Ussuri Bat

If you're looking for a cozy winter retreat, log on to AirBnB, I mean, BatBnb, book your own private snowbank, and hibernate like the Ussuri Tube-nosed bat, one of the most cold tolerant mammals in the world! Fun-fact: BatBnb is actually a conservation movement that crafts bat houses for urban bats to rest in, aiming to raise the numbers of these natural pest controllers in urban environments! 

Cartoon for DW Environment. 

Serotine Bats and Sex

A pair of Serotine bats recently made news after being recorded on a church camera making love (you read that right), albeit ‘non-conventionally’, making them the first known wild mammals to indulge in non-penetrative fertilization! I know you all might claim to be such ‘wild mammals’ too, but that discussion is for another day.

Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain. Read more about the church footage from Castenray, Netherlands, leading to a scientific report on the Serotine bats here.

Bats and Music Festivals

New research from the Universities of Bath and the West of England concludes that loud music festivals reduce bat activity by half, unsurprisingly so. 

Reading the research findings took me back to circa 2012, when as an animation designer for a film studio that won a contract for live coverage of a Metallica concert in Bangalore, I got free tickets to attend the show. Not knowing anything about western music, I decided to look the immensely popular band's music up on Youtube. The crippling headache that ensued for the next few days certainly make me wonder if I am a bat without wings! Goes without saying I gave that concert a miss, and probably turned to Jagjit Singh to cure my migraine.

Comic for Roundglass Sustain. 

Bats in Monuments

Bats in Indian monuments- a boon or bane? Comic from my column with The Hindu Sunday Magazine.

What's at Stake at COP15

Green Humour debuted on DW News, Europe's leading news channel this week, with a comic on why the Biodiversity COP should matter to me and you. Read the piece on DW here. 

Skip a Date with Excuses from Wild Animals

Skip a date in style with these crafty excuses from wild animals! Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain.

Nature Gratitude Week

A Nature Gratitude Week special from my column with Roundglass Sustain. 

Meghalaya Thick-thumbed Bat

It's 2022 and new mammals are still being discovered in India! You read that right. Meet the Meghalaya thick-thumbed Bat Glischropus meghalayanus, discovered and described by Uttam Saikia, Gabor Csorba and Manuel Ruedi. Comic from my Roundglass Sustain column. 

Street Fighter Moths versus Bats

Moths, bats and loads of evolutionary cheat codes! Pick your player.

Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain. Prints on my webstore, shipped worldwide.

Naked Rumped Tomb Bat

Difficulties of being a Naked-rumped Tomb Bat (yes, there's actually a bat species by that name, and yes, it's rump is really naked, and yes, it is found in India!). Cartoon from my Roundglass Sustain column.

12 New Year Resolutions from Backyard Wildlife

12 new year resolutions we can adopt from our backyard wildlife, one for each month! Comic from my column with The Hindu. 

Prints are available on my webstore here, shipped internationally. For orders within India, email me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com 

(A3 prints for Rs 400 each and A2 prints for Rs 1000 each, with discounts on multiple prints, inclusive of shipping within India)

Bats in Asia Pacific Cultures

(click on the images for a larger view)

Media propagated myths about bats have long tarnished their reputation as creatures of horror and harbingers of death. It is time to undo that, and what better way than to go back to our roots? Here is a map that showcases how different countries, mythologies and cultures in the Asia Pacific celebrate and revere bats. The illustration is based on an incredible research and publication by Pteropus (Rimba, Malaysia) who also commissioned the illustration. 

Limited edition prints are available on Rimba's webstore 'The Fruit Bat Shop'. The prints can also be purchased via my webstore, shipped internationally. For orders within India, write to me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com mentioning the address and contact details and the number of prints you'd like (A0: Rs. 3500, A1: Rs. 3000, with discounts on multiple orders). 

A special thanks to Mary Ruth Low and Sheema Abdul Azeez for giving me this opportunity, and the most exciting illustration project of the year, and also very generously permitting me to sell prints of the artwork!

Nature Book Reviews by Wild Animals

Some wild bibliophiles review nature books in my column with Sunday Mid-Day. 

Bats and Booze

Booze: one of the many things humanity owes bats deference and gratitude for! Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain. 

The Marvel that is Echolocation

Have you ever seen a bat hunt an insect down in flight and wondered how the hell did that look so easy? Comic from my Sunday Mid-Day column, inspired by my brother Rohit's 'Indian Bat Call Library', a painstakingly assembled resource of bat calls from all around India, translated to audible frequencies using bat detectors.