The probability of human exposure to animal hosts of potential infectious agents is an essential component of the risk of a zoonotic emergence. However, this interspecific contact rate is poorly estimated. In order to precisely characterize the exposure modalities to the mammalian species, a participatory survey involving 25 volunteers was conducted in western DRC. Each volunteer came into contact (physically, visually or indirectly) with an average of 7.4 different animal species per day. More than two thirds of the contacts involved domestic or peridomestic species, and took place within the villages, with no physical interaction with the animal. The inhabitants are thus continuously exposed to the droppings of bats and commensal rodents. Furthermore, while research efforts are usually focused on hunting, this survey demonstrates that contact with wildlife has tended to take place during agricultural activities. While hunting remains a predominantly male activity, women, who work more in the field, are subject to as much contact with wild animals as men. Work in health ecology and anthropology will be needed to identify the environmental, animal and human factors that partly determine these results. Thus, the analysis of contact frequencies makes it possible to study the system of interactions between humans and animals in a factual manner by questioning the reductive concepts present in some studies about the risks of zoonotic emergence.[-]