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Bat Hunt

Bucknell University mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder raises nets high into the darkened forest canopies of South Sudan to catch bats.

By | January 1, 2012

A variegated butterfly bat (Glauconycteris variegata), one of the many bats captured by bat mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder during her most recent trip to South Sudan in the fall of 2011. Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder

A variegated butterfly bat (Glauconycteris variegata), one of the many bats captured by bat mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder during her most recent trip to South Sudan in the fall of 2011. Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder

A variegated butterfly bat (Glauconycteris variegata), one of the many bats captured by bat mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder during her most recent trip to South Sudan in the fall of 2011. Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder's graduate student Megan Vodzak and a South Sudanese wildlife officer set up triple-high mist nets to catch bats. Nets are particularly effective along rivers because bats use them as flyways. Unfortunately for Vodzak and the wildlife officer, the river was infested with leeches.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Vodzak, Reeder, and wildlife officer Wurube Alison retrieve bats from a triple-high mist net after a successful night of trapping. Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder holding a little epauletted fruit batCourtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder was surprised to trap many female epauletted fruit bats crad­­ling their young. Here she discusses her finding with curious local villagers.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
A leaf-nosed bat.
The Reeder family compound in the village of Mogiri. The building on the left is the kitchen while the main building with the straw roof doubled as the family's dormitory and working area. Reeder's graduate students and field technicians slept in the tents to the far right, some of which served as makeshift laboratories.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder's former master's student, Sarah Brownley, works in the tent that functioned as the team's main dissection space.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder wears personal protective equipment while dissecting a flying fox—a type of bat known to carry deadly viruses such as Ebola and Marburg.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
It was a challenge to create a sterile working environment in the absence of running water, electricity, or a fully enclosed lab space. Nevertheless, Reeder and her team were able to effectively carry out immune assays by doing all the pipetting inside a solar oven thoroughly washed with ethanol.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder holding a highly poisonous black mamba snake killed by the nightwatchman she had hired to protect the family compound from both human and animal intruders. The nightwatchman would sleep in a tent in the middle of the compound with a machete and a bow and arrow at arm's reach.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
En route from South Sudan to Uganda to deliver samples stored in the liquid nitrogen tanks on top of Reeder's Land Rover to the Entebbe office of Centers for for Disease Control and Prevention.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder
Reeder's husband Thomas, with their son and daughter. All three family members have contracted Malaria during their trips to South Sudan.Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder

Bat Hunt Image Gallery

A variegated butterfly bat (Glauconycteris variegata), one of the many bats captured by bat mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder during her most recent trip to South Sudan in the fall of 2011. Courtesy of DeeAnn Reeder

For the past four years, Bucknell University mammalogist DeeAnn Reeder has been raising nets high into the darkened forest canopies of South Sudan to catch bats. During her latest journey to the embattled country in 2011, and working with no electricity or running water and scant protection from the elements, Reeder and her team of graduate students and field technicians performed makeshift experiments in the field to probe the immune capabilities of the captured bats in the hopes of understanding why these mammals are such good reservoirs for deadly viruses such as Ebola and Marburg.

Read the full story.

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Tags

South Sudan, infectious disease, immunology, field work, bats, bat and Africa
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Comments

Avatar of: Jamie Clements

Jamie Clements

Posts: 1

January 14, 2012

I find this article very intersesting. I will teach this to my students at Currys university. From Rajim Beta Patel.

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Posts: 0

January 14, 2012

I find this article very intersesting. I will teach this to my students at Currys university. From Rajim Beta Patel.

Avatar of:

Posts: 0

January 14, 2012

I find this article very intersesting. I will teach this to my students at Currys university. From Rajim Beta Patel.

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