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.

**NEW SANDHILL CRANE PATIENT** This month old Sandhill Crane was JUST admitted from Chesterton after it was seen consist...
06/22/2026

**NEW SANDHILL CRANE PATIENT**

This month old Sandhill Crane was JUST admitted from Chesterton after it was seen consistently sitting and not feeding or following its parents and sibling. Concerned homeowners reached out due to its lethargic behavior and we were able to get it into care.

Our exam revealed that he is considerably underweight with a pronounced keel, and very lethargic. We will be running blood work and have started him on fluids and antibiotics as we work to determine the cause of his lethargy. In the meantime, we will continue to keep tabs on his family with the hope that eventually he may be able to be reunited, if that is even a possibility.

In the meantime, we need your support!! Two Sandhill Crane c**ts are a huge task for the rehab to take on! While we are confident in our ability to care for these two patients, they will require a lot of resources in food and space. Your donations allow us to accommodate these longer term patients and still care for the 600+ animals still in our care.

The admission of this NEW c**t is also a benefit to our first c**t admitted over a week ago. He now has the ability to see, and hear, another Sandhill Crane as he grows. Once he is closer in size, and not at risk of being accidentally injured by his new roommate, they will be placed together. In the meantime the older crane has the large room as the smaller c**t is still confined to the large soft sided kennel until there is less of a size difference.

To assist in the care of these, and other animals in our care, please consider donating at www.humaneindiana.org/donate (choose WILDLIFE in the drop down)

It's Sandhill Saturday!! Our Sandhill Crane c**t has been at the center for a week now and has more than doubled in size...
06/20/2026

It's Sandhill Saturday!! Our Sandhill Crane c**t has been at the center for a week now and has more than doubled in size since his admission!! Initially weighing just 112 grams, he is now up to 237g as of this morning!! He has also increased his food palate and is much more willing to eat the variety of foods offered throughout the day!

Our newest addition to his care is an adult Sandhill Crane sock puppet complete with tong beak. This allows staff to continue to supplement the chick with food by handfeeding him, without him seeing our hands. Our faces continue to be hidden by mesh screening to prevent imprinting. Our little c**t gets incredibly excited for his clock puppet mama, chirping loudly and running to peck at the beak for food as soon as it is introduced.

Within the next two weeks we will clear an entire room for our c**t and introduce a taxidermy Sandhill Crane to serve as new mom until the c**t is old enough to go outside. The last c**t our staff raised also utilized a taxidermy mom, with great success.

This c**t has a long rehab journey ahead of him but we know he will continue to thrive in our care and with all of the outpouring of support he has received from our community! You can continue to support his care by donating on this post or at www.humaneindiana.org/donate (choose WILDLIFE) in the drop down menu.

Like, comment, and share this post so our community can all share in this c**ts journey through rehab!

06/19/2026

It's Freedom Friday!! Last week this adult 13-Lined Ground Squirrel was returned back to the wild after being caught in a snap trap over a month ago. The trauma resulted in a severely swollen neck and jaw which led to his teeth growing abnormally for a while. After receiving plenty of time to heal, and a tooth trim so they would grow in straight, he's now ready for his freedom! After all he's been through, it is well deserved!!!

We are so incredibly grateful for everyone who donated items from our Amazon Wishlist or shared our post for others to d...
06/19/2026

We are so incredibly grateful for everyone who donated items from our Amazon Wishlist or shared our post for others to donate!! Just look at all the incredible items that have arrived at the rehab in just the last 48 hours!!

Our Amazon deliveryman had to make two trips with his giant tote today bringing boxes from his truck! While items from yesterday's delivery were unpacked and put away, we can't wait to unpack all of the boxes tomorrow that arrived this afternoon for our patients.

Lunch time!! This young Groundhog is being formula fed 3 times a day after being found on its own in a puddle, hypotherm...
06/18/2026

Lunch time!! This young Groundhog is being formula fed 3 times a day after being found on its own in a puddle, hypothermic and very sluggish. Staff was able to bring his body temperature back up to normal and rehydrate him within a few hours before transitioning him over onto our Groundhog milk replacer and starting him on greens, fruits, veggies, and nuts!

While we do have five other Groundhogs currently in care, this little one is less than half their size! Our area of Indiana has additional warnings for flooding over the next few days, and we would not be surprised if we ended up admitting more young Groundhogs as a result. The hope is that at least a few are his size so that he can have foster siblings.

Young Groundhogs stay with their mothers for roughly 7 weeks, becoming fully independent and leaving the burrow at just 2-3 months old. This is a similar timeframe for tree squirrel species as well, who gain their independence at roughly 13 weeks of age. This timeline ensures that young groundhogs develop the necessary skills for foraging, predator avoidance, and survival before leaving their mother.

