copyright 2005-2017 Jonathan Whitcomb
Opai Village and
the Giant Ropen
Objectiveness - living pterosaur on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea
The humble people of Opai Village, Umboi Island, greatly enjoyed
being videotaped by the American visitor Jonathan Whitcomb,
who interviewed some of them regarding their sightings of the
flying ropen light. Whitcomb and his associates believe it is the
bioluminescent glow of a modern pterosaur, called by some of
the Western eyewitnesses a “pterodactyl” (although some natives
of Papua New Guinea may call it a dragon).
Apparently, a nocturnal pterosaur
lives on Umboi Island
The villagers of Opai are happy to meet
visitors who come with some kind of an
introduction. They do not seek tourism;
for the most part, they do not even know
what tourism is, at least before about the
year 2017.
Some of the islanders of Opai have seen
the legendary ropen, as it flies over or near
the village on some nights.
One old man, Michael, saw the creature
long ago, as it robbed the grave of a man
who had recently been buried.
Most of the people of Umboi Island have
never clearly seen the form of the ropen.
Eyewitnesses usually see just a bright and
distant light. One few exception, however,
is the sighting by the young man Gideon
Koro, who comes from a village a few kilo-
meters northwest of Opai.
Glowing Flyover
Opai Village is a small community, one
kilometer from Gomlongon. What sets
this little settlement apart from the many
other villages in less-developed nations
of the world? It’s regular flyovers by the
ropen, a huge nocturnal flying creature
that is seen about once a month as it
passes overhead at night. How is it seen
in the dark of night? It glows brightly.
Islanders in other villages on Umboi—
they have also seen the ropen fly over-
head at night, yet Opai might be at a
place where the ropen flies more often,
at least according to sightings by Leonard.
On one occasion, Whitcomb warned the children of Opai to avoid
the ropen, although such cautioning was probably unnecessary:
Why would any of those children ever approach a ropen?
The ropen that flies over Opai Village may be related to the
flying “dinosaur” that children saw at Guantanamo Bay in
the 1960’s (Cuba). It was also seen by a U.S. Marine in the
year 1971, at that same area in Cuba. In addition, we have
many other eyewitnesses in North America and elsewhere.
For those who assume that living pterosaurs are only seen by “superstitious” natives, what
about Western eyewitnesses? What about Brian Hennessy, who saw a “prehistoric” kind of
flying creature on the island of Bougainville, New Guinea? Hennessy is now a professional
psychologist, not a person who would make up a story like that and report it publicly.
What about the U.S. Marine Eskin Kuhn, who reported two large “pterodactyls” that flew
at the coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 1971? Over the decades since that sighting, he
has been ridiculed by skeptics, at times, yet he continues to maintain the reality of what
he witnessed. Others also saw that kind of long-tailed featherless flying creature there at
the U.S. military installation in Cuba, in particular in the 1960’s.
What about the American World War II veteran Duane Hodgkinson, who in 1944 just west
of Finschhafen, New Guinea, saw a “huge” “pterodactyl” in clear mid-day light? He was a
flight instructor later in life, needing students to trust him with their lives, yet when did
he ever waver in his testimony that he had seen that giant flying creature in 1944? Was it
only a fruit bat? Nothing of the kind. Hodgkinson estimated the length of the tail was about
ten or fifteen feet, or in that neighborhood. That’s FEET, not millimeters. People depended
on that man to make observations accurately, for he was, in 1944, a weather observer for the
field artillery. He was interviewed numerous times by cryptozoologists like Garth Guessman
and Jonathan Whitcomb, and they believed his report.
Let us be objective in evaluating many eyewitness reports from around the world, when we
see similarities in the descriptions of the flying creatures.
The forest background photo (top of this page) is for the Objectiveness site in general and is unrelated to the forests of Papua New Guinea