Search This Blog

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I've Eaten Too Many Mosquitoes!

The magazine Bleu/Blanc ran short stories about animals. The following is a single page that Kizito and I wrote and illustrated:

"Bats are the only mammals that can fly like birds. With 800 different species, this is one fourth of the mammals on the planet. However, they are difficult to see them, because they hide and sleep during the day.

"Bats are divided into two groups: the "large," that eat fruits (frugivores) and the "small" that eat insects (insectivores). The latter find these insects by a sophisticated system called "sonar." The bat has a call of a very high frequency, that causes a return of sound waves from its prey. This system is similar to radar (in aviation, the detection of objects).

"Bats are not yet well studied in our Congolese forests. Here, they compose half of the mammals and we only know some of them. Most of our bats are insectivores, and you can imagine the effect on nocturnal insects!"

The bat shown is thinking in the cartoon bubble, "BURP! I ate so many mosquitoes that I have indigestion! Well, how many did I eat? 100? 200? Oh, la, la, I have a belly-ache!"

No comments: