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Why it’s Hard to Videotape or Photograph Ropens |
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Imagine that you’ve been given a school assignment to get a photograph of an automobile accident. You’ll have four months in which to obtain the photo but this must not be a staged or fake accident. It must not be of an accident that occurred before the project was given to you. The photo must be taken by nobody but you. Does this seem like a very difficult assignment? Is it feasible?
To honestly succeed in photographing an actual automobile accident, you would probably need to spend many hours a day for many weeks, waiting at some location where automobile accidents are known to happen. What if, after waiting five weeks at the intersection, an accident happens right in front of you, but you were not able to get the lens cap off in time to take the photograph of the accident? How would you feel?
The point is that photographing an event that is sure to happen may be very easy when we know when and where the event will take place. When we do not know the place or time, it is very hard. This is the case with research into the creature that some call ropen.
Be that as it may, many people on some of the islands of Papua New Guinea have seen these creatures. |
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With so many names, like duwas, ropen, wawanar, indava, and seklo-bali, this pterosaur or pterosaur-like creature may not be so rare. Why has the Western news media not yet been given a photograph or a videotape of this strange nocturnal “pterodactyl?” Are pterodactyls still flying around our night skies? |
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Cryptozoology and Pterosaurs, commonly called pterodactyls |
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Carl Baugh, of Glenrose, Texas, went to two or three remote islands in Papua New Guinea, in two light expeditions in the 1990’s. On one of these trips he was able to see, at a distance, what may have been the ropen, also known as duwas, wawanar, indava, and seklo-bali.
Paul Nation went on two light expeditions to one or two of these remote islands, but by the end of 2002, he had seen nothing that could have been the elusive nocturnal creature that’s described like a pterodactyl.
In 2004, three Americans visited Umboi Island and searched for the ropen. One of them saw the creature one night. This one sighting lasted for about two seconds and was from a distance. One interpreter had a similar sighting after the American had gone to bed. (another vague distant form)
At least one or two other Westerners have gone to one or two of these remote islands in search of the pterosaur-like creature.
Jim Blume, originally from the U.S., has been a missionary in Papua New Guinea for about thirty years. He has interviewed about 70 eyewitnesses of the creature. He has been involved in a little searching him- self. He has had only one sighting. It was of a vague light near a beach. Considering all the details, researchers believe this was a juvenile ropen or a similar type creature. This sighting by itself is hardly convincing evidence to skeptics, of course.
Considering that fact that so many people have gone to these remote islands, looking for the creature that they hope is a living pterosaur, and not one of them has ever claimed to have had a clear view of any- thing that resembled a pterosaur, it’s very clear they are not using any dishonesty to convince people pterosaurs are living there. If during these many years, one of them had the desire to lie to promote the idea that pterosaurs are still living, it would have been easy to say a pterosaur-like creature had been seen by one of them.
An examination of the efforts of these men reveals the obvious fact that they hope to show the world that pterosaurs still live. It just needs to be done honestly.
Do all these seeming failures indicate that the ropen is not a real creature? Why is it so difficult for a Westerner to see them? Let’s look at some reasons:
1) Ropens are nocturnal. For the most part, they come out when most people sleep.
2) These creatures are rare. As few as one giant ropen lives on Umboi (an island of about 900 square kilometers).
3) They live in dense tropical rain forests, for the most part. When they fly over- head, tree cover prevents a sighting.
4) Those local people who see them on a regular basis, often see a ropen only once a month. We believe these men are those who are out at night often. Westerners usually stay on an island for only a few days or for 1-2 weeks.
5) Several eyewitnesses indicate that this creature glows brightly for only about five to six seconds at a time as it flies. Even without tree cover and being in in the right place at the right time, you could have your back turned when it gives off the brief light.
6) On Umboi Island, the large ropen is seen often by many local people. It is unpredictable to some extent, how- ever. It flies from mountain to moun- tain and from inland areas to shores on both the north and south sides. It’s hard to predict where it will be.
7) There is not yet any firm idea about where it sleeps.
This last point may be important for future expeditions. If we can find where one sleeps, we can photograph and videotape it. |
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New book: Searching for Ropens (Quotation excerpts)
More about the book on living pterosaurs (Southwest Pacific)
Recent expeditions of Paul Nation
Charles Darwin in the pterodactyl book Searching for Ropens
Superstition as it relates to the living-pterosaur investigations
Bioluminescence and the ropen
Living Pterosaur links
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Paul Nation on Umboi Island |
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In June of 2007, the SciFi channel aired the ropen episode of Destination Truth, with host Josh Gates. They videotaped what appeared to be one or more “ropen lights.” According to the author of Searching for Ropens (Jonathan Whitcomb), these resembled the lights videotaped by Paul Nation a few weeks earlier but in a different part of Papua New Guinea (much more to the west). |
