I hope that no pterosaur was responsible for any of the human deaths in British Columbia, Canada, along the 500-mile stretch of highway from Prince George to Prince Rupert, but I also hope that all attacks from irresponsible humans, against innocent human victims, will cease, and that this world will become a paradise in which death itself will cease. Notwithstanding all our hopes for the future, however, we now face a present danger, a warning from Gerald McIsaac, author of Bird From Hell, who believes that “most of the hitchhikers [on this highway at night] who disappear have been killed by this animal. It is also my opinion that many of the people who have disappeared have not been reported.”

Chapter Eight, “Highway of Tears,” in Bird From Hell reveals, “Amnesty International estimates that since 1969, thirty-two women and girls, most of them Aboriginal, have disappeared along that highway.” Nobody denies that some women and girls in this part of Canada are victims of abuse at home and that some of them hitchhike on this highway, making themselves vulnerable at night. But the general human population, at least the Native Americans in one area of northern British Columbia, keep indoors at night to avoid the “devil bird,” and some eyewitnesses of that flying creature have been attacked by an animal with wings, when those persons have stayed outside after sunset.

Of course it is possible that aboriginals are superstitious and that all the missing persons, over the decades, who have walked that long highway at night were attacked by human rapists and murderers; that seems possible on the surface. But animalistic humans do not fit all the reported encounters at night in British Columbia, according to the book Bird From Hell.

What about the dead horse mentioned in that book? Much of its body was found by a tree. Of course ordinary non-human predators could be responsible, or so it seems. But why were parts of its body in the top of that tree, with some of the branches broken?

What about the girl in Kwadacha (northern British Columbia)? She was outside one dark night, when it seemed that “one of the boys” was spying on her. She was big for her age, and decided to teach him a lesson by charging him. At the end of the charge, she came to a stop. It was not one of the boys . . . She was facing a creature that she later called the “devil bird.” It released a “cloud of smoke” and flew away. Whatever the species of that flying creature, pterosaur, whatever, it was not one of the boys or one of the animalistic humans who have attacked girls on the Highway of Tears.

I don’t believe everything that I’ve read in Bird From Hell, but other cryptozoology books mention “pterodactyl attacks,” even when a different name is used for the flying creature. Take one account in the pioneering nonfiction On the Track of Unknown Animals, by Bernard Heuvelmans:

Coming straight at me only a few feet above the water was a black thing the size of an eagle. . . . its lower jaw hung open and bore a semicircle of pointed white teeth set about their own width apart from each other. . . .  And just before it became too dark to see, it came again, hurtling back down the river, its teeth chattering, the air “shss-shssing” as it was cleft by the great, black, dracula-like wings. . . . the brute made straight for George. He ducked.

Those are the words of the well-known biologist-explorer Ivan T. Sanderson (1911-1973). Within minutes, a large flying creature had dived straight at a human twice; I would call that behavior “attacking.”

I have read other reports of early-to-mid twentieth-century attacks, in Africa, from pterosaur-like flying creatures; but in late-2004 I did more than read: I led a small expedition on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, where I interviewed an old villager who encountered a strange flying creature. Micheal told me that he had witnessed, in 1949, the glowing ropen one night, when it dug up and carried away a human body that had just been buried in a grave in Gomlongon Village. I would not call that behavior “attacking,” for the man was already dead, but it was extremely rude to the family and friends of the deceased. If I were a resident of Umboi Island, I would not allow my children to wander too far, alone at night. And if I were a resident of northern British Columbia, I would avoid a long walk at night.

Ropen: a Demon Flyer?

. . . a brief Google search makes me suspect that the island of ”Rambunzo,” by that spelling, does not exist in Papua New Guinea; perhaps it is a misspelling, for the first few pages of Google searching refer [only] to cryptozoology sites and Wikipedia has nothing by that spelling. But if this is a misspelling of “Rambutyo,” (near Manus Island) we need to consider what at least some of the people of the northern islands of Papua New Guinea call the large nocturnal flying creature : “kor.” My contact person in that part of PNG is clear about that word for what Umboi Islanders (to the south) call “ropen.” “Kor” is their word, which I suspect is used by the people of Rambutyo.

That post gives many more details on this use of the phrase “demon flyer” in referring to the flying creature that is called by a number of names in Papua New Guinea. I’ll add here what was left out there.

