Heartwarming moment lab chimp named Vanilla kept in a cage her whole life sees the sky for the first time | The Sun
THIS is the touching moment a chimpanzee which lived its life in a laboratory sees the open sky for the very first time.
For the first 29 years of chimp Vanilla's life, she only saw the inside of a brutal testing laboratory – but her new digs in an animal sanctuary allow her freedom like never before.
The heartwarming video shows Vanilla entering the enclosure and being hugged by the "alpha male" Dwight.
She then peers up at the sunny skies and looks absolutely spellbound, as she gets used to her new home.
As she walks to join the other chimps, her eyes flick up at the sky again in amazement.
Vanilla was formerly confined to a 5-foot square cage before being rescued in 1997 and moved to California.
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Now she has a new home in Save the Chimps sanctuary in her native Florida.
Primatologist Dr Andrew Halloran shared the video and said: "In California, Vanilla lived with a handful of chimps inside a chain-link fence cage with no grass and very little enrichment.
“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.”
And the chimp is seemingly at home, as she's even cheekily begun to steal food from the alpha Dwight.
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The entire "island refuge" she's in has 226 other chimps rescued from laboratories, exotic pet trades and zoos.
Another heartwarming video shows the moment a chimpanzee hugs the woman who rescued him 18 years before.
A camera caught the moment she returned to their enclosure, in southern Florida, the US, and was greeted with open arms by the chimps.
The footage, filmed for documentary The Wisdom of the Wild, showed Linda nearing their pen and asking: “Do you remember me?”
A chimp named Swing then reached out a hand to Koebner and cracked a huge smile.
Another primate, named Doll, ran over excitedly and the two animals embraced her.
Koebner, who founded the non-profit chimpanzee sanctuary Chimp Haven in Louisiana, helped ease the chimps into living outside and how to fend for themselves 18 years ago.
Drug and vaccine testing on chimpanzees only stopped in the US in 2015, when they were listed as an endangered species.
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