Last month, I learned about multi-eyewitness sightings of flying lights in the northwestern United States, lights that the observers believe are bioluminescent pterosaurs, possibly ropens. Its seems these lights fly over at least two rivers in this part of the country and near one particular river the lights enter and exit nearby caves.

Where Might Ropens Hide?

My associates and I believe that most, if not all, ropens are nocturnal. They are uncommon, if not rare, and are rarely reported in Western countries like the United States, for a living pterosaur contradicts generations of universal-extinction indoctrination. In third world countries where similar flying creatures are known to fly, people have no problem with their existence, unless a ropen steals a family pig.

(By the way, from one experience I had on Umboi Island, during my 2004 expedition in Papua New Guinea, when a native in Gomlongon village shoots off his gun in the air and yells at his neighbor, it’s not because the ropen is accused of stealing a family pig.)

So where might a ropen hide in daylight? On Umboi Island, some natives say that the ropen (or ropens) lives in a cave. Yet a deep cave in a cliff is not necessarily essential for a sleepy ropen who needs a safe bedroom for daylight napping. For a small ropen, why not a hole in a rock, just a modest little cavity?

Rock formation in Neffs Canyon, Utah

Caves in the United States

In the 48 contiguous states, according to one source, we have about 45,000 known caves; a Fox News report says, “55,500-plus.” Keep in mind, these are the officially discovered caves in the 48 states.

So how many undiscovered cave entrances may there be? To the point, how many cave entrances, in the Unites States, may be available to a ropen but be unknown to any human? Probably countless thousands. Those entrances may greatly exceed the number of ropens flying at night over the vast stretches of land of our country.

A cave probably better known to humans than to ropens

Prime Real Estate Caves for the Ropen

It need not have dozens of rooms or running water or the most fashionable stalactite vaulted ceiling, as long as the doorway is hidden from the neighbors. Ropens can fold up their wings, remember that, and not all of those featherless flying creatures are gigantic. A small hideaway room on the side of a cliff is better than being homeless.

Getting to the point, countless hiding places exist, in the USA, places where a wild animal can hide with no fear of any human interference, and this abundance refutes the careless statement of one skeptic who felt sure that no large flying creature could exist in the eastern United States without becoming officially discovered by scientists. His question was some like this: “Where could the creatures nest?” Maybe that skeptic has lived his whole life cramped up in a city apartment, I don’t know. In reality the potential nesting spots across North American, spots humans hardly ever find and would not recognize if they did—those potential spots could number in the billions, if ropens were very careful about concealing nests and they were built both inside and outside caves.

Reporting a Dragon you Found in a Cave

Now for the lighter side of these flying creatures.

So who do you call when you find a dragon sleeping in a cave you’ve explored? Forget about the fire department. And after my own experience with the Lakewood, California, sheriff’s office . . . well, forget about calling the police. In fact, there’s hardly anybody you can call except me.

Now for the next problem. When do you report the encounter? If it’s the worst possible timing, wait at least one day to report the dragon in the cave, at least until April 2nd. The next worst timing is right after a particular kind of movie comes out, and I’m thinking about The Desolation of Smaug. . . . Actually there is no best time to report a dragon that you discovered in a cave.

If you’ve seen the Disney film Pete’s Dragon, you know not to take your friend back to the cave after the two of you have been drinking. But then there’s another problem: convincing people that the two of you had not been drinking.

So if you live in the United States, how do you report your encounter with a dragon in a cave? Most important, try using the word ropen, rather than dragon. And if at all possible, try watching the cave entrance until the flying creature exists or enters it, for then you can report that you saw it in a particular location, perhaps letting somebody else tie that location to the cave entrance. The best option is easier: Contact me.

###

Dragons and Pterosaurs

Before the ship arrived on Umboi (Siassi), Luke and I met an old sailor who knew something about what we were seeking. “You want to catch Wawanar?” he asked. I assured him that we only wanted to get a “photo” of the flying animal. The old man told us that the dragon Wawanar is said to own the land and the sea; nobody can catch Wawanar.

.

On the subject of a modern pterosaur, I have done only a little reading about sightings in Europe, but I know that some cryptozoologists have researched this subject: David Woetzel in the U.S.A. and Richard Muirhead in England.

I have not yet had the pleasure of reading the book published in 1909 by Marie Trevelyan. According to the book Live Pterosaurs in America, second edition, which I have read, someone “interviewed an old man who remembered ‘winged serpents’ that lived in the mid-1800’s around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, Wales.”

To continue quoting from Live Pterosaurs in America:

“The woods around Penllyne Castle, Glamorgan, had . . . . winged serpents . . . An aged inhabitant of Penllyne, who died a few years ago . . . said it was ‘no old story,’ invented to ‘frighten children,’ but a real fact. His father and uncles had killed some of them, for they were ‘as bad as foxes for poultry.’ This old man attributed the extinction of winged serpents to the fact that they were ‘terrors in the farmyards and coverts.’”

Pterosaur Sightings in Europe

In England, in 1987 or 1988, a ten-year-old girl saw “a glowing object which seemed to open up to what I thought looked like a dragon.” She was shocked and told nobody about it for many years. She told me, “I do still remember what I saw and think that it may have been a pterodactyl that decided to ‘glow.’”

I wrote in a previous post about the two pterosaur sightings in Georgia: Pterosaurs in Georgia and South Carolina. Since this is again coming up in various blog posts, it seems appropriate to mention what the eyewitness has said about her sightings, including her choice of the word “dragon”:

Georgia sightings, quoted from Live Pterosaurs in America, 2nd ed.

“The world is now totally different. I feel blessed that God has allowed me to see this creature that should not be here, and yet is, this strange dragon-like thing that lives somewhere in the woods in this redneck little town.”

To review what these sightings entailed, the lady saw two different flying creatures, two weeks apart, late in the summer of 2008. They were obviously of the same species but different sizes. The tail was long, with a “heart” shape at tail-end. Even the smaller one was larger than any ordinary bird. The wing flapping especially caught her attention, for it was different than anything she had ever seen in the flapping of bird wings: “The wings ‘pumped’ in a ‘scooping’ manner, as the motion rippled along the body and through the tail.” I’ve noticed similar remarks from eyewitnesses: unique and graceful flight.

Jonathan Whitcomb, author of Live Pterosaurs in America, calls this flying creature “American Hammerhead Ropen.”

I found it interesting that the eyewitness used the word “dragon.” Long ago, a long-tailed featherless flying creature would be labeled “dragon,” although we would think “pterosaur” in more recent generations, at least in the more-developed countries.