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Cryptids of Papua New Guinea
What cryptids are in Papua New Guinea? The best-known is Ropen.
Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island, and a scatter of islands beyond – a country of steep mountains, swamp forests and coral seas where more than 800 languages are spoken. Its wildlife is still being catalogued: tree kangaroos, birds of paradise and some of the world’s largest fruit bats live here, and expeditions such as the 2009 survey of the extinct volcano Mount Bosavi have turned up animals new to science. It is easy to see why outsiders have imagined that something truly ancient might survive in its forests.
Cryptids reported in Papua New Guinea
The legends of Papua New Guinea
That idea found its focus in the ropen, a glowing, long-tailed creature said to fly at night over Umboi Island in the Vitiaz Strait. The modern story begins with an American serviceman, Duane Hodgkinson, who said he saw a giant flying animal near Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula in 1944, during the Second World War. From the 1990s small expeditions – most of them organised by American young-Earth creationists hoping to find a living pterosaur – interviewed villagers about the ropen and the strange lights seen over Umboi’s mountains.
Scientists have been unimpressed. A palaeontologist who joined a TV investigation linked the mysterious lights to a scheduled airline route, and a widely shared 2010 “pterosaur” video turned out to show a frigatebird. Umboi and the Huon coast remain remote, reached by boat and small plane, and few visitors come for the ropen – but those who do find some of the most spectacular reefs, volcanoes and rainforest in the Pacific.
Hotspots
Mountainous volcanic island between New Guinea and New Britain, the heart of the ropen legend.
Coastal town and wartime base near where Duane Hodgkinson reported his 1944 sighting.
Extinct volcano whose crater forest yielded new species during a 2009 expedition – a reminder of how much remains unexplored.
Sightings timeline
- 1944Hodgkinson’s giant flyer Ropen
US serviceman Duane Hodgkinson said that he and a companion saw a huge, long-tailed flying animal pass over them near a jungle trail. He told the story for decades and was interviewed on camera by ropen researchers in 2005.
- 2004Two creationist expeditions to Umboi Ropen
Jonathan Whitcomb, and separately David Woetzel and Garth Guessman, travelled to Umboi to interview villagers about the ropen and its lights. They returned convinced of the creature but without photographs.
- 2006A light on camera Ropen
Paul Nation, who made several visits to the region, reported photographing a glowing light he believed was not man-made. Skeptics noted that distant lights at night are notoriously hard to interpret.
- c. 2009MonsterQuest and the airline lights Ropen
Palaeontologist David Martill joined a MonsterQuest investigation and found that lights witnesses described leaving and returning to a mountain matched a scheduled commercial flight and its return service.
- August 2010The frigatebird video Ropen
An online article claimed video proof of living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea. Smithsonian’s Riley Black showed that the footage clearly depicted a frigatebird, probably a female great frigatebird.
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