Papua New Guinea

From the second edition of the book Searching for Ropens (page 84, the author was interviewing the eyewitness Gideon Koro):

“Did you notice . . . did it have wings?”
With a smile, Gideon said, “Yea.”
“It had wings. OK. About how large were the wings?"
. . . Gideon said, “Sefan meeta.”
. . . “Seven meters? OK. This animal . . . you call it a ropen? Is that the name they have for it?”
“Yea.”

. . . “Did it have a tail?”
“Yea.”
“It had a tail. OK. How long was the tail?”
Gideon looked at the ground to his left for five seconds; from the way he glanced back and forth at the ground a few times, I concluded that he was imagining the tail and estimating its length.
He looked back at me and said, “Sefan meeta long.”
“Seven meters?”
“Yea.”

Lake Pung, on Umboi Island. Around 1994, seven native teenagers hiked up to this crater lake. Within a few minutes, a huge ropen flew over the surface of the lake, terrifying the boys, who ran home. In 2004, three of those seven eyewitnesses were interviewed by the American cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, who wrote about their encounter in his nonfiction book.