By the executive director of Animal Discovery, Jonathan Whitcomb

When this nonprofit was organized earlier this year, two of the three original members of the board of directors had direct experience in searching for living pterosaurs in remote areas: me (Jonathan Whitcomb) and Peter Beach.

In fact, the expedition led by Peter Beach and Milt Marcy in 2015 resulted in what may have been the first video footage of a living pterosaur being recorded in a remote jungle and carried back to the United States for distribution on Youtube and elsewhere.

I applaud the work of Marcy and Beach and delight in their success in getting back home safely to the United States with the video footage. Even though it was far below the standards we expect from the work of a professional wildlife photographer, they did not have the funds, on that expedition, to take with them such a professional.

Ropen Expedition #1 for the Year 2004

Many prayers were answered when I arrived safely back home in California, after my expedition on Umboi Island late in 2004. I was not able to see the nocturnal ropen during my two weeks on that remote tropical island, but I was able to interview many native eyewitnesses of the ropen.

Rex Yapi on Umboi Island

I have been delighted at the diligent work of Rex Yapi, a native of Papua New Guinea who had a sighting of a ropen near Umboi Island. For the past few years, he has spent countless hours on expeditions and efforts to promote living-pterosaur expeditions in remote areas of Papua New Guinea.

[to be continued]

By Animal Discovery founder Jonathan Whitcomb

We listen to you

Late April of 2021: A viewer of one of my Youtube livestream videos told me what his son suggested for living-pterosaur research: Sound recordings of these flying creatures could help identify them and where they fly, especially recording the audio at night.

Throughout the first few months of 2021: A few persons have come forward, asking how they might be able to see a modern pterosaur. I wish I could send them to places where it is likely that one of these flying creatures could be observed. Unfortunately, they are mostly nocturnal and at least very uncommon, if not rare, and it is usually very difficult to predict where one might be seen at any particular day or week. With that said, my associates and I are still trying to learn what we can about these amazing animals, and I hope to one day have a better idea about where they can be found consistently.

About the Ropen “Pterodactyl”

By the founder of Animal Discovery, Jonathan David Whitcomb

Since the year 2003, I have held a special interest in eyewitness reports of a flying creature that has become known as the ropen, what some persons have called a “pterodactyl” or a “flying dinosaur”. The word ropen comes from the Kovai language of Umboi Island in Papua New Guinea, although over the past fourteen years it has become known around the world as a word that refers to any modern flying creature that appears to an eyewitness to be a featherless long-tailed pterosaur, whatever word is used by the eyewitness. It is now obvious to serious researchers that the ropen is not confined to the southwest Pacific.

In 2004, I led an expedition on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, to search for what I thought at first were many ropens living on that tropical island. Within two weeks, however, I became convinced that only one large ropen lives permanently on Umboi, at least as the dominant territorial flying creature of its species on that island.

I was able to interview important native eyewitnesses of the ropen, although I failed to see the animal myself. This nocturnal creature rarely comes out in daylight, and the jungles are difficult to explore with so many square miles of dense undergrowth. Nevertheless, a few islanders have seen the ropen well enough to describe it clearly to cryptozoologists.

Within a few weeks after my return to the United States, two other Americans searched that same island for the ropen. They were able to explore areas in the north, where I had not been, and interview natives that I had not been able to contact. The expedition led by David Woetzel and Garth Guessman proved very important to the research in this narrow branch of cryptozoology.

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Long-tailed nocturnal ropens

Duane Hodginson’s description of the giant “pterodactyl” he and his buddy saw in 1944 demonstrates to recent researchers that the two soldiers had seen a ropen. That does not mean, however, that it must have been the exact same species as the ropen seen more recently on Umboi Island.

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Various nonprofit organizations

. . . Another organization, VIEM, uses plastic bottles for building houses in Mexico. Watch this video on house building. . . .

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Is the ropen real?

Sightings of apparent pterosaurs by various eyewitnesses and links to ropen expeditions by cryptozoologists like Jonathan Whitcomb, David Woetzel, and Garth Guessman, etc.

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Modern Pterodactyls

As far as I can see, it would have to be over 300,000 Americans, for anything less than that does not make sense with how many of them have contacted me about not only their sightings but about one or more friends or family members who have also had a similar sighting [of an apparent modern pterosaur].

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Ropen of Papua New Guinea

About a potential modern pterosaur on Umboi Island in the southwest Pacific

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