On Umboi Island, at least some of the villagers have a different perspective on the concept of spiritual beings, at least different from many Americans. An intelligent being need not be either 100% spirit or 100% physical. The ropen of Umboi, according to Darius (who recited native traditions to the American explorer Paul Nation, in 2002), is like a spirit but also like a man. It flies around at night and sometimes comes down from a mountain to hunt game animals. To many islanders, this being may appear to be both spiritual (flying) and human (hunting animals for food).

In addition, natives may have a more complex concept of spirits than most Westerners have. A spirit, to them, need not be either 100% good or 100% bad. In that sense, at least, “demon flyer” seems a poor translation for a word that probably does not have a purely negative connotation for them.

Addendum

Marfa Lights Explanation

We need to consider the apparent intelligence in the movements of those CE-III Marfa Lights, for sometimes some things are exactly as they appear to be, in this case, intelligent.

The third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America (published in this version in November of 2011) is available on Amazon.com and from some other book sellers.

From the third paragraph of the back cover:

Americans, for years, have reported obvious living pterosaurs, with sightings in Washington state, California, New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Kansas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Missouri.

Please excuse the repetition, but we also need to review some of the names for modern pterosaurs (English-language and otherwise):

Pterodactyl, dragon, flying dinosaur, prehistoric bird, dinosaur bird, ropen, indava, seklo-bali, wawanar, kor

Exploring Papa New Guinea

The following four Americans have explored in Papua New Guinea, within the past eleven years, searching for living pterosaurs in remote tropical rain forests. This is not an all-inclusive list but few other cryptozoologists, if any, have given nearly so much of their time in this kind of search. I list these adventurous explorers in order of when they first interviewed eyewitnesses in Papua New Guinea.

Paul Nation

This expert in ratites (flightless birds like ostriches) first became involved in ropen searches by accompanying Carl Baugh (who no longer searches for living pterosaurs) on an expedition on Umbi Island, PNG. In 2002, Paul took his son Nathanael to Umboi, where they talked with many natives but saw no ropen.

Paul was instrumental in helping organize the two ropen expedition of 2004, both of which were searches on Umboi. He was unable to go along that year but had his own expedition with Jacob Kepas, late in 2006, deep in the mainland of Papua New Guinea. That expedition resulted in one daylight sighting of a giant indava by Kepas and several nighttime indava-light sightings by Nation. The video footage recorded by Nation in 2006, showing two glowing objects near the top of a ridge near Tawa Village, was found to be strange: not any camp fires or airplane lights or flash lights or meteors any other commonplace explanation.

On the sideline, the indava lights are seen just south of the area where the British biologist Evelyn Cheesman saw strange flying lights in the 1930′s. But the duration of the lights Cheesman saw relate more closely to the ropen lights of Umboi than the indava lights, even though Umboi is further away and in a different environment (coastal reefs for ropens to fish rather than deep jungle interiors).

Jonathan Whitcomb

With the advisory help of Paul Nation, Whitcomb was able to embark on his own expedition on Umboi Island, in 2004. Like David Woetzel, he eventually wrote a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal of science, on this subject. Whitcomb has written two books (in multiple editions) and about a thousand web pages and blog posts on living pterosaurs. A few of his web pages are non-English including French, German, Hungarian, Spanish, Japanese, and Polish. He receives emails from eyewitness from around the world and may be the world’s leading expert in worldwide sighting reports. He may be the only cryptozoologist who devotes anything close to a full-time effort, six days a week for eight years, to the subject of living pterosaurs. His controversial ideas have been noted in various newspapers, mostly American, including the Houston Chronicle.

Garth Guessman

With David Woetzel and native Jacob Kepas, Garth Guessman explored Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, searching for ropens. Just a few weeks after the Whitcomb expedition, these three explorers interviewed many islanders, most of whom had not been interviewed by Whitcomb.

According to Creationwiki:

Guessman’s knowledge of Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur fossils allowed him to notice an important clue about the ropen‘s classification [being the same kind of flying creature]. [Guessman and Woetzel] learned that the native traditions describe the ropen‘s tail as being stiff, never moving except near where it connects to the body. Guessman recognized that this relates to the stiffening extension rods of Rhamphorhynchoid vertebrae: all but a few vertebrae are locked into stiffness; the few that are flexible are near where the pterosaur’s tail connects to the body.

