This incredibly heartwarming footage captures the moment a chimpanzee, who spent her entire life in a cage, sees the open sky for the first time.
Vanilla the chimpanzee was raised at New York’s infamous Primate Experimental Medicine and Surgery Institute (LEMSIP). Vanilla lived in this infamous institute for two years until it closed in 1997.
The primate was sent to a California sanctuary along with other chimpanzees, where it remained until 2019.
But this year, the shelter was closed after being threatened by wildfires. But last year, the shelter arranged to fly Vanilla and her friends to their new home in Sunshine, Florida.
Dr. Andrew Halloran, a primatologist, said, “In California, vanilla lived with a few chimpanzees in cages with chain-link fences where there was no grass and there was little to do.” Told.
A video of Vanilla staring in awe at the vast sky was shared by Halloran at the Primate Society of America symposium in Reno on Friday. In the heartwarming footage, Vanilla is seen staring at the sky in awe.
Vanilla will share the new island reserve with 225 other chimpanzees abandoned from laboratories, the entertainment industry, the rare pet trade and roadside zoos.
Many residents had endured life in solitary confinement and had no contact with her peers.
Luckily, Vanilla adjusted well to her new home. Halloran said, “Vanilla fits in very well. When he’s not exploring the island with his friends, he’s usually perched on a three-story climbing platform looking out into the new world.”
Each chimpanzee is assigned to his one of her twelve island communities within the reserve, and Halloran decides who belongs to which community based on personality.
Vanilla is reportedly well acclimatized to her own island, and she has already formed a close bond with her alpha male, Dwight (who is seen embracing her in her video).
. “She gets along well with all 18 other chimpanzees on the island and has a particularly playful relationship with her alpha male, Dwight, stealing food from him,”
Halloran said. for decades. As of 2013, only two countries, the United States and Gabon, were using great apes for medical experiments, but their use is on the decline.
In 2011, 1,200 chimpanzees underwent clinical examinations, compared with fewer than 700 in 2016.