The Thomayer University Hospital is a large medical center on the outskirts of Prague, in the Czech Republic, serving some 50,000 people each year. But medical staff and patients aren’t the only ones found on the grounds of the sprawling facility.
The hospital is nestled on the edge of a protected forest, so encounters with local wildlife are common there, too.
And as footage shared by one hospital visitor shows, they can be pretty hard to miss.
The animals clashing in the video above are mouflons, a species of wild sheep native to the region. During rutting season, males are known to spar for dominance, headbutting one another with their thick horns.
But while the presence of wild sheep on the grounds of a hospital might seem unusual, at the Thomayer University Hospital, mouflons aren’t merely accepted — they’re embraced.
Fakultní Thomayerova Nemocnice
“Mouflons are an integral part of our hospital and are our uncrowned mascot,” the hospital wrote online. “They currently form a large herd, which numbers approximately one hundred.”
There, the mouflons serve a therapeutic role, simply by being themselves.
Fakultní Thomayerova Nemocnice
Some patients have even reported choosing this hospital to receive care specifically to be around the wild sheep who linger there. And for medical staff, it’s easy to see why.
“Every year, new cubs are added that will cheer up almost everyone,” the hospital wrote. “In general, for our patients (and not only them), these cute four-legged creatures have a positive effect and can also have a good influence on the patient’s recovery in the form of pleasant therapy.”
