Green travel guide

Wildlife Rescue Centers in Costa Rica: Giving Animals a Second Chance

Costa Rica's best wildlife rescue centers treat injured and orphaned animals, release them when they can, and give lifelong care to those that can't go back. Ethical centers keep their hospitals closed to the public, never offer animal holding or selfies, and can explain how they decide which animals return to the wild.

By Pura-Verde.com Editors · Published October 30, 2026 · Last checked October 30, 2026

Best for

Travelers who want to see non-releasable wildlife and learn how rehabilitation works, without touching animals.

Where

Centers include Las Pumas (Cañas, Guanacaste), Rescate Wildlife (Alajuela), Toucan Rescue Ranch (San Isidro de Heredia), Kids Saving the Rainforest (Manuel Antonio area) and Wild Sun (Cabuya).

Good to know

At most centers only the sanctuary area is open to visitors; rehabilitation units and release sites are closed.

Accreditation

The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries lists Rescate Wildlife and International Animal Rescue Costa Rica as accredited.

Red flag

Any offer to hold, hand-feed or take a selfie with a wild animal.

Ask before you go

Who makes medical decisions, how release candidates are chosen, and whether visits must be booked ahead.

A sloth that can't climb. A toucan with a broken beak. A baby monkey that trusts people more than other monkeys. For the people who run Costa Rica's rescue centers, the hard question isn't how to save an animal. It's what happens after.

Costa Rica's rescue centers aren't all alike. Some run animal hospitals and release programs, some give permanent homes to animals that could never survive on their own, and many do both. A few are really exhibits with a charitable-sounding name. The best way to tell them apart is to look past the animal photos to the vets, keepers, cooks, biologists and neighbors who do the daily work.

What a wildlife rescue center actually does

A rescue is a beginning, not a happy ending. Animals arrive after car strikes, dog attacks, electrocution on power lines, habitat clearing, illegal capture or years as someone's pet. A vet has to work out what's injured, whether the animal carries a disease, what it can eat and whether it can still do the things it needs to survive. A healthy-looking monkey that doesn't recognize a predator is a poor candidate for release.

The best outcome is a wild animal living on its own in good habitat. Not every patient gets that. Some need lifelong care; others need months of physical recovery and time to relearn wild behavior away from people. A good center can explain its release criteria, who makes medical decisions, how it picks release sites, what records it keeps and how it follows animals after release. It should also be able to tell you why some animals stay.

Visitors usually see the easy part: an animal resting on a branch. The real work happens out of sight, where staff change dressings, prepare species-specific diets, keep human contact to a minimum for future release candidates and coordinate with Costa Rica's environment ministry (MINAE) and its conservation agency, SINAC, which place confiscated and injured wildlife with authorized centers.

Toucan Rescue Ranch: the vet, the kitchen and the release site

Toucan Rescue Ranch sits near San Josecito in San Isidro de Heredia, a short drive from San José. Founder and director Leslie Howle started with a refuge for rescued birds, and the work grew into treatment, rehabilitation and sanctuary for sloths, owls, monkeys and many other animals.

The person to know is Janet Sandi Carmiol, the Costa Rican veterinarian who helped Howle set up the ranch's medical program in 2007. Her first patient there was the ranch's first rescued mammal, a two-fingered sloth named Millie. Today she's the veterinarian director, overseeing medical decisions, surgeries and the team of vets.

The ranch's team page shows how many jobs sit behind a single animal. Ivette Sirias coordinates the animal kitchen, where feeding dozens of species correctly every day is basic to recovery. Jorge Mercado is the release site veterinarian, and Isaac Brenes Jiménez is one of the tour guides. These are the people worth asking: how do you decide an animal is ready? Which species do well after release? What goes wrong most often?

The ranch offers guided educational tours. A tour isn't an animal encounter, and nothing you see in care is available to touch or adopt.

