When Paul Nation interviewed an islander in Opai Village, on Umboi Island in 2002, he was told about a fisherman who, some years earlier, had died from an encounter with a large flying creature that may have been a ropen.
Two Indava Lights Videotaped
Paul Nation's video was analyzed by Paiva
Glowing Indava of Mainland
In late 2006, Paul Nation arrived in a remote mountainous area on the mainland of Papua New Guinea. He had previously searched for
ropens on
Umboi Island (another part of Papua New Guinea) without getting a view of any pterosaur-like creature. The
indava seen near
Tawa Village is said to be a large flying creature that glows, so it was thought to be similar to, if not the same as, the
ropen of
Umboi.
Over several nights, Paul saw more flying lights than the total that all previous ropen seekers had seen. Near Tawa Village,
he videotaped two lights that slowly turned on and off, on the top of a ridge. In 2007, the video footage was analyzed by a missile
defense physicist (Cliff Paiva), who announced that the lights were not from common possibilities: They were not made by lanterns,
airplanes, meteors,
fire, or car headlights. And it was no hoax.
Also on the late-2006 expedition, Jacob Kepas (a native of Papua
New Guinea who accompanied Paul), in daylight, with a local man, climbed up a large hill; they saw a large creature sleeping on a
cliff: apparently an indava.
Indava of Papua New Guinea
A Few Cryptids
Pterosaur seen by Eskin Kuhn in Cuba in 1971---
it may be like the indava of Papua New Guinea
Near Tawa Village, flying lights may be caused by similar flying creatures to those that cause lights to be seen on Umboi Island and around Salamaua, and in other areas of Papua New Guinea: strange bioluminescence.
Compares With Ropen