Sightings of Apparent Living Pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea

Not all my family members agreed with my decision to explore a remote tropical wilderness in the southwest Pacific, but I felt sure of my course. I was a forensic videographer, and I would be the first American cryptozoologist with legal-video credentials to travel to Papua New Guinea in search of an elusive flying creature that natives call "ropen." Nevertheless, I don't blame people for doubting the wisdom of my quest: I would be searching for living pterosaurs.

After four plane flights from Los Angeles, I found a man in Lae, Papua New Guinea who could help me. (Luke Paina was originally a native of one of the villages in that area of the mainland.) He became my interpreter for the Tok Pisin language (he also became my bodyguard and counselor), and we took a small ship from Lae to Umboi Island (called by natives "Siassi"). My goal was to videotape one or more "ropens," which I believed were modern living pterosaurs. My expedition would eventually fail in its primary goal, but the concept of live "pterodactyls" would be confirmed to me, for I would succeed in finding and interviewing many eyewitnesses of the nocturnal flying creature. Many of those eyewitnesses I would videotape; I now firmly believe them.

Before the ship arrived on Umboi (Siassi), Luke and I met an old sailor who knew something about what we were seeking. "You want to catch Wawanar?" he asked. I assured him that we only wanted to get a "photo" of the flying animal. The old man told us that the dragon Wawanar is said to own the land and the sea; nobody can catch Wawanar.

I was not surprised that a native of Papua New Guinea would use the label "dragon," for that large flying creature of the night was famous for its mysterious glow and its giant size. I was also not surprised that natives of Pilio Island (the old sailor's original home) have their own name for the creature. But I had not expected to hear a story about it before the ship arrived at Umboi Island.

After the all-night voyage, we arrived at Lab-Lab, on the east coast of Umboi. After too little sleep on that ship, I asked Luke to get us into a guesthouse: We needed to be well rested before the next day's hike into the island interior. The next day, we took a banana boat to the south coast, at Opai Beach.

What a hike for me! Luke and the guides we had hired at the beach had no trouble carrying my luggage. I had trouble carrying the walking stick Luke had made for me. But we were met by villagers, and they helped us the remainder of the hike up to Gomlongon Village.

I was pleasantly surprised that Mark Kau (pronounced "cow") was expecting me. Paul Nation, the cryptozoologist-explorer from Texas, had written Mark many months earlier. (Paul was the one who made my expedition possible, for he told me what to do on the mainland and on Umboi, and what villagers to meet and what gifts to give to specific leaders of Gomlongon and Opai.) Mark led us straight through Gomlongon, without stopping, to his two houses, across the road from the medical hut (perhaps more like a large first aid station). He gave us the use of the better of the two houses, while he and his wife stayed in the older hut with their children. I was touched by their generosity, for they charged us nothing.

Luke and I eventually made two expedition treks into the jungle, nearly encountering, directly, the anger of villagers of Tarawe, yet never coming close to an encounter with a ropen; but that's another story. In Opai Village, we encountered friendly men, women, and children, and we interviewed eyewitnesses.

Michael was old enough to remember one night in 1949. In nearby Gomlongon Village, he witnessed what sometimes happened after a human grave was covered in leaves, before wooden coffins were used in burials. The brightly glowing ropen came down to that particular grave, soon after that 1949 burial; Michael saw the glow with his own eyes. In the morning, when the villagers came to the grave, they found it open, with no body. When he told me of this grave robbery, Michael had not doubt about what had happened: Ropen took body to mountain, to eat.

Most villagers of Opai who have seen the ropen see only a vague glowing form flying at night; sightings usually last only a few seconds. But David Moke witnessed how brilliant the ropen can glow when it chooses. (Like Mark Kau, he is both a village leader and a government official.) David and his friend Peter Luke were fishing over the reef one night, using a "diving torch" (waterproof flashlight) to put the fish "to sleep." Peter was under water and David was in the canoe when a brilliant flash of light lit up the canoe and everything around it; David could even see the trees on the shore by that light. After about five seconds, the light gradually dimmed until all was again dark. David never saw what created that light.

A few weeks later, after I had left Papua New Guinea and arrived home in Long Beach, California, two other Americans explored Umboi Island. They interviewed native eyewitnesses where I had not been: on the north side of the island. But they confirmed native accounts of the duration of the ropen light: only a very few seconds. I came to believe that those few seconds of brilliant light are all that the creature can produce until the secretion (or whatever it is) can be replenished for another blast of bioluminescent brilliance.

Since my 2004 expedition, I have written many web pages and blog posts on eyewitness testimonies of encounters with apparent pterosaurs, encounters not just in Papua New Guinea but in many areas of the world. Eyewitnesses continue to find out about my research and they tell me of their experiences. I have also written two nonfictions books and a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal of science. This is NON-fiction.

Jonathan Whitcomb, California