Las Pumas: a Guanacaste ranch family's long legacy

Centro de Rescate Las Pumas sits just outside Cañas on the Inter-American Highway toward Liberia. Its own history tells the story of a changing Guanacaste. Werner Hagnauer and Lilly Bodmer, a Swiss couple, came to Costa Rica in 1959, when Werner took a job at Hacienda La Pacífica. As ranching and clearing spread, Lilly began taking in wild animals that had lost their homes or been kept as pets. When the ranch was sold in 1985, the couple kept about 25 hectares, and the rescue center and sanctuary was founded there in 1989.

Lilly died in 2001 and Werner in 2015. The Hagnauer Foundation, which Werner and friends set up in Lilly's honor in 2001, still runs and funds the center. Las Pumas keeps a clear line between its rescue center, which is closed to visitors so animals in rehabilitation don't get used to people, and its sanctuary, where animals that can't return to the wild can be seen on tours. That line is the difference between a hospital and a permanent home.

It also gives you a better question than "where's the puma?" Ask what's changed since Lilly took in her first animals. Which threats have eased? Which have grown? And who pays for an animal that may outlive the person who rescued it?

Rescate Wildlife: from roadside zoo to release programs

Near La Garita, Alajuela, Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center is open about where it came from. Founder and executive director Dennis Janik bought a roadside zoo, then known as Zoo Ave, and turned it toward conservation. The zoo closed in 1990 so the center could focus on rehabilitation.

Rescate runs release sites on the Nicoya Peninsula and in the Golfo Dulce area of the Osa Peninsula. By its own count it has released more than 380 scarlet macaws, more than 500 great curassows bred at its center and more than 50 spider monkeys that were once pets. In January 2026 it bottle-fed a baby manatee found struggling in the waves off Tortuguero, which it describes as the first recorded manatee rescue in Costa Rica.

Only its lifetime care sanctuary is open to visitors. The hospital, breeding center and release sites aren't. The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, which accredits sanctuaries and rescue centers against its own standards, lists Rescate as accredited. Accreditation is good evidence, but it's no substitute for asking about the animals in front of you.

Nosara, Cabuya and Manuel Antonio: rescue as a neighborhood matter

In Nosara, International Animal Rescue Costa Rica earned GFAS accreditation in February 2026. Beyond rescue, rehabilitation and sanctuary, it works on one of the most local threats of all: monkeys and sloths electrocuted on power lines. Its veterinary director at the time of the announcement was Dr. Francisco Sánchez. We couldn't confirm its current visitor arrangements, so contact the center before you go.

On the southern Nicoya Peninsula, Wild Sun Rescue Center grew from a gap in local care. Its published history says director Jeremy Adam Levine opened the facility on his property in Cabuya after seeing how few options existed for injured and orphaned animals. Wild Sun treats and releases animals where it can and keeps those with permanent injuries. Its site describes volunteer programs rather than tours, so ask before you visit.

For anyone staying in Montezuma, Cabuya or Santa Teresa, this makes the landscape personal. A bare power line, a loose dog or a freshly cleared lot isn't an abstract issue. It can be the start of an emergency for one animal, and a long, costly job for a neighbor.

Near Manuel Antonio, Kids Saving the Rainforest started in 1999, when Janine Licare and Aislin Livingstone were 9 years old and worried about the forest around them. An April 2026 profile in Catalyst Planet traces how their tree planting grew into a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates sloths, primates and parrots, builds wildlife bridges and runs sanctuary tours.

Sloths, and why rescue alone isn't enough

Dr. Rebecca Cliffe came to Costa Rica as an 18-year-old on a placement and spent years tracking wild sloths for her PhD. She founded the Sloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo) in 2017 to stop injuries before they happen. SloCo works in the South Caribbean, studying wild sloths, planting trees and installing canopy bridges so sloths can cross roads and clearings without touching the ground or power lines. Its work happens in the field, not in a visitor sanctuary. Cliffe shares her work on her Instagram, @becky.sloth.

That's a useful distinction. A group saving animals in the hospital and a group keeping animals out of it are both doing essential work. It's easier to raise money with a photo of a recovering sloth than with one of a rope bridge, but both belong in the picture. SloCo's team page includes research manager José Pablo Guzmán García, tree climber and drone pilot Dayber Barker León and forest nursery manager Juan Diego Elizondo García: the people whose daily work means fewer rescues are needed.

