The program consists of the rescue, rehabilitation and release of wildlife species that are received as a result of seizures by staff from various areas of conservation-SINAC in the country, mainly in the province of Guanacaste, or individual deliveries, Forces or Fire, that are injured, orphaned, or pets.
Animals are, are evaluated by qualified personnel (veterinary doctor and biologist) to determine if they are candidates for further rehabilitation, release or held at the center for education.
Those animals that cannot be returned to their natural habitat are given the necessary care during their lifetime in humane conditions, which aim to simulate their natural environment within their enclosure. The Center has a program of environmental enrichment activities, which aims to make the animals use their physical and mental abilities as much as possible, making the most of their enclosures and trying to minimize abnormal repetitive behaviors (pacing, excessive grooming, inactivity, self-mutilation, aggression).
Currently there are 18 exhibit spaces where visitors can see 5 of the 6 species of wild felines native to Costa Rica: jaguar (Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), jaguarundi (Puma yaguaroundi) and margay (Leopardus wiedii), primates such as the spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) and capuchin (Cebus capucinus), mustelids as grisson (Galictis vittata) and otter (Lontra longicaudis), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)‚ a collared peccari (Tayassu tajacu) and over 50 parrots of 7 different species. It also has a quarantine area and veterinary clinic with 11 enclosures, a kitchen, a slaughterhouse and pre-release enclosure.
Our staff was trained in 2012 by officials from the Arenal-Tempisque Conservation Area SINAC, in accordance with COVIRENA (The Committee for the appropriate use of Natural Resources).