Humane Indiana Wildlife

Humane Indiana Wildlife Humane Indiana Wildlife Rehabilitation Center provides expert medical care for injured and orphaned animals native to Indiana.
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The education center provides educational opportunities for community groups, schools, and internships for college students. The Moraine Ridge Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was founded in 1997 by a group of wildlife rehabilitators and enthusiasts. Their primary mission then and now is to rescue, rehabilitate and return orphaned and injured wildlife to the wild. A second parallel and equally esse

ntial part of the mission is to provide educational opportunities for the community that promotes informed and humane interaction with native wildlife. In 2003 two acres of wooded, rural land adjacent to a state designated wildlife habitat was donated to the organization and in 2005 ground was broken to construct a building designed to serve their mission. The building was completed in 2008 with widespread community support, including a challenge grant from the Porter County Convention Recreation and Visitors Commission, generous cash donations and substantial gifts of labor and materials from individuals. For many years Moraine Ridge depended almost entirely on volunteers to accomplish its mission. In 2014 MRWRC became a subsidiary of the Humane Society Calumet Area. This brought about the ability to hire professional staff and gave access to a sophisticated infrastructure which allows us to substantially expand the scope of our mission and services.

Fall babies make up the vast majority of our 500+ patients currently in care. Staff spend nearly 6 hours each day caring...
08/31/2026

Fall babies make up the vast majority of our 500+ patients currently in care. Staff spend nearly 6 hours each day caring for the young wildlife who have come to us after being displaced by storms, dropped and never reclaimed by their mothers, caught by domestic pets, or plucked from the nest by wild predators and dropped.

This young Eastern Chipmunk was admitted to the center after being pulled from a dog's mouth. He was admitted nearly lifeless and completely covered in slobber. With some emergency care he is now doing quite well and will soon join our other young chipmunk patients.

How can you help our orphans? Right now we are in need of new formula warmers and some water wipes to help keep our babies clean. These items can be sent directly to us from our Amazon Wishlist found here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12TH5G1M7K4DC?ref_=wl_share

After undergoing a physical exam and CT this past Tuesday at Arbor View Animal Hospital, our Bald Eagle patient has been...
08/30/2026

After undergoing a physical exam and CT this past Tuesday at Arbor View Animal Hospital, our Bald Eagle patient has been moved into our pre-release flight cage!! Flight enclosures are the last step within rehabilitative care prior to being cleared for their return back to the wild.

This Bald Eagle was brought to us the day after the derecho. Admitted by one of our local conservation officers, this eagle was initially found in Schneider. Our own initial exam unveiled only a very minor abrasion to her right wrist and the CT exam at the veterinary hospital confirmed no other injuries.

We have no idea what initially grounded this nearly 11lb bird, but she got very lucky to have sustained no serious injuries. We look forward to returning her back to the wild soon!

Some eaters are polite, and some dive in, face first! These young opossums, and their siblings, have been in our care si...
08/28/2026

Some eaters are polite, and some dive in, face first! These young opossums, and their siblings, have been in our care since they were tiny joeys. Now fully weaned, they are developing quite the palate as they are introduced to a wide variety of foods. Not only do we provide our patients with fresh fruits, vegetables, and different types of protein, but we also provide them with a pelleted diet that will ensure they are not lacking any nutrients!

These pelleted diets are formulated for different types of patients with our rodents, omnivores, insectivores, and waterfowl all receiving their own unique grain as a supplement to the rest of their diet. It's thanks to our incredible donors and your support that we are able to provide our patients with the very best nutrition available.

Thank you so much to the team at Shive Hattery for volunteering their time today to volunteer at the center! Their team ...
08/27/2026

Thank you so much to the team at Shive Hattery for volunteering their time today to volunteer at the center! Their team cleared debris from our goat/pig pen and fixed the boards so that our livestock can be back in their yard! They also removed downed limbs that were making it difficult for our team to navigate to all of our outdoor pens efficiently. We greatly appreciate their hard work!!

Well this is familiar... It's not even raining!! 😵‍💫 For some reason our center is currently without power.. we ARE OPEN...
08/26/2026

Well this is familiar... It's not even raining!! 😵‍💫 For some reason our center is currently without power.. we ARE OPEN and accepting animals but we are without lights and have no functioning phones. Please bare with us as we navigate today's challenges.

Animals can be admitted to the center from 8am-4pm with no appointments necessary prior to bringing them to us.

08/25/2026

Yesterday, after 75 days in care, our hatch year Peregrine Falcon from South Bend was returned back to the wild.

This young bird was originally found on the ground near construction equipment at the County City building in South Bend with a minor fracture in her right wing. After spending time convalescing in our hospital cages, so her wing could heal, she was eventually moved outside to rebuild her strength.