How to choose an ethical wildlife sanctuary

Before you book, ask:

• Is the center authorized by MINAE and SINAC, and who makes medical decisions?
• Where do the animals come from: rescued, confiscated, transferred, bred or bought?
• How many are released, how is that decided, and what happens to those that can't go back?
• Is the rehabilitation area kept away from visitors?
• Does ticket and donation money pay for long-term care, and does the center publish real outcomes?

Holding a sloth, hand-feeding monkeys or promises of close contact are reasons to walk away, not to book quickly. A permit alone doesn't prove every practice is ethical.

Different centers suit different trips. Las Pumas is an easy stop between Liberia and the Central Valley. Toucan Rescue Ranch and Rescate are close to the San José airport, handy on a first or last day. Kids Saving the Rainforest fits a Manuel Antonio stay, and IAR Costa Rica and Wild Sun suit Nosara and the southern Nicoya Peninsula. Book ahead where you can, and never turn up unannounced at a hospital or release site. You'll find more on our map under rescue centers.

How to help Costa Rica's rescued wildlife

A useful donation might buy medicine, food, a flight cage, paid hours for a Costa Rican vet, habitat restoration or transport to a release site. Ask what the center needs right now and whether it can name a specific cost. Skilled volunteering can help too, but most placements need training and a long stay. If you only have an afternoon, you won't be working with injured animals, and a good center won't pretend otherwise. Our guide to ethical volunteering in Costa Rica explains what to look for.

You can also help change the conditions that cause injuries. Keep dogs under control, never feed monkeys, slow down where animals cross roads, report wildlife sold online or by the roadside to the authorities, and choose places to stay that protect trees and wildlife corridors. Our guide to nature reserves and wildlife corridors shows why connected forest matters, and our responsible ecotourism guide covers watching wildlife in the wild without disturbing it.

The most moving moment at a rescue center isn't an animal learning to come close to people. It's an animal that never needs to come close to one again.

Frequently asked questions

Can you hold a sloth in Costa Rica?

You shouldn't, and ethical centers won't let you. Handling stresses wild animals and makes release harder. Any place offering sloth holding or selfies is a red flag.

Which wildlife rescue centers in Costa Rica are open to visitors?

Las Pumas, Rescate Wildlife, Toucan Rescue Ranch and Kids Saving the Rainforest all offer sanctuary visits or guided tours. Their rehabilitation areas stay closed. Smaller centers like Wild Sun and IAR Costa Rica should be contacted first.

How do I know if an animal sanctuary in Costa Rica is ethical?

Look for no touching or feeding, a closed rehabilitation area, a clear release policy and vet-led care. Accreditation from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries is a good sign, but still ask questions.

Are animals at rescue centers released back into the wild?

Many are. Animals that can survive on their own go back to suitable habitat, sometimes after months of rehab. Those with permanent injuries or too much human contact stay in lifelong care.

What should I do if I find an injured wild animal in Costa Rica?

Don't pick it up or feed it. Keep people and dogs away, note the exact spot and call the authorities or the nearest licensed rescue center for advice.

Sources

1. Toucan Rescue Ranch: Leslie Howle
2. Toucan Rescue Ranch: Janet Sandi Carmiol
3. Toucan Rescue Ranch: Our Team
4. Las Pumas: About Us
5. Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center: About Us
6. Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center: Meet the Founder
7. Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries: Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center listing
8. Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries: International Animal Rescue Costa Rica accredited (February 2026)
9. Wild Sun Rescue Center: About Us
10. Catalyst Planet: Raised by the Rainforest, the Story of KSTR (April 2026)
11. Kids Saving the Rainforest: home
12. Sloth Conservation Foundation: Meet the Founder
13. Sloth Conservation Foundation: Our Team
14. Wikipedia: The Sloth Conservation Foundation

We checked these pages when we last updated this guide. We didn't interview the people named; their roles and words come from the sources above.