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Wildlife Hospital

Wild animals in need of help can be brought to the Korkeasaari Zoo's Wildlife Hospital for professional care, and we can help assess the animals' needs via phone.

Did you find an animal you think needs help? Support our work

The Wildlife Hospital is the largest hospital for injured and orphaned wild animals in Finland: around 1,500 animals are brought to us every year. Patients are cared for by zookeepers, veterinarians, and biologists who have worked with wild animals for many years. The aim is to return the animals to the wild in good health.

We take in all injured or orphaned Finnish wild animals to the Wildlife Hospital and offer advice on how to help animals in need. In an urban environment, animal injuries are often directly or indirectly caused by humans: for example, getting tangled in fishing lines and nets or being fed the wrong food can cause serious injuries to wildlife. The most common patients at the Wildlife Hospital are species common to the Helsinki metropolitan area, such as squirrels, hedgehogs, and waterfowl.

Finnish law obliges people to provide assistance to sick, injured, or otherwise distressed wild animals. This means that each of us must act if we encounter a wild animal in need of help.

What to do?

Did you find an animal you think needs help? Follow the instructions below!

1. Recognise the animal’s need for help

If you find an animal in the wild that is in poor health or orphaned, check first if it really needs help. For example, squirrel cubs, young seagulls, seals lying on the beach and lone hare cubs rarely need human help, so don’t touch the cubs until you’ve consulted a specialist.

2. Contact us

Call us when a wild animal is in urgent need of help or if you need further guidance to ensure the animal needs help. For non-urgent matters, please email us.

Phone number

The Wildlife Hospital’s telephone number +358 40 334 2954 is open every day from 8 am: until around 3 pm in autumn, winter and spring, and according to the zoo’s opening hours during the summer.

We answer the phone during the animal care work. If we can’t answer immediately, please try to call back in a moment – do not leave a message on the answering machine.

For non-urgent matters, please email us.

Email address

For non-urgent matters, please email us: villielainsairaala@korkeasaari.fi

If your matter concerns Korkeasaari Zoo in general, or other matters not related to injured animals in the wild or animals in need of assistance, please contact the Korkeasaari Zoo ticket office. For information on jobs and internships, please visit our recruitment page.

When do I call the public emergency line?

You can call the Finnish emergency number 112 for animal-related matters when…

  • the animal is causing a disturbance or danger to people or traffic,
  • the animal needs to be rescued from a place from which it cannot escape on its own and without assistance, or
  • there is an acute animal welfare issue, e.g. a seriously injured animal or an ongoing animal cruelty case.

3. Bring in the patient, if necessary

Patients for the Wildlife Hospital are taken in at the ticket office of Korkeasaari Zoo starting at 7 am and ending one hour before the zoo closes. Unfortunately, we are not able to collect injured animals: the finder must bring the animal to the zoo for treatment.

Please fill in the provided patient admission form on arrival, asking for information such as where and how the animal was found. This information will be useful for the treatment of the animal and its possible re-homing back into the wild.

See how to arrive to the zoo
Zoo’s opening hours

Our principles of action

We take in all wild injured or orphaned domestic animals. We operate in accordance with the Finnish Animal Welfare Act.

According to the law, the starting point for treatment must always be the return of a healthy, fit animal to the wild after treatment. Each year, around 40% of animals brought to the Wildlife Hospital are rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

If an animal is injured to the point where it can no longer survive independently in the wild, it will be painlessly euthanized. In exceptional cases, with the permission of the authorities, an animal that does not recover sufficiently to return to the wild may remain in the zoo if it is not in pain and can be provided with facilities suitable for the species.
What species are not treated at the Wildlife Hospital?

We do not treat invasive species such as mink, raccoon dogs, and city rabbits, as invasive species legislation prevents them from being released back into the wild.

We do not treat domestic pigeons to prevent the spread of the paramyxovirus, which is common in domestic pigeons and easily transmitted to waterfowl. Specimens of these species brought to the Wildlife Hospital are euthanized painlessly.

Pets do not belong in the Wildlife Hospital

Pets and other domestic animals are not allowed in the Wildlife Hospital. In the capital region, the Viikki Animal Shelter can help with lost and found pets, while exotic pets can be placed with the help of exotic pet enthusiasts. You can find the owner of a carrier pigeon you have found through the Finnish Carrier Pigeon Association.

Viikki animal shelter