ZSL marks 200th anniversary with £20m boost for wildlife health - ZSL

Visitors will watch live veterinary procedures and conservation science in new wildlife health centre.

We're marking our two hundredth anniversary today (Wednesday 29 April 2026) with the unveiling of ambitious plans for a new world-leading wildlife health centre – made possible by the most significant donation in our 200-year history.

The new centre at our UK headquarters at Regent's Park will deliver world-class care for the animals at London Zoo and support our global science and conservation efforts. It will bring veterinary science to everyone – with visitors to the centre able to watch live procedures, from penguin health checks to porpoise post-mortems.

For 200 years we've brought people and wildlife together in the spirit of understanding and discovery, and the planned centre will continue that legacy with the UK's first viewing gallery in a vet hospital.

Unrivalled veterinary heritage

From employing the world's first zoo vet in 1829, to constructing Europe's first purpose-built zoo vet hospital 70 years ago, through to giving 250,000 children a unique glimpse into the veterinary world through our Vets in Action programme, our veterinary heritage is unrivalled.

The anonymous gift will allow us to create a brand-new centre integrating clinical care, a teaching hospital and wildlife disease research. Central to the project is our commitment to the One Health approach; recognising that the health of animals, people and ecosystems is fundamentally interconnected. With this endeavour we will commit to our belief that wildlife health is global health and must be treated as such.