R.K. (anonymous, at least for now) recently reported to me several things about the creature they call kor:

“I was born and brought up in Manus Island . . . there are lights swooping over fish shoals between rambutyo and lou baluan islands. Two years ago [on a boating trip] we . . . could see the lights soaring over us and heard flapping of wings . . . they did dive into the sea and then erupt out of it . . .” [too dark to see much]

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). Consider this excerpt of R.K.’s English-language version of the fight.

“. . . from the grandson . . . of the man who killed the creature [and later died himself] . . . [in the early 1960’s was] the last [human] death reported by this creature . . . the animal destroyed his canoe and [the fisherman] fought it with a traditional fishing spear. . . . The animals tail and jaws took a heavy toll as it followed him to shore where a sea cave runs into a crevice . . . Badly wounded . . . [the fisherman] wedged the spear into a crevice and took the animal through the mouth with the spear [killing it] . . . [The fisherman] crawled out [and] was found by villagers . . . He died three days later.”

Umboi Island (about 200 miles to the south of these islands), where I interviewed many natives in 2004, has a very similar creature that they call “ropen.” With one exception, no human death on Umboi has been attributed to the ropen, with one exception (there was no eyewitness of any attack, and there was no human body ever found; a “crazy” woman went into the bush looking for the ropen and never returning).

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

###

.

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!

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.

###

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.

.

For those who have witnessed something like a living pterosaur, the various names for those strange flying creatures are numerous: demon flyer, ropen, dragon, pterodactyl, dinosaur bird, etc.

Demon Flyer

Setting aside the legends and traditional beliefs about the ropen, some native eyewitnesses have seen it up close, too close for comfort. But the point is this: “Demon flyer” is not the literal interpretation. This phrase probably came about from one or more Westerners who were too-deeply impressed with the negative aspects of the legends and the spiritual connotation.

Kongamato and Ropen

Apparent pterosaurs have various names in various countries of the world; in the United States, we sometimes hear “pterodactyl” and “dinosaur bird.” Regardless of the label an eyewitness attaches to a flying creature, let’s examine some of those encounters, worldwide, especially the kongamato and the ropen.

Old Dragons in Great Britain

“The woods around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had . . . . winged serpents . . . An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago . . . said it was ‘no old story,’ invented to ‘frighten children,’ but a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were ‘as bad as foxes for poultry.’ This old man attributed the extinction of winged serpents to the fact that they were ‘terrors in the farmyards and coverts.’”

Pterodactyl

Are some pterodactyls still living? That idea is controversial, to be sure, for where is the photograph to prove such a bold idea? But wait a moment. What does photography have to do with it? Where is photographic evidence that every kind of pterodactyl became extinct millions of years ago?

Dinosaur Bird

The pterosaur is known by several names in the United States: “dinosaur bird,” “flying dinosaur,” and perhaps the most popular “pterodactyl.” In Papua New Guinea, it is known by many names: “ropen,” “duwas,” “indava,” and “kor.” But what shocks many Americans and Europeans are eyewitness reports that these supposedly “ancient” and “extinct” flying creatures are alive and well and even flying over our heads on rare occasions.

Although the word “dragon” does not usually come up, Australians sometimes see a giant long-tailed living pterosaur, regardless of the label put to it. The most famous sighting is probably the Perth creature, seen by a married couple who were taking a walk one evening in December of 1997, but similar flying creatures have been seen on the east coast and in the south.

Perth Pterosaur

“My husband and I both sighted a huge creature flying over a densely populated area, while we were out walking one night in Perth, Western Australia on the coastline around 10:30 pm . . . it had a ruddy reddish brown leathery skin . . . it had a long tail and a wingspan that we estimated at between 30-50 feet across. . . .” [correlates with Gideon Koro’s account]

“This creature was huge and never in my life have I ever seen anything that remotely resembled it until I found a page on Pterosaurs . . . My husband works in a scientific field and he observed it and took in much more about it than I.

“What we saw did not appear to have a long neck, at least we could not see it from the angle . . . yes, we believe it did have a tail, and don’t believe they were feet, but actually a tail . . .”

Modern Pterosaur in Australia

“In the early 1990s I was living in . . . South Australia. . . . [I] drove . . . out to Western Australia . . .  [to] see the outback. . . . stopped . . . set up the tent . . . [something] looked like an airplane, far away. . . . maybe a couple hundred feet [high]. . . . it got nearer to me, I noticed that the wings were actually flapping gently . . . no sound. It was getting closer . . . had a wingspan [of about] 15 or 20 feet. It got close . . . leathery . . . no feathers at all.”

Giant Pterosaurs in Australia – east coast, north of Brisbane

During his farm chores, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., he [a boy of about twelve years old] forgot something and had to backtrack. . . . at the door of a shed, he saw a large creature with wings. It was on the roof of the shed, just above the door where he had recently been standing.

The boy had a brief view of the body and wings of the creature. It was larger than an average man six feet tall, with wings that folded to the side and back . . .

The giant pterosaur of Australia may be related to the long-tailed Kongamato of Africa or the long-tailed featherless flying creature seen in Sudan, Africa. It may also be related to the ropen of Papua New Guinea, although it could be a different species, notwithstanding the ropen is sometimes described as being a giant.

Are Dragons Pterosaurs?

Are all fictional stories based upon people or animals that never existed? Let’s be careful not to rush to conclusions about dragons, for fantasies, though fictional, are often based upon some truth. The story of Little Red Riding Hood is fictional, but grandmothers and wolves are both real.

What do dragons and pterosaurs have in common? Celtic dragons had arrows at the end of their tails, which may relate to pterosaur tails. What about Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur tails? Are not dragon tails also long? Perhaps most noteworthy  are the wings: both pterosaurs and flying dragons have featherless wings.

The old engine groaned as the small ship turned north, just off the coast of the mainland of Papua New Guinea. We were mostly covered from the temporate nightly showers, as we gazed out over the sea. Natives gathered around as an old sailor told me about the giant flying dragon that his people call “wawanar.” Around Pilio Island, natives say that Wawanar “owns the land and the sea.”

“You try catch Wawanar?” The old man asked, smiling.

“No, I want to take photo.” I replied.

The sailor’s face showed doubt about me, not about the wawanar, but there was not much else to say, so most of the natives returned to their giant bed, a huge dirty tarp that lay over the cargo area of the ship. We were still hours away from Siasi, also known as “Umboi Island,” the home of the glowing ropen.

Who decides when a foreign word is translated into the English “dragon?” As my bodyguard-interpreter (Luke Paina) and I listened to the old sailor, no interpretation was needed, for he spoke a little English. But the English “dragon” comes to mind when a creature (legendary or not) is described as large, with wings and a long tail, and without feathers. Dragons, in various parts of the world, may be actual living creatures, modern living pterosaurs, in spite of Western indoctrination into universal extinctions of all of their species.

In Papua New Guinea, some of the words, among many languages, for the giant nocturnal flying creature is “kor,” “seklo-bali,” “indava,” “duwas,” “wawanar,” and “ropen.” Of course there may be more than one species, but the flying dragon of the night is not the giant fruit bat we call “flying fox.” The flying dragon of Papua New Guinea is often described as glowing, for the flying light is often all that is seen. But when it is seen clearly, up close, it has a long tail and no sign of feathers.

See also Marfa Lights of southwest Texas