Guessman has lectured in church and creation-association meetings and continues to support the concept of modern living pterosaurs and their relevance to the origin of life.

David Woetzel

Cameroon Expedition in Africa

They call it li’kela-bembe, and they revere it for its fierce reign over the Boumba river. They have never told a soul about this muscled beast that feasts on molombo fruit and pummels crocodiles with its serpentine tail – because nobody ever asked.

Nobody, that is, until last November, when Concord businessman David Woetzel went crashing through the virgin forests of Cameroon on the trail of this much-rumored but ever-elusive modern-day dinosaur. Now, thanks in part to Woetzel, this mysterious li’kela-bembe may be roaming into range of a camera lens for the first time.

But David Woetzel has searched jungles other than in Africa and for creatures other than dinosaurs (pterosaurs are scientifically classified as being seperate from dinosaurs). Although he never saw the dinosaur in Africa, he did see the ropen light in Papua New Guinea.

Woetzel Sees the Light on Umboi Island

“My sighting was so quick that it was impossible to get a video—maybe 2 seconds  . . . almost golden and shimmering around the edges. It looked like an old-fashioned street light in the fog. There was no tail and it was flying horizontal from  Mt. Barik toward  Mt. Tolo.” (Woetzel was interviewed by Jonathan Whitcomb soon after this sighting)

Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition of the nonfiction book by Jonathan David Whitcomb)

About eyewitness accounts of living pterosaurs, Jonathan Whitcomb has written more books, more web pages, and more blogs than any other person on earth. . . . After interviewing many natives [on Umboi Island, in 2004], he returned to the United States convinced of the identity of the ropen: a living Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur; but he did not return to his former profession: He became a writer, proclaiming to the world that pterosaurs are still living.

Author Tracks Pterodactyls Among Us

Matt Coker, in a December, 2010, post on a blog for a California newspaper, mentioned my conjecture about the Marfa Lights of southwest Texas (I’m still not nearly 100% certain about bioluminescent pterosaurs causing some of the Marfa Lights; we need more close-sightings).

Jonathan Whitcomb is actually based in Long Beach, where as a cryptozoology author he offers an explanation of the mystery lights of Marfa, Texas, and Papua New Guinea. Human inhabitants in both places have observed in the sky balls of light that seem to split into two, fly away from each other and then turn around and fly back together.

Such sights have produced legends about dancing devils or ghosts and scientific explanations involving lightning or earthlights. Whitcomb has a far different explanation: bioluminescent predators flying together . . .

Of course the subject of flying predators causing CE-III Marfa Lights is a deep subject, too deep for most news articles.

Live Pterosaur Media Center

This online “media room” or “press room” makes it easier for news writers to gather together the information and images they need regarding sightings and investigations of apparent living pterosaurs.

Contrary to what many paleontologists believe, some cryptozoologists, including Jonathan Whitcomb of Long Beach, California, believe that one or more species of pterosaurs are still living, although most, at least, seem to be nocturnal and uncommon. For eight years, Whitcomb has gathered and analyzed eyewitness reports from around the world, including North America. He has concluded that a number of species of pterosaurs still live on the earth.

Orang-Bati of Seram Island

The kor of the northern islands of Papua New Guinea have also been said to attack people, especially in the past. This nocturnal glowing creature is probably closely related to the ropen of Umboi Island, if it isn’t actually the same species. They are thought to be pterosaurs.

Pterosaurs around Singapore

Also west of Papua New Guinea, the “vegetarian pterosaurs” of Singapore fly, or at least are reported to have flown many years ago, according to an eyewitness who contacted me a few months ago.

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).

Live Pterosaurs

Perhaps the first web site, or series of web pages, devoted to being used by the new media, “Live Pterosaurs” makes images and text available for unrestricted use by the media.

In a 2009 press release, the cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb estimated that at least 1400 Americans have seen a living pterosaur between 1980 and 2008. After a number of cryptozoologists objected to the speculative nature of his estimate, Whitcomb maintained that sightings are far more common that the few news reports, in the late twentieth century, would suggest. . . .

