Verhulst camped out at the Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center. ‘The two tents we slept in were made of gauze. We served as bait for the mosquitoes, which would then fly into a trap.’ The research aims at finding out which mosquitoes transmit malaria from primates to humans. Verhulst is also collecting skin bacteria and odours from chimpanzees in the centre in the Congo.
Live bait
Wageningen researchers have to be prepared to suffer in the cause of science. Entomologist Niels Verhulst visited a sanctuary for chimpanzees in the Congo this year, with the aim of catching mosquitoes which transmit malaria from primates to humans.
