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The Ropen

The Ropen or kor is a fabulous creature and a flying cryptid in the Umboi and Manus islands near Papua New Guinea.

Description/Morphology

The Ropen is said to possess two leathery wings like a bat, a long tail with a flange on the end, a beak filled with teeth, and razor-sharp claws. According to the book Searching for Ropens, it is "any featherless creature that flies in the Southwest Pacific, and has a tail-length more than 25% of its wingspan. The ropen is believed to be nocturnal and to exhibit bioluminescence which the natives call "indava". Purportedly it lives on a diet of fish, though there have been some reports of the creature feasting on human flesh, especially grave robbery.

Sightings

  • Duane Hodgkinson was stationed northwest of Lae, near Finschaven, PNG as part of the Army cavalry in 1944. About noon one day in August he was walking down a trail through a clearing in the forest when he was startled by a crashing in the brush. As he watched a large bird-like creature ponderously rose from the ground, circled and flew away. Hodgkinson, a pilot, estimated the wing-span to be about 20 ft. He clearly recalls the dark-gray coloration, long serpentine neck, beak, and distinctive head crest.
  • In 1987, Tyson Hughes, an English missionary, began an 18 month contract to assist the Moluccan tribespeople of Ceram Island, Indonesia to develop efficient farms. Tyson heard stories about a terrifying creature called the Orang-bati (“men with wings”) that possesses enormous leathery wings like a bat and live in the caves of Mount Kairatu, an extinct volcano situated in the center of the island.
  • Gideon Koro, Wesley Koro, and Mesa Agustin saw a "ropen" flying over the crater lake "Pung" in 1994. Its tail was "seven meter" and its wingspan or wing- size was also seven meters. Gideon was certain about it having no feathers. Also, the mouth was like a "crocodile."
  • An Australian couple saw a giant lizard-like creature flying over Perth one evening in 1997. Its "size" was between thirty feet and fifty feet.


Searchings

As an attempt to discredit mainstream scientific views on the age of the Earth, several expeditions have been embarked upon by American creation scientists, including Carl Baugh, Paul Nation, Jonathan Whitcomb, David Woetzel, and Garth Guessman.

In late 2006, Paul Nation, of Texas, explored a remote mountainous area on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. He videotaped two lights that the local natives called "indava." Paul Nation believed the lights were from the bioluminescence of creatures similar to the ropen of Umboi Island. The video was analyzed by a missile defense physicist who reported that the two lights on the video were not from any fires, meteors, airplanes or camera artifacts. He also reported that the image of the two lights was not caused by any paste-on hoax.[18] Later, the ropen was the subject of an episode of Destination Truth. Host Joshua Gates captured images of luminescent objects in the sky that could not be identified.

In 2007, cryptid investigator Joshua Gates went to Papua New Guinea in search of the Ropen for his TV show Destination Truth. He and his team also witnessed strange lights at night and could not confirm what they were.

In 2009, the television show Monster Quest conducted an expedition in search of the "demon flyer" but found no evidence of the creature. Later, they had a forensic video analyst examine the Paul Nation video. The analyst could not definitely conclude what was causing the lights, but ruled out vehicles and campfires believing the footage was of a pair of bioluminescent creatures perched in a tree that later take flight.

See also

The seklo-bali, around Wau, on the mainland, is probably the same creature. The wawanar legend from the small islands southwest of New Britain may come from the ropen as well.


Theories about origin and existence

Many skeptics believe the ropen to be misidentifications of Flying Fox fruit bats and even Frigate birds.

The Fregate bird

According to Jonathan Whitcomb, a forensic videographer who interviewed native islanders in 2004, the “ropen” of Umboi Island is a long-tailed pterosaur. However, all pterosaurs became extinct by about 65-million years ago. According to Whitcomb, a smaller pterosaur is believed to inhabit the caves that dot the islands of Rambunzo in the Bismarck Archipelago. Reports seem to fit the presumed-extinct Rhamphorhynchus, a pterosaur with a wingspan of 3-4 feet. Like the Kongomato in Kenya, the Ropen is said to have a taste for decaying human flesh and has even harassed native funeral gatherings with western missionaries present. Carl E. Baugh of the Creation Evidence Museum conducted an expedition to Manus. With missionary Jim Blume, he observed one of the creatures through a monocular night scope and snapped a picture of a strange print in the sand the next morning.

References

Sources

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.