Environmental Resolutions for Governments

Some resolutions I hope governments around the world will adopt in 2019. Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-day.

Tits Out Tuesday

Great Tits are among birds that readily nest in nest boxes. More birding humour on http://www.greenhumour.com/search/label/bird-watching

Tips for a Green Christmas by Indian Wild Animals

Merry Christmas to all Green Humour readers in India and around the world. Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-day. Pringts and greetings available on my webstore here. 

Biological Breakthroughs 2018

Before the year ends, let's take a moment to appreciate science. These are just some of the many discoveries made in India this year, but they go on to show how many surprises India still holds both for science and for us. If you notice, all the species are from some of the most fragile ecosystems- rainforests of the Western Ghats and the North-east. If more such treasures are to be unearthed, these hotspots will have to be protected from reckless development at any cost.

The comic appears in The Hindu (main) today, marking my debut with the paper.

Cover for Nature Ecology and Evolution

I illustrated the elements for the cover of the January 2019 issue of the eclebrated science magazine Nature Ecology and Evolution, featuring some really interesting creatures that I happened to learn about during the course of the project, such as the Snail Kite, the Patas Monkey, the New Caledonia Crow and the Bamboo Shark.  Head to this link to read the list of species that grace the cover, and the science papers based on them. 

A big thanks to Chief Editor Patrick Goymer for collaborating with me!

A Hornbill Chick's First Day out of its Nest

Hornbills nest in sealed tree cavities to lower the risk of predation. But is this enough to lower the risk of predation by governments?

Comic from my column with Sunday Mid-day.

Bioacoustics and Biodiversity Trends

Comic # 4 in my series with Current Conservation magazine 'Research in Translation', comics based on science papers, speaks about bioacoustics and their role in monitoring trends in biodiversity, based on a paper by Dr. Rachel Buxton. The bird in the comic is the Grey Catbird, one of the most vocal residents of the Rocky Mountains National Park in the USA, where the research is based.

More on the series here.

Art for the Coringa Bird Festival

Macha the Fishing Cat, Coringa's official park mascot goes fishi... I mean birding today at the Coringa Bird Festival! The festival will bring together bird experts, photographers, artists and birders from different parts of the country and will give them a chance to explore one of India's most pristine mangrove forests together. 

Here are a couple of posters I created for the event, commissioned by the dynamic DFO Mr. Anant Shankar. The Indian Skimmer, a rather rare and threatened species finds a home in Coringa, along with the Fishing Cat! 

Nutcrackers

Meet the nutcrackers, a genus of, well, nutcracking birds closely related to crows and jays. Nutcrackers specialize in feeding on pines, and store pine nuts for later consumption. This habit makes them crucial to the dispersal of pines! Nutcrackers are also known to have exceptional memory, remembering the exact locations of storage!

There are three species of Nutcrackers- Spotted, Kashmir (recently split from the Spotted), and Clark's, who I guess his eponym William Clark wouldn't really like to meet.

Prints and merchandise available on my webstore here. 

Uses of the Hoolock Gibbon's Really Long Arms

A comic on the amazing Hoolock Gibbon from my column with Mid-Day. Prints available on my webstore here. For orders within India, email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com.

I first saw Hoolock Gibbons with my brother in Borjan Sanctuary in Eastern Assam, and thiiiiiiiiis is how excited we got!

Greta Thunberg

Meet Greta Thunberg, 15 year old Swedish school student, climate activist and my new hero. More about her here. 

Kiwis

Meet the 5 species of Kiwi in this brand new poster! Flightless and endemic to New Zealand, Kiwis are the smallest of the living ratites (a group that includes ostriches, cassowaries and rheas and emus). While the Great Spotted is the largest Kiwi, the Little Spotted is the smallest. The North Island Kiwi is the commonest among the five, and the Rowi the rarest. All the five species are threatened by habitat loss and invasive species. 

Kiwi prints, tshirts and merchandise are out now on my webstore here. 

For orders within India, e-mail me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com. The range of products for Indian orders is as follows-

A0 Posters (Matte surface, loose)- Rs. 3500 for the first print, 3000 for the second print onwards

A1 Posters (Matte surface, loose)- Rs. 3000 for the first print, 2500 for the second print onwards

A2 Posters (Matte surface, loose)- Rs. 1200 each

Mounted Posters (A3- Individual species and compilation)- Rs. 2000

Loose Posters (A3- Individual species and compilation)- Rs. 500 for the first copy and Rs. 200 for the second copy onwards

Fridge Magnets (65 x 65 mm, Printed in sets of 4)- Any 4 caricatures for Rs. 1200

Coffee Mug (Compilation)- Rs. 850

Tshirts (individual species/compilation)- Rs. 1300 (White, Cotton, roundneck, sizes- S,M,L,XL) 

Travel Blogs by Birds

Featuring five travel bloggers from the bird world in my column with Sunday Mid-day.