In early October 2011, near the end of her most recent, 3-month trip to South Sudan to survey the country’s small mammals, Bucknell University mammalogist and bat specialist DeeAnn Reeder set out with a small team of wildlife officers and a graduate student just before dusk in search of a colony of bats known as flying foxes.
Reeder was barely five minutes into the expedition when she noticed that her husband, Thomas, who had been trailing behind on his motorcycle, had vanished from the rearview mirror of her Land Rover.
Earlier that day, Thomas had broken his helmet visor and was having trouble keeping the dust from the parched, clay road from irritating his eyes. Moments before Reeder noticed his absence, Thomas had removed one hand from the handle bar to rub his eyes and lost control of the motorcycle.
Reeder immediately backtracked and found her husband in agony on ...