She was released yesterday at a private property just outside South Bend City proper so that she has access to her old nest location but was not released directly into heavy traffic and high buildings of the city.

This time of year is always incredibly difficult. As fall approaches our team begins to see an influx of young birds of ...
08/24/2026

This time of year is always incredibly difficult. As fall approaches our team begins to see an influx of young birds of prey for two primary reasons: inexperienced juveniles who are starving... And West Nile.

All three of these hatch year Great Horned Owls were admitted today after being found on the ground exhibiting signs of distress. Their movements were slow and jerky, they could not fly and easily gave up. All three birds are incredibly thin and at least two of them are exhibiting signs that could point to West Nile... But could also be rodenticide poisoning.

All 3 were provided fluids and supportive care as well as an easy to digest meal suited for their current body condition. All three will have a long stay with us, as they all gain weight and recover.

The thing with West Nile is that it takes a blood test to confirm, but the symptoms are pretty obvious. West Nile, because it is a virus, is either something the animal survives with the help of supportive care, or succumbs to. There is no magic antibiotic we can provide. We may have these birds for months, and they may still end up not recovering. That's just the ugly truth of West Nile. It's heartbreaking, and this year, already seems like it's going to be a rough season due to all the wet weather we have had lately.

The influx of Birds of Prey mean that we will start going to mice at a very fast rate. Mice are ordered pre-deceased from an Indiana based company called RodentPro. You can support our mouse supply by sending us Gift Certificates.

All you need to know is who to send it to! To support our growing need for mice (we already feed our patients 68 mice a day) please visit: https://rodentpro.com/giftcard/

Gift cards can be sent to Nicole Harmon at [email protected]! No gift is too small to keep our feathered friends fed!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first ever Wildlife Through the Lens: A Photography Session!! We had a sol...
08/23/2026

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first ever Wildlife Through the Lens: A Photography Session!! We had a sold out event with 20 participants! Everyone spent yesterday morning at our center learning how to better use their own cameras and getting the opportunity to photograph our very own ambassadors!

Participants had the opportunity to photograph and meet:
🦉 Jasper the Eastern Screech Owl
🦉Freya the Great Horned Owl
🦉Gimli the Short Earred Owl
🪶Freddie the Turkey Vulture
🦆 Porkchop the Mallard
🦆 Karen the Wood Duck

Special thanks to Jim Vincent for leading the session and making it a fun adventure! Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook Events Page for more photography opportunities!

The world is not kind to young birds. It is estimated that roughly 75-80% of first year birds do not survive. Yesterday ...
08/21/2026

The world is not kind to young birds. It is estimated that roughly 75-80% of first year birds do not survive. Yesterday we received two of those patients. One we will share now, but be sure to check back later to learn about our other young admit.

Around 2pm yesterday our staff admitted a hatch year Osprey who was found at the Cleveland Cliffs location in East Chicago. He had been seen on the ground for a number of days and was eventually able to be captured by Cliffs employees and brought to our center. This young bird has only been flying for a few short weeks but was unlucky enough to fly through a gas flare (or a similar structure). ALL of his primary feathers are burnt.

The feathers are damaged to the point that he is rendered flightless and it will take an incredibly long time for them to regrow. We will be reaching out to other raptor centers to determine our best course of action and how we can beat care for this unique situation.

Osprey are a unique patient to care for due to their feeding style. They are not known for eating well in captivity and are more stressed than your normal bird of prey. We will be working to teach this young bird how to eat from tongs and then how to feed himself using training methods similar to what we use for our ambassador birds.

There is a chance that this bird will be an incredibly long term patient depending on what options we have available to us to replace his feathers through a process called imping. We are exhausting all measures to get this bird the care he deserves after a very rough start to life.

To support our efforts to care for this, and so many other patients, please consider donating at www.humaneindiana.org/donate and be sure to choose WILDLIFE in the drop down menu. You can also donate to this post!

Patients come to us for any number of reasons. Some This turtle was accidentally snagged by a fishing hook which went th...
08/20/2026

Patients come to us for any number of reasons. Some This turtle was accidentally snagged by a fishing hook which went through his hard palate and out his nasal cavity. Our team was able to snip the hook and carefully remove it from his face after he was brought into our care.

Due to the damage caused to his nasal cavity we have him on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory/pain medication. He is also currently out of the water to prevent any issues with water entering his damaged sinuses. Turtles keep water out of their noses using internal nasal flaps and a special layout of their airway. When they go underwater, water pressure and muscular control close these tiny valves in their nose blocking water from getting into their lungs.

Address

570 N 450 E
Valparaiso, IN
46383

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
Friday 8am - 4pm
Saturday 8am - 4pm
Sunday 8am - 4pm

Telephone

(219) 299-8027

Website

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