Native Eyewitnesses of Living Pterosaurs
Gideon was Terrified by the Ropen
. . . testimonies in the book Searching For Ropens include the interviews of a young man named Gideon.
(Gideon had been quite nervous when interviewed around 1994). In 2004 (October 7), Jonathan Whitcomb,
a U.S. forensic videographer, interviewed Gideon . . . he saw a giant pterosaur-like creature . . . years ago.
Eyewitness David Moke (also eyewitnesses Luke, Mesa, and Mark)
David Moke and Peter Luke . . . were fishing, using the local custom of attracting fish with a "diving torch." . . .
this waterproof flashlight can "put them to sleep." Moonless at 11:00 p.m., close to the reef, . . . as Moke
was paddling the canoe and Luke was diving, without warning or sound, the sea was lit up with a brilliant light. . . .
The light source was unseen.
Seven boys were terrified . . . they saw the ropen fly over a crater lake. On the remote island of Umboi . . . seven boys
climbed up to Lake Pung, just north of their village. Within a few minutes they saw the giant creature fly over the water.
The boys ran home in terror and the memory of that fear lasted for years.
. . . they met a young man who worked in the fields there. Jonah Jim related a sighting he had in which the ropen had flown
over not far from where his family sat one night. The brightly glowing creature had a long tail. Jonah Jim works not far from
Lake Pung, the same crater lake where Gideon and his friends saw the ropen. . . . [Jonah Jim] was shown many silhouettes
of birds, bats, and pterosaurs. From among them, he chose the Sordes Pilosus . . .
Garth Guessman and David Woetzel interviewed Leonard, of Opai Village . . . He sees the ropen fly over Opai about once
a month. . . . The creature flies from Mount Bel . . . and continues flying towards the sea.
[Jim Blume, Carl Baugh, and Paul Nation interviewed natives on Umboi Island.]