Heartwarming moment Chimpanzee Vanilla explodes with joy when she sees the sky for the first time

This is the heartwarming moment when 29-year-old chimpanzee Vanilla bursts out with joy when she sees the sky for the first time after spending her entire life in a cage.

On her move-in day, Vanilla has been captured in adorable footage being encouraged by alpha male Dwight to go outside and stare at the sky in awe. This was the 29-year-old’s emotional first time outside a five-foot cage or enclosure.

After living in an experimental lab in New York until she was two years old, Vanilla remained in a shelter in California where she couldn’t see the sky clearly because of the fenced roof.

She was then moved to the Save the Chimps Preserve in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Vanilla was greeted with a hug from Dwight as soon as she stepped onto the reserve and welcomed her into her new home, where she will live alongside 18 other primates. She looked overjoyed when she was welcomed with open arms.

And as more of her new primate housemates came to greet her, she continued to stare at the sky in disbelief.

The chimpanzee was greeted with a hug from alpha male Dwight as soon as she stepped into the sanctuary and welcomed her to her new home, where she will live with 225 other primates, 18 of which are on her island. Vanilla was visibly delighted with the new environment

The video also shows her happily running around the 3-acre island and sitting with her new family, who were grooming each other.

The video was created by Dr. Andrew Halloran, Save the Chimps primatologist New York Post: ‘In California, Vanilla lived with a handful of chimpanzees in a chain link cage, with no grass and very little enrichment.’

Halloran said that when Vanilla, who is described by the Save the Chimps as independent, curious, and intelligent, isn’t exploring her new island with the other chimps, she sits atop a three-story climbing platform overlooking her new world.

Vanilla lives on one of 12 islands, which are separated by small water beds, allowing the reserve to give the chimpanzees their own open-air playground.

She gets along well with the 18 chimpanzees on her island, Halloran added, saying Vanilla had a special relationship with alpha male Dwight, from whom she sometimes steals food.

The island communities total 150 acres and each chimpanzee is matched to their island by a primatologist based on their personality and behavior.

More of her new roommates came to greet her as she continued to stare at the camera and sky in disbelief

The adorable footage also showed her happily running around the 3-acre island

At the end of the video, she was seen with her new family grooming each other

When Vanilla (pictured), described by the Save the Chimps as independent, curious and intelligent, isn’t exploring her new island with the other chimps, she’s perched atop a three-story climbing platform overlooking her new world.

Vanilla first lived at the now-closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York, where she was housed until 1995 in five-foot cages suspended from the ceiling—similar to bird cages

Vanilla first lived at the now-closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York, where she was housed until 1995 in five-foot cages suspended from the ceiling — similar to bird cages.

She was two years old and was one of 30 chimpanzees sent to the Wildlife Waystation in California, joining a small family group that stayed in a fenced-roof enclosure.

But when the shelter closed in 2019, she was once again without a home, along with 480 other animals — including 42 chimpanzees — who lived there.

Rescuers rushed to rehome all the primates, with Vanilla being one of the last seven to be relocated. The little family was called Sunrise Seven.

The chimpanzee and her family made the cross-country trip to Florida, where they were quarantined before being slowly introduced to the larger family groups.

Now Vanilla and her family finally have a 3-acre island to explore and roam as they please as part of the Save the Chimps Preserve.

The 226 chimpanzees at the sanctuary came from laboratories, the entertainment industry, exotic pet trade or roadside zoos, and most of them had never interacted with other chimpanzees and had to endure solitary confinement.

What was the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates and why did it close?

At one point, the Laboratory of Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) housed some 300 chimpanzees and nearly 300 monkeys. Chimpanzees and other non-human primates have been subjected to intensive biomedical research in areas such as reproduction, blood transfusions, hepatitis B and HIV.

LEMSIP was founded in 1965 with the goal of becoming a government-funded primate research center for the New York area, but it remained a private lab until it closed in 1997.

These facilities include the Fauna Foundation, Wildlife Waystation – where Vanilla had moved – and the Primate Rescue Center

The lab, located in a wooded area north of New York City, was affiliated with New York University’s (NYU) School of Medicine.

In 1995, NYU responded to LEMSIP by suddenly announcing that it would close LEMSIP and donate all of its primates to the Coulston Foundation.

At the time, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had filed formal charges against Coulston for the negligent deaths of chimpanzees and monkeys.

In 1997, the LEMSIP chimpanzees were sent to Coulston, but not before Jim Mahoney, LEMSIP’s veterinarian and acting director after the previous director Jan Moor-Jankowski was fired, managed to place 109 chimpanzees and 100 monkeys in sanctuaries across North America.

These include the Fauna Foundation, Wildlife Waystation – where Vanilla has moved – and the Primate Rescue Center.

Source: Releasechimps.org