Acknowledgements in a recent cryptozoology book includes, “I give special thanks to Duane Hodgkinson, whose unflinching testimony gave birth to modern living-pterosaur investigations. His account of the 1944 sighting on the mainland of Papua New Guinea helped inspire Carl Baugh’s first expedition of 1993. Ignoring previous ridicule from those who would not listen, Hodgkinson told us of his experience, helping prepare the way for many expeditions . . .”

. . . 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]

Scientific Analysis of Paul Nation’s Video

. . . Ropen lights (or indava lights) are not caused by fire, airplane lights, or meteors.” Analysis, by the physicist Clifford Paiva, regarding Paul Nation’s video footage of two indava lights observed near the top of a ridge deep inthe interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, late in 2006.

The guided missle cruiser USS Joett, years ago, had an encounter with what may have been a giant ropen one night, somewhere between the southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

With a fellow cryptozoologist, some time ago, I interviewed a man who had been a sailor on the U.S.S. Jouett (guided missile cruiser), CG-29. He told us about the night when he was surprised by an excited shipmate who summoned him out of his bunk. Many sailors had just witnessed a giant “pterodactyl” that had flown directly over the ship.

Victoria, Australia Sighting

. . . near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 [kilometers] east of Melbourne. . . . around the late 1990′s . . . I saw . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here . . . This thing was at least as large as . . . say a Cesna. . . . lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. Very strange . . .

Giant Living Pterodactyl in New Guinea

Duane Hodgkinson . . . was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea. After he and his buddy walked into a clearing, they were amazed as a large creature flew up into the air. The men soon realized that it was no bird that started to circle the clearing. It had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long,” (book Searching for Ropens, 2007) and a long appendage at the back of its head . . .

Jonathan David Whitcomb, a forensic videographer, interviewed Hodgkinson, in 2004, and found his testimony credible.

Georgia Pterosaur (from the cryptozoology book Live Pterosaurs in America)

The lady . . . had been trying to find someone who might help her verify the existence of the strange animals that she had seen twice in the past few weeks. . . . Her first sighting was at 7 a.m., the second, 9 a.m., with both mornings overcast. . . .

Fifteen miles of her commute is on a two-lane 55-mph road through woods alternating with pastures . . . on August 27, 2008. She had woken up early and could not get back to sleep, so she left her house at 6:45 a.m., with the sky still overcast from the last remnants of [a] storm. . . . She had driven less than ten miles, just leaving an area of pasture, entering an area of thick woods . . . when an animal suddenly flew from the right, just over the front of her car. Although alone, she yelled, “What the — what — what is that?” She was stunned.

. . . It was the tail; she looked up at a “very long” tail that had a strange shape at the end. . . . a thick almost-heart-shape at the end of the tail . . . “Dive-bombing my car,” is how she described the flight path, as it crossed the highway in front of and slightly above her. “Curved, like a hammer,” is how she described the head, which had a crest that she thought was “solid, not feathery at all.” . . . a smoothly curved head crest.

Obviously what the lady saw near Winder, Georgia, in the summer of 2008, was no Flying Fox fruit bat, even if that species of Megabat lived in Georgia, which it does not. So what about sightings in Papua New Guinea, where those bats live in great numbers?

Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen

The cryptid seen in New Guinea, by Duane Hodgkinson in 1944 and by Brian Hennessy in 1971, I have named “Hodgkinson-Hennessy Ropen.” Similarities between the descriptions given to me by these two eyewitnesses struck me as too much for coincidence. . . .

. . . these different lengths of head crest I believe fall within the range of eyewitness error. In other words, the creatures observed by these two men could very well have had the same length of head crest (relative to the size of the head) . . .  it seems likely that the species is the same for the 1944 and 1971 sightings.

Both Duane Hodgkinson and Brian Hennessy were struck by the long pterosaur tail . . .  in a manner of speaking, and Hodgkinson was close enough to make an estimate of tail-length: “at least ten or fifteen feet.” It was obviously not any Flying Fox fruit bat.

Eskin Kuhn Pterosaur Sighting

Her sighting [Patty Carson] confirms the credibility of the eyewitness Eskin Kuhn, who long ago reported his 1971 encounter. But Patty saw a similar creature in 1965 . . .

