An adorable and emotional video of Vanilla the chimpanzee has gone viral. The clip shows Vanilla the chimp seeing the open sky for the first time at the age of 29.
The sweet moment was filmed the day the animal arrived at the Save the Chimps’ sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. Vanilla timidly walked out of her enclosure into the open air and was greeted and hugged by alpha male Dwight.
While standing outside, the chimp showed sheer delight and amazement as it stared at the big blue sky above him.
The chimpanzee spent her entire life locked in a cage at New York’s infamous Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP).
From her birth to the age of 2, Vanilla lived in an experimental New York lab in a 5-foot-square cage that was suspended. There were several other apes in the lab, but they were not allowed to have any contact with each other.
Vanilla was rescued from the notorious facility in 1997 after it was closed. The ape was later moved to a facility in California, where she was caged with other primates.
In 2019, the refuge went out of business due to wildfires. Her Save the Chimps profile reads: “I spent my early years in a biomedical research laboratory in New York, where chimpanzees were commonly housed in 5’x5’x7’ cages suspended from the ground like bird cages. I was among thirty chimpanzees to be sent to the Wildlife Waystation in 1995, where I joined a small family group.”
In 2022, Vanilla the Chimp traveled via FedEx to the Florida sanctuary. The sanctuary is an island of multiple communities measuring 150 acres.
There are 226 chimpanzees rescued from laboratories, the entertainment industry, the exotic pet trade, and roadside zoos.
Every chimp is matched to their island by a primatologist based on their personality and behavior.
Save the Chimps’ primatologist Dr. Andrew Halloran revealed that after Vanilla was welcomed by Dwight and marveled at the sky, she went to explore her new island.
The expert shared: “In California, Vanilla lived with a handful of chimps inside a chain-link fence cage with no grass and very little enrichment.”
He continued: “Vanilla is settling in very well. When she’s not exploring the island with her friends, she can usually be found perched atop a three-story climbing platform, surveying her new world. She gets along with all the other 18 chimps on her island and has a particularly playful relationship with the alpha male Dwight, from whom she steals food.”
Vanilla has become a real internet sensation.
