Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center (former Rescate Animal Zooave) is a registered non-profit wildlife rehabilitation facility founded in 1989 and located on 34 acres of natural tropical forest in the province of Alajuela, Costa Rica (see our address).
Our mission is to protect and restore the country’s biodiversity through wildlife rehabilitation, endangered species breeding, habitat preservation and the provision of lifetime care for non-releasable animals.
Protect, conserve, restore the biodiversity of the country through rescue, rehabilitation, release of wildlife, and reproduction of endangered species. Promote environmental education, and the care for the wildlife that can not be released.
Over 2,700 wild animals are admitted to Rescate on an annual basis including sloths, jaguars, monkeys, tapirs, pumas and coyotes as well as a wide variety of birds, small mammals and reptiles.
Roughly 800 of the birds, mammals, and reptiles that have been rescued cannot be released due to health or behavioral reasons. Non-releasable endangered species are maintained in the Endangered Wildlife Reproduction Center, where they have an opportunity to contribute to the survival of their species through successful breeding and release of off-spring. Non-releasable wildlife of more common species are provided with lifetime sanctuary in the Conservation Park Sanctuary.
The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center consists of a veterinary hospital with separate care units for various species, including primates, parrots and psittacines, raptors, small mammals and reptiles. Each care unit is equipped with an intensive care clinic, incubators, a fly-proof enclosure and a series of step-by-step acclimation enclosures. All intensive care units have separate refrigeration, medical supplies and equipment.
From the veterinary hospital, rehabilitated animals are moved to larger rehabilitation enclosures in the surrounding forest. The hospital is equipped with a surgery suite, a laboratory and three intensive care units, each with incubators and separate supplies and equipment.
The sanctuary provides life-time care for over 800 non-releasable wild animals including jaguars, tapirs, pumas, coyotes and monkeys as well as a wide variety of birds, small mammals, reptiles.
The Lifetime Care Sanctuary is open to the public and serves to educate the local people about wildlife issues. Animals housed in the Lifetime Care Sanctuary are provided with very large, naturalized enclosures and always have the opportunity to move out of view of the public if they choose to. See here to learn more about our Lifetime Care Sanctuary.
Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center has been maintaining these release sites since the late 1990’s and have released tens of thousands of animals at these sites including a number of globally threatened species. These include:
• Geoffroy’s spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi)
• Black-crowned Central American Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri oerstedii)
• Great Curassow (Crax rubra)
• Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus)
Also several locally threatened species’ population could be stabilized by reintroducing, such as:
• Grey-headed Chachalaca (Ortalis cinereiceps)
• Orange-chinned parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis)
• Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)
Geoffrey’s spider monkeys are the most endangered primates in Costa Rica. We have developed many highly successful soft-release practices that result in excellent integration into the wild and high survival rates.
In addition to the rehabilitation, breeding and sanctuary facilities in Alajuela, Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center also maintains two release sites; Bosque Escondido Wildlife Refuge, a 1,800 acre dry tropical forest in the Nicoya Peninsula and; Golfito, a 90-acre tropical rainforest on the Osa Peninsula, where wild animals are returned to their natural environment.
Started public service announcements “No compra pichones de ladrones de nidos” “ Dont buy fledglings from nest robbers”.
We've done serveral public service campaigns in Costa Rica. Some might still remember them, but don't know they are actually made and paid by us. For us it was always more important to educate the people than getting more visitors. We want to raise awareness for the animals.
In 2014, our foundation became certified as the first rescue center in Costa Rica accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS).
Grecia arrived at our sanctuary in 2015, a victim of a horrifying act of animal abuse. Her upper beak was brutally shattered by some teenagers.
Her case rose awareness and led to protests in the center of San José and even reached worldwide awareness to the point that even the BBC was creating a documenary film about her. You can find a small video of it HERE on their facebook page.
Voices were heard, leading to the enactment of the "bienestar animal" law in 2016, a pivotal moment in the fight for animal rights.
In November of 2016 we received Kivú, an elderly lion rescued from the Simón Bolívar National Zoo. Here, Kivú was able to live out his last days with dignity and a quality of life where he enjoyed much more space, attention, and an ideal diet for his species.
We built a special off-exhibit enclosure here for Kivú in a forested area of 4,000 square feet, which today serves as a rehabilitation enclosure for wild cats.
Read more about his story HERE.
The Scarlet Macaw, Great Curassow and Spider Monkey are all species which became extinct in the Nicoya Peninsula more than 70 years ago. The Spider Monkey is the most endangered primate of Costa Rica, and can be seen again today in the wild thanks to the efforts of our foundation.
More than 500 released
Great Curassows (Crax rubra)
More than 500 Great Curassows (Crax rubra) were bred through our Endangered Animal Reproduction Center (CRAVE). These individuals have been successfully re-established in the area and have grown into a thriving population with individuals now seen more than 20 kilometers from the original release site.
More than 50 released
Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi)
More than 500 Great Curassows (Crax rubra) were bred through our Endangered Animal Reproduction Center (CRAVE). These individuals have been successfully re-established in the area and have grown into a thriving population with individuals now seen more than 20 kilometers from the original release site.
More than 387 released
Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao)
In 1997, we started the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) reintroduction project in San Josecito in the area of Golfo Dulce by Pierdras Blancas National Park. We’ve released 330 Scarlet Macaws until 2014. The Scarlet Macaws are now
reproducing on their own. Birds can be now found from
„Rio Esquinas“ to south of Golfito.
Since this project was so successful we’ve moved the project to our second, new release site in Bosque Escondido.
We have since released more than 57 individuals (numbers from 2023). Our goal is to release a total of about 300 Scarlet Macaws in the next 10 years which will contribute to reestablishing a stable, healthy population in the area.
