Rescued chimp is now ‘thriving’: sanctuary
STORY: [Dan Mathews, Director of events and special projects, Save the Chimps]
“She finally, after 28 years, had life as nature intended. Not completely. She's not in the wild, but she's in a habitat as close to the wild as can be managed for a chimp that was born in captivity."
Vanilla the chimpanzee has recently seen the sky for the first time
Location: Fort Pierce, Florida
"Vanilla was so shy when she first arrived at Save the Chimps. She had never felt grass beneath her feet before.”
The chimp spent her early years in a cage at a medical research lab
before eventually ending up at this sanctuary run by the nonprofit Save the Chimps
“When she came out of the enclosure and was welcomed by Dwight, the alpha male on that island, not only into her new world but into his arms as a warm embrace, it showed her, it signaled to her, that she was now a part of their family, their lifelong family."
Mathews says Vanilla has integrated well with the 18 other chimps on the island
"And seeing the emotion in her face was one of those things that struck us, like it did the other chimps in her community, like it did primatologists, as the look of awe and wonder at having freedom."
