Vanilla, a 28-year-old chimpanzee, has lived in captivity all her life without ever seeing the sky once. But now a poignant new video shows the great ape seeing the sky for the first time at an island chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida.
For part of his early life, Vanilla lived at a biomedical research center in New York, where he was kept in small cages “hanging from the ground like birdcages” along with dozens of other chimpanzees (pantroglodytes). save. A shelter in Fort Pierce, Florida, rescued Vanilla and 29 of her peers.
After being removed from the New York facility in 1995, Vanilla and other captive chimpanzees were sent to Wildlife Waystation, an animal rescue center in California that closed in 2019, where they were housed in an enclosure under a roof disconnected from the outside world. . This was reported by the Daily Mail.
“In California, Vanilla lived weed-free and very little enriched in a fenced-in cage with a group of chimpanzees,” he said. New York PositionAndrew Halloran, primatologist and director of Save the Chimps.
After Wildlife Waystation closed, Vanilla and her group arrived at Save the Chimps in a FedEx plane, part of FedEx Cares, a global community outreach program, before arriving at the organization’s sanctuary in a semi-truck.
After spending time in quarantine, which is standard procedure at the reserve, the chimpanzees were gradually introduced into one of the facility’s extended family groups.
In a newly released video, Vanilla is seen jumping out the door and hugging Dwight the chimp. Throughout the recording, he repeatedly looks up at the sky as he explores his new open-air grassy habitat on the 3-acre (1.2-hectare) island.
“Sheikh (another rescued chimp) didn’t hesitate to go to the island, but Vanilla was a little more frightened when the door opened to this new world,” Save the Chimps said. “The alpha male sat in the doorway until Dwight invited him to join him.”
Source: Port Altele
