The main purpose of the Helmi alien predator project is to keep alien predators away from Finland’s most valuable birdwaters especially during the bird nesting season in the spring, when it is easy for predators to eat eggs and prey on nestlings and adult birds.
Besides the organisation of the work, the aim is to develop methods to be used for capturing alien predators. Work on research is done in close cooperation with the University of Turku. The lessons learned from the project will promote activities related to alien predators nationwide.
The Helmi alien predator project is also important in terms of communicating on alien predators. Besides our own actions, we also communicate on the harmful impacts of raccoon dog and mink and ways to capture them and, through this, to reduce damage to nature.
Project background
Nationally, the populations of many waterfowl species have been declining for a long time. In the big picture, the main reason is the degradation of habitats and preying by invasive alien predators such as raccoon dog and mink as part of this. The Helmi alien predator project aims to significantly ease the hunting pressure on waterfowl by eradicating alien predators.
Project activities
From the very beginning, the leading idea of the Helmi alien predator project has been to target resources to eradicating alien predators in the field and to provide support for this. As a concrete result of this, each year about 4,000 raccoon dogs and 1,000 minks are removed from valuable birdwater sites.
Besides this, new trapping methods are studied and developed and even new traps are created to support intensive trapping. During the project period 2021–2024 the focus was on developing trapping methods for raccoon dogs and in 2025–2028 the same is being done for minks.
The development work of the first project period culminated in the use of drones to capture raccoon dogs and the consequent legislative amendments in the beginning of 2025.
In late summer 2025 an experiment concerning the use scent to lure minks was started in the Pori region and an experiment concerning the use rafts in mink trapping in Helmi sites was started in the Bothnian Bay and coastal regions. Both experiments aim at more effective use of traps for capturing minks.
Besides the development of trapping methods, research cooperation with the University of Turku related to alien predators and their population management is a key part of the project work. The University has conducted research on the population management carried out in the project and participated in studying the mink trapping methods.
Project outcomes
The key achievement of the early stages of the project was the organisation of the capturing of alien predators in Finland’s most valuable birdwaters. This was followed by the ongoing work on the application of operating models and technical devices for capturing alien predators and, in part, on developing these. The project monitors the success in capturing alien predators both as a separate process and through the research work of the University of Turku. The most important indicator for the success is the increase and diversification of bird populations in the sites concerned. There are already indications of this in e.g. Matalajärvi in Espoo, where a considerable increase has been observed in the number of Eurasian coot broods, and it is again possible for many threatened species to nest in the area. Impact assessments of the restoration of birdwaters are carried out by the Finnish Environment Institute, which will publish an assessment of the impacts of capturing alien predators as a separate report later on.
Main achievements of the project so far:
Raccoon dog populations have been significantly reduced in most sites where the populations were exceptionally large before the project. More information on this is available in the research report of the University of Turku, according to which the movement of raccoon dogs and the preying they target on artificial nests during the bird nesting season decreased considerably in sites where alien predators were captured.
The project studied the possibilities to use drones with heat cameras for capturing raccoon dogs in reed areas and proved their capabilities both in eradicating raccoon dogs and in monitoring the numbers of raccoon dogs in the sites concerned. The use of drones made it possible to efficiently remove raccoon dogs from the reed areas before the bird nesting season and with minimal disturbance to nature in the area. It is also possible to monitor whether new raccoon dogs will wander to the reed areas. Thanks to the studies carried out in the project, the legislation on the use of drones for capturing alien predators was amended in the beginning of 2025.
The project on enhancing knowledge on alien predators has communicated extensively about its results, observations and alien predators in general during the whole project period. Today the eradication of alien predators is quite widely accepted and, very likely, the effective and well-targeted communication has played a role in this.
The project has also created a teaching website on capturing alien predators vieraspeto.fi
Current activities (updated 30.12.2025)
At the moment, the Helmi alien predator project is exploring means to make the trapping of minks more efficient. Another experiment is testing the effectiveness of scents of wild and farmed minks for luring minks. There is also an experiments concerned with comparing the effectiveness of traps placed on floating rafts and those on the shore for capturing minks. The aim is to use data from the experiments to make the commercial mink traps available at present even more effective. During the second period of the Helmi project, the focus is on developing the trapping of minks.
Articles and publications by the project
Flera publikationer om projektet under årens lopp, bland annat följande:
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