In what is now part of Singapore, near Malaysia, around 1959, a boy took a walk in what was a forest. He came across what he assumed were two strange birds and watched them fly around some palm trees; later they ate fruit from the trees. After about half a century, he realized that what he had observed were probably pterosaurs, being very different from the Flying Fox fruit bats with which he is very familiar.

Singapore’s Vegetarian Pterosaurs

[The two pterosaurs were] circling some tall palm trees (those with small orange coloured fruits) and then helping themselves to the fruits. They were making cries which sounded like squawking in the process. They were large . . .

My sighting occurred probably between the period 1958 – 1960 thereabouts when I was still a little kid. In those days we lived in a small village which was near a densely wooded area. Of course with the general development of Singapore to a metropolitan state it is today, the creatures, if they had propagated, would have [ventured] further south to the wilder regions to avoid civilisation (to ensure their survival).

Giant Pterodactyls in Australia

In June of 2008, a pilot was flying a small twin-engined plane. He and his co-pilot are both former navy pilots. Nearing the end of the 700-mile flight from Broome, Australia, to Bali, Indonesia, the pilot saw what appeared to be another airplane; it was on a collision course. He soon saw that it was no plane but a strange giant flying creature. He put his plane into a dive but the creature did likewise.

Ropen Pterosaur Over Indonesia

About 150 miles southeast of Bali, Indonesia, . . . a Britten-Norman Islander (airplane) nearly collided with what both the pilot and the co-pilot soon afterwards called a “pterodactyl.” At an altitude of 6500 feet, the plane was put into a dive to avoid a collision.

“Pterodactyl” is what the eyewitness called it. He is not the only one in the Philippines to report something like a live pterodactyl, but he reported his encounter to the American cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, who specializes in pterosaur sightings. Read some of what Whitcomb included in his newsletter:

Philippines Pterodactyl Sighting (Two of the creatures seen around 1994)

According to the eyewitness, “I think we’re not the only ones who saw it, because my classmate told me that there are sightings of this thing in Atimonan, Quezon [Province], just one-half hr travel from Pagbilao, and I was told by the local fisherman there that he saw it several times, flying above the sea.”
 
I (interviewer was Jonathan Whitcomb) asked the young man some questions:
 
Q: Did the two creatures have tails?
A: YES! they have long tails about 3 to 4 meters long . . .it is  not a bird: They don’t have any feathers.
 
Q: Did you have a good view of them?
A: Yes! I was not the only one who saw it . . .

Papua New Guinea

Many natives of Papua New Guinea (south of the Philippines) report similar featherless flying creatures that they describe like living pterosaurs. The Manus Island area, closest to the southern islands of the Philippines, has a flying creature called “kor.” But the name that Americans associate with this kind of creature is “ropen.” That names come from Umboi Island, south of Manus Island, but names abound, on the mainland of Papua New Guinea and probably in various islands, for this nocturnal featherless flying creature of the Southwestern Pacific region.

Each October, on the night of a full moon, a great festival attracts many thousands of spectators to a small stretch of land on the bank of the Mekong River in Nong Khai province, on the border of Thailand and Laos. Mysterious glowing balls rise out of the water, rising high above the river before dissappearing. It seems to have been going on for centuries but is now a famous annual event in Southeast Asia.

Glowing objects flying above rivers brings up a question: Could they be related to the nocturnal pterosaur-like creatures that glow as they fly in Papua New Guinea? The ropen of Umboi Island and the kor around Manus Island do glow over water.

We need more information on these mysterious Naga lights that emerge from the Mekong River. Have you seen this yourself? If so, please post a comment here. Thank you.