Kuhn sketched what he had seen, soon after his sighting (obviously no fruit bat):

The black Hornbill bird, Anthracoceros malayanus, lives in Southeast Asia, in particular in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The following photo, taken in Malaysia, may be that species; at least it appears to be some type of Hornbill. 

It seems highly unlikely, however, that the above bird could be mistaken for dark-colored featherless flying creature with a long tail. It is a dark-colored feathered bird with a wedge-shaped tail. But other birds actually have long tails, including the oceanic Frigate Bird.

Five species of Frigatebirds fly over the warmer areas of oceans. Some of them have been mistaken, by Westerners, for the ropen of Papua New Guinea, which is reported to have a long tail. But the tiny head of the Frigatebird is close to the body, making its silhouette quite different. Notice the one on the right, with hardly any of the head visible. Now compare it to a sketch of the Gitmo Pterosaur.

Eskin Kuhn, in 1971, at the Guantanamo Bay military installation in Cuba, sketched the two pterosaurs he had personally observed one clear day.

Notice the enormous head of the Gitmo Pterosaur. Also, notice the shape of the wing and the structure at the end of the tail and the obvious featherless appearance. This flying creature is obviously not a Hornbill bird and obviously not a Frigatebird.

This sketch was drawn, by the eyewitness, within hours of the sighting. In addition, Kuhn provided us with many paragraphs describing the overall experience, including many details about the appearance and the flight of the two creatures, which were seen at close range. He has stood by his testimony for decades, in spite of criticisms from skeptics. In 2011, his account was supported by a new eyewitness who had observed the same kind of flying creature at the Guantanamo Bay station; that new eyewitness recently learned about Kuhn’s sighting and has now come forward with her account of a sighting just a few years before Kuhn’s.

 But what about those birds that have long legs and hold their legs behind them in flight?

The American Flamingos on the right have long legs, making it possible for some eyewitnesses to mistake those legs for a long tail. Indeed, the end of the legs even looks like the tail-end of a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. But what about that extremely long neck? And what about the shape of the head and the shape of the wings? Even if the Gitmo Pterosaur were pink, a flamingo it is not.

Long tails (or apparent tails) alone do not necessarily mean what you have seen is a pterosaur; but a pterosaur head crest with a Rhamphorhynchoid tail and an obvious lack of feathers—that means you have probably seen a living pterosaur.

Sighting From U.S.S. Jouett

From the post “‘Pterodactyl’ Flies Over Military Ship”

With a fellow cryptozoologist, some time ago, I interviewed a man who had been a sailor on the U.S.S. Jouett (guided missile cruiser), CG-29. He told us about the night when he was surprised by an excited shipmate who summoned him out of his bunk. Many sailors had just witnessed a giant “pterodactyl” that had flown directly over the ship.

I was one of the two cryptozoologists who interviewed, by telephone, the former sailor. The man we interviewed, however, was not himself an eyewitness, for he got up topside right after the creature had flown away. His shipmates, however, told him about the giant “pterodactyl.” The captain told everybody to keep quiet about that word, and to only mention it was something unidentified.

Boat Attacked by Pterodactyls near Samoa

This comes from “Dudlow,” who comments on July 21, 2006:

. . . back in the early 1960s off the Samoan Islands. Hairless and featherless . . . a ‘flock’ of these 20-foot+ wingspanned ‘birds’ came in high over their sailing vessel around the same time each evening for several days . . . These screaming furies would circle lower and lower and then make strafing runs low over the hull of their vessel. My friends had to retreat with their children into the cabin for protection . . . They called them pterodactyls, for lack of any better term. And they really didn’t like talking about or retelling this truly weird experience.

Two Glowing Pterosaurs in the Caribbean

A lady who . . . had taken a cruise on the Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. On about the second day of their cruise, between about 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., her daughter called her to come out to the balcony to “see something weird.”

 ”The minute I stepped onto the balcony, I knew exactly what she wanted me to see. Off in the distance were two very, very large, pink/orange flourescent birds flying behind each other. They looked like the flying dinosaurs, I forget what they are called. They would fly towards the ship, then back out to sea, then fly together in tandum then make a sharp right, away from the ship and disappear into the night. Then they would return.”

Japanese World War II Ship Shelled Pterosaur Caves

“. . . it was the japs [Japanese miliary] 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.”