A Howling Ahool

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The ahool of Indonesia, a flying cryptid, is described by Michael Newton in his cryptozoology book Hidden Animals:

. . . the Salak Mountains of western Java reportedly harbors a winged cryptid known as ahool, in imitation of its distinctive hunting cry. Witnesses describe the ahool as having a 12-ft wingspan, a coat of gray hair on a torso the size of a one-year-old child’s, and a round head resembling that of a monkey with large, dark eyes. It is a nocturnal hunter, armed with long claws on its flattened forearms . . .

With limited eyewitness evidence for this flying cryptid (be it a living pterosaur or otherwise), it may or may not be related to other flying cryptids in this part of the world.

Vegetarian Pterosaurs Near Singapore?

[The two pterosaurs were] circling some tall palm trees (those with small orange coloured fruits) and then helping themselves to the fruits. They were making cries which sounded like squawking in the process. They were large . . .

My sighting occurred probably between the period 1958 – 1960 thereabouts when I was still a little kid. In those days we lived in a small village which was near a densely wooded area. Of course with the general development of Singapore to a metropolitan state it is today, the creatures, if they had propagated, would have [ventured] further south to the wilder regions to avoid civilisation (to ensure their survival).

Flying Fox Fruit Bat

These large bats, common in many areas of the southwest Pacific, have been suggested as explanations for reports of living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea; but most sighting reports of “pterodactyls” do not relate well to this idea, especially when the large flying creatures are described with very long tails. In addition, when a native sees something whose description strongly suggests a living pterosaurs, a fruit bat misidentification can be highly unlikely, in particular when that native is well aware of fruit bats (as most natives in these islands often are).

A few years ago, at an undisclosed location, several investigators saw many bats flying where flying lights were common. The bats appeared more numerous than the flying lights, and the cryptozoologists were sure of at least two kinds of nocturnal fliers. Since the lights are seen throughout the year, by the local land owner, I pondered why ropen-like creatures would be flashing so regularly. Catching-bats jumped out at me, far ahead of a mating-ritual explanation . . . pterosaurs eating bats. [quote from the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America]