This smallest ground hog kit will be with us until at least the end of July. In the meantime, he would love any and all veggies, please!

Back in April, a female Evening Bat was found on the ground in Munster, near Community Hospital. After having been seen ...
06/17/2026

Back in April, a female Evening Bat was found on the ground in Munster, near Community Hospital. After having been seen in the same location for two days, she was rescued and safely transferred into our care. After weeks of in-house care, she was still not flying. To give her a better chance, she was moved into a larger soft-sided enclosure to help build her strength and recover muscle mass lost during her initial unknown injury.
On May 28th, as staff was cleaning her enclosure, we discovered two tiny secrets our patient had been carrying. Two brand new Evening Bat pups were found tucked under moms' wings, with full bellies, and being well cared for. In the past few weeks, we have continued monitoring the pups care from afar, allowing mom to provide her babies with the best possible care. At nearly a month old now, the pups are fully furred but still nursing from mom. Pups will nurse for roughly 50 days before being completely weaned, meaning this mama has secured herself at least another month of care at our center.

Once pups are weaned, they, along with mom, will be moved into a larger tent to check out their flight capabilities prior to being returned back to the wild near where the adult female was originally found.
To support our bat family, and other animals coming into care at this time please consider a donation at www.humaneindiana.org/donate (choose WILDLIFE in the drop-down menu).

Well, the weather is miserable (⛈️🌪️again) but we are choosing to focus on the positives! Yesterday our education team v...
06/17/2026

Well, the weather is miserable (⛈️🌪️again) but we are choosing to focus on the positives! Yesterday our education team visited Painted Palette Studio Nate Biancardi, Artist with our education ambassadors, Apollo (American Kestrel), Calypso (Broad-wing Hawk), and Jasper (Eastern Screech) so that their campers could draw renderings from live models! Don't you think they did an excellent job?!?!

We are looking forward to visiting the camp again tomorrow with several of our turtle ambassadors and possibly again in July for their next summer session!! For more information on the Painted Palette Studio check out their FB page linked above!

**Donation Request**We are packed with opossums, swimming in songbirds!! This means we are going through an insane amoun...
06/16/2026

**Donation Request**

We are packed with opossums, swimming in songbirds!! This means we are going through an insane amount of insects on a daily basis!! Our stockpile of dried mealworms, dried crickets, and bloodworms is diminishing very quickly.

Eating insects right now inside the center are:
🐦 50+ Robins, Bluebirds, Phoebes, Grackles and our crane c**t
🐭215 Virginia Opossums
🦇3 Evening Bats (+4 orphans Big Brown Bats currently on formula only)
🦨3 Striped Skunk
🐢6 Turtles

You can help feed our patients by checking out our Amazon Wishlist and sending bugs directly to our doorstep! These items can be found on our list at: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/12TH5G1M7K4DC?ref_=wl_share

Thank you to our friends from Stantec for choosing Humane Indiana Wildlife for their Stantec In The Community volunteer ...
06/15/2026

Thank you to our friends from Stantec for choosing Humane Indiana Wildlife for their Stantec In The Community volunteer day!! This is the 3rd year in a row their team has chosen to volunteer to support our mission and we are incredibly grateful for all their efforts!

This year their team tackled a multitude of smaller projects instead of 1-2 big ones! Their team built a new squirrel enclosure for our young Fox Squirrel patients, put together a desk in our new Resource Center, put together 24 new intake bins for newly admitted mammal babies, worked to rid our landscaping from all the clover and weeds, and moved out our old washing machine so we could install a new one!!

All of that work was accomplished in just 3 hours! To top it all off, one of their employees even transported one of our 13-Lined Ground Squirrel patients back to his home county for release back to the wild!!

Thank you Stantec!!

Storms of this past week had really put a pause on moving animals around at the center! These three young fox were admit...
06/15/2026

Storms of this past week had really put a pause on moving animals around at the center! These three young fox were admitted into our care weeks ago after their mothers had been found deceased and they were found wandering alone at an age when they should still have been nursing. Now as weaned juveniles they are ready to move outside!

Initially, these fox kits will move into a mid-sized outdoor enclosure that is 10ft x 20ft until we can complete repairs on the big 30ft x 40 ft fox enclosure that was damaged earlier this season. While we would love to be able to move them directly into the big space, we still have a bit more work to do, including adding the pitched netted top, before they can move out there.

Did you know that our facility works with local grocery stores to receive donations of produce and meat that was destined for landfills even though it's still good?? Multiple times a week our team visits local grocery stores to pick up food that may have been bruised, old, or maybe past its shelf date we then are able to use that food to create diverse diets for the hundreds of animals in our care. While we do still need food supplemented sometimes through donations, this process saves us thousands of dollars annually and saves literal tons of food from going directly into landfills.

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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