I was recently surprised while examining photos taken by my game camera. It looks somewhat like the tail of a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur:
The camera is set up near where an apparent ropen was observed this past June, in Southern California, so I cannot be blamed for thinking this might have been a small ropen, so close to the camera that the infrared light washed out the details. But a fraction of a second later, another photo was recorded:
The apparent flange (tail vane) at the end of the tail disappears, revealing a possum-like appendage. The second photo looks like a long leaf of a plant, I know, but I believe the motion blur that caused the first photo to present an apparent flange caused the second photo to appear like the middle of the tail is thicker than it is. The hook at tail-end, however, has a distinct possum flavor.
Possums are famous for walking along the tops of chain link fences; but since this particular fence is over twenty feet above the concrete floor of a storm channel, I will not demonstrate how that trick is done.
Of course with that washed out appearance from being too close to the infrared lights, I cannot be sure that was a possum. But watching all four photos taken a fraction of a second apart, I recognize a possum-like walk, and possums have been seen in this neighborhood.
Photographing possums in this location, however, is not totally irrelevant to investigating the June-2012 ropen sighting in this part of Southern California. One possible food source for a nocturnal ropen is a nocturnal possum.
An eyewitness recently made it clear that the flying creature she had recently observed had a long tail and a horizontal tail vane at tail’s end. I have interviewed this lady several times, face-to-face, during the past two weeks. She appears highly credible.