Daimonic pterosaurs

Have I finally managed to find a fascinating episode of the almost organically boring series "MonsterQuest", now discontinued but once upon a time aired at History Channel?

"Flying Monsters" follow a team of enthusiasts into the jungles of Papua New Guinea in search of the Demon Flier or Ropen, a mysterious creature believed by some to be a surviving pterosaur. The researchers belong to a group called Genesis Park. A quick search on the web reveals that they are, of course, creationists who wish to prove that men and dinosaurs lived together, and that dinosaurs still exist. This fact is not mentioned in the TV program, however.

Sceptics believe that the Demon Fliers are simply misidentified Frigatebirds or an unknown species of bat. However, the natives in New Guinea describe the creature as monstrously large, nocturnal and bioluminescent. It's believed to attack and eat humans, or dig up human graves. Doesn't sound like a bird or fruit-bat to me!

The Genesis Park people claim to have seen these dangerous animals themselves. Interestingly, their descriptions match those of UFO phenomena: strange lights in the sky, sometimes flying in formation, coming and going at very fast speed. The few photos or films showing "pterosaurs" really show such distant lights in the sky. The team does manage to see such lights during their foray into the rain forest.

As an "armchair commentator", I suspect that we are really dealing with several different phenomena rolled into one by both native folklore and Western enthusiasts. The natives claim that the Demon Flier is a kind of ancestral spirit living in the hills. It seems to be connected to superstition about graves and death. Flying, luminescent objects are apparently common in the mythology of many peoples. In Africa, they are usually seen as witches. In Tibet, they are Bodhisattvas. In the PNG, they are "Demon Fliers". In the modern West, they would be UFOs. However, Christian missionaries and cryptozoologists have decided to re-interpret the observations in Papua New Guinea as surviving pterosaurs... The idea that the Ropen is a pterosaur probably got into the natives' heads through the medium of missionaries interested in the local lore. It would be interesting to do some research on whether the original stories of Ropens really pictured them having gigantic crests, an iconic pterosaurian feature? (Interestingly, a local flightless bird in New Guinea, the cassowary, has a crest on its head. It's also fierce and dangerous.)

Whatever the Demon Fliers might be, I think a surviving Pteranodont is the least likely explanation. Genesis Park no doubt get their ideas from a "literalist" reading of the Book of Genesis. Perhaps they should have studied some other part of their holy scripture to really understand what's going on in the heathen lands of Papua New Guinea... :-0