THE WASHINGTON POST – Vanilla looked hesitant to step outside. The moment she did, she stopped and stared upward, mouth open as if in awe, at the sky above her.
It was the first time the 28-year-old chimpanzee had seen the sky without peering through metal bars.
A video of the chimp staring slack-jawed as she emerged into her new habitat for the first time went viral after it was shared last month by Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Florida, United States.
The clip captured the joyous conclusion to Vanilla’s long, turbulent journey through several other homes – none of which allowed her an unobstructed view of the sky, Save the Chimps CEO Ana Paula Tavares told The Washington Post. To Tavares, the response to Vanilla’s milestone was unsurprising. It underscored the similarities between chimpanzees and humans and the urgency of rescuing chimps like Vanilla from mistreatment, she said.
“We’re similar not just physically, but emotionally,” Tavares said. “So it has been, I think, really easy for people to recognise her joy, empathise with her story.”
Vanilla was born in a New York biomedical research lab in 1994, according to Save the Chimps. She was one of many chimpanzees raised in captivity in the United States for medical research, a practice that was phased out by the National Institutes of Health in 2015.
Vanilla was housed in isolation in an enclosure seven feet tall and suspended like a birdcage, according to Save the Chimps. She underwent numerous invasive procedures, including liver biopsies, Tavares said.
Chimpanzees share over 98 per cent of their DNA with humans, which made them valuable subjects for medical research – but also meant they felt the effects of an isolated upbringing just as keenly as people would, Tavares sad. – Daniel Wu
