sometimes be seen flying in daylight, but those are more the exception than the rule. These flying creatures are nocturnal.

So where do they sleep?

Dragons in Caves

We have many legends and stories of dragons that live in caves.

Dragon of Wawel Hill (Poland)
The dragon that lived under Varlaam Monastery (Greece)
“fire-breathing” dragons of Postojna Cave (Slovenia)
“Dragon Cave” in Richmond Township, Pennsylvania
The monk St. Beatus, who took over a cave from a dragon (Switzerland)
Love story of Jia yuan and Ai (and a dragon cave in China)
Dragon cave on Stansbury Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah

Of course any skeptic may take one legend and ridicule it, dismissing it as 100% fictional because of one or two fantastic declarations in the story. But it takes very little intelligence to be a complete skeptic. Can objective reasoning allow for the possibility that at least some of the legends may contain some truth? Of course.

The above list of seven caves is tiny indeed, but each of those caves has been associated with the word dragon. Considering how greatly they vary is location, we would do well to consider the possibility that not everything in every story has no origin in fact. We need to keep an open mind.

What is Needed for Sleeping?

Let’s get to the root of the problem: Where would you look for a safe sleeping spot in daylight? It would need to be out of sight, hidden from interfering intruders and nosy neighbors. What about a cave?

Would a pterosaur be attracted to a cave that is popular with humans? The last place a large flying creature would want to sleep would be where humans like to explore. Even if it’s not a dragon-slaying Beowulf, a human poking into a cave is bad news for a sleeping ropen.

In reality, just a shallow cave on a cliff will do, especially if its covered by brush or the foliage of a tree. What human would guess that such a hidden place even existed? And even if a human discovered it, from a flyover by a toy helicopter (with video camera), such a hiding place could be too difficult to reach for a creature with no wings.

Conclusion

When people think of a cave, the first picture coming to mind could be a huge maze of caverns like Mammoth Cave in Kentucky or Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. But when a ropen thinks of a cave, what comes to its mind? Perhaps a small outcrop of rock on a cliff or a culvert under a little-used road in a remote area of a desert.

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Fisherman fighting with a pterosaur

R.K. also told me about a fisherman who died after fighting off (and killing) one of the creatures; it seems that local natives believe the kor attacked the fisherman to eat him (larger kor are said to catch and eat young crocodiles and turtles). . . . it followed him to shore where a sea cave runs into a crevice . . . Badly wounded . . .

Japanese World War II ship shelled pterosaur caves

“. . . it was the japs [Japanese military] on the island who were attacked by the kor. They [Japanese soldiers] apparently shot several wounding them then followed them to cves [caves] and blew [blew up] the entrances. They called ships fire on the hills and pounded them for several hours.”

Live Pterosaurs

“In 1995 I had a very close encounter with something similar to a Pterosaur in southern Minnesota. . . . I headed down to ‘my’ fishing spot. . . . It was dusk by the time I decided to head back home . . . . an outcropping or a cave (. . . either a shallow cave or a deep outcropping) as I got near it I heard something … like clicking or tapping . . .”

Can Ropens Hide in Caves?

My associates and I believe that most, if not all, ropens are nocturnal. They are uncommon, if not rare, and are rarely reported in Western countries like the United States, for a living pterosaur contradicts generations of universal-extinction indoctrination. . . . So where might a ropen hide in daylight? On Umboi Island, some natives say that the ropen (or ropens) lives in a cave.

Ghost lights that fly in and out of mud caves in California

. . . they could be related to the ropen lights of Papua New Guinea, the Marfa Lights of Texas, and the glowing objects entering and exiting caves near a river in Oregon.

What about larger flying creatures . . . dragons?

After much searching, the team found a jungle cave, which Josh Gates entered. Human remains he found in that cave, but no ropen, fortunately. So what’s the point here? Natives have traditions that those large nocturnal flying creatures live in caves, and Mr. Gates was following up on a clue from what people have said, a common technique in cryptozoology.