Hi! I’m Aino. I’m an animal nutritionist and researcher helping zoos improve their animal nutrition and thus the welfare of their animals. When I’m not at the zoo or working on my thesis, you’ll find me in the forest with my dogs.
I currently work as zoo animal nutritionist and doctoral researcher here in Helsinki, Finland and study towards a PhD at University of Helsinki. I graduated as B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences / Animal Science in 2018 and as M.Sc. (agr.) in Animal Nutrition in 2021. As a part of my studies I wrote a master’s thesis, the topic of the thesis was forest reindeer nutrition in the wild as well as in captivity and how we can improve their captive diets. My bachelor’s thesis covered reindeer and forest reindeer nutrition in literature. I’m currently writing a PhD thesis on dairy cow welfare and grazing.
I love nature and animals, and that’s how I ended up in the field of animal science and nutrition. My career in zoo field started from an internship at the Helsinki Zoo, and there I felt like coming home. I realized that this is what I want to do. I want to help zoos improve their animal nutrition and through it affect the animal welfare in zoos and maybe even further conservation of endangered species.
My skills and services include feed planning, giving nutritional recommendations, lectures and advice. You can contact me here for an offer, ask a question, leave a comment or share your ideas on zoo animal nutrition. For my ideas on zoo animal nutrition visit the Zoo Animal Nutrition section. Here you can check out my LinkedIn profile.