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 welcomed with a hug from Dwight as soon as she stepped into the sanctuary, where she will live alongside 18 other primates. She looked overjoyed when she was greeted with open arms.

And as more of her 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, 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 three-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.’

Dr. Halloran said that when Vanilla isn’t exploring her island with the other chimpanzees, she sits atop a three-story climbing platform overlooking her new world.

Described by the Save the Chimps as independent, curious, and intelligent, Vanilla lives on one of 12 islands, which are separated by small water beds. This allows the sanctuary to give the chimpanzees their own outdoor playground.

Dr. Halloran added that she gets along well with the 18 chimpanzees on her island and said Vanilla had a special bond 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 housemates came to greet Vanilla as she continued to look into the camera and sky in disbelief

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

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

When Vanilla isn’t exploring her new island with the other chimpanzees, she’s perched atop a three-story climbing platform overlooking her new world.

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

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 three-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 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 300 chimpanzees and nearly 300 monkeys. Chimpanzees and other non-human primates were 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 federally funded primate research center for the New York area, but it remained a private lab until it closed in 1997.

Jim Mahoney succeeded in placing 109 chimpanzees and 100 monkeys in shelters in North America

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 and all primates would be given 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 chimps were sent to Coulston, but not before Jim Mahoney, LEMSIP’s veterinarian and acting director after 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