A 28-year-old chimpanzee, who was caged her entire life, saw the open sky for the first time in her life in a heartwarming video captured at her new home in Florida.
Vanilla, the rescued chimp, spent years at a New York biomedical research laboratory where chimps were often housed in small cages, which were “suspended from the ground like bird cages,” according to Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee sanctuary.
In 1995, Vanilla and about 30 chimps were sent to the Wildlife Waystation – a now-closed animal sanctuary in California – where she joined a small family group.
When Wildlife Waystation closed in 2019, due to financial difficulties, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife moved all the animals living in the Los Angeles County sanctuary to locations around the country. CDFW officials said finding a new home for the 42 chimps “proved especially difficult.”
“It was actually relatively easy to find homes for lions, tigers, bears, jaguars, all sorts of primates, birds and reptiles,” CDFW Regional Manager Ed Pert said in a news release last year. “Chimpanzees are a difficult species to rehome. After it became illegal to do medical research on chimpanzees in 2015, U.S research facilities have been closing down or rehoming them. There hasn’t been enough space at good facilities to take them all in.”
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Video shows Vanilla jump into chimps arms, look up at the sky for first time
Vanilla was among the final seven chimps to be rehomed, Save the Chimps said. Vanilla and four other chimps – Shake, Magic, Jeff and Ernesta – were taken to a Florida sanctuary.
After quarantine, a process that all new chimps go through, Vanilla and her family were introduced to the larger family groups at the sanctuary and are now fully integrated, Save the Chimps said.
“Shake went out onto the island without hesitation, but Vanilla was a bit more apprehensive when the door opened to this new world,” Save the Chimps said. “She sat in the doorway until Dwight, the alpha male, encouraged her to join him.”
In the heartwarming video captured by the sanctuary, Vanilla leaps into Dwight’s arms and looks up at the sky for the first time in 28 years.
