Caged For 28 Years, Watch Chimpanzee See Sky For The First Time

FORT PIERCE, FL — For decades, all Vanilla the chimpanzee knew was cage tops.

Born in 1994, she spent her earliest months at a biomedical research laboratory in New York, where chimpanzees were usually housed in small enclosures suspended from the ground like bird cages. A year later, Vanilla was among 30 chimpanzees sent to the Wildlife Waystation in California, where she was kept inside a chain-link pen with no grass.

But Vanilla's life changed when the Wildlife Waystation closed and she made the cross-country trip to Save The Chimp's private sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. She left cages behind when she joined her new family on the sanctuary's three-acre Air Force Island.

But above all, the sanctuary staff said her joy was tangible in the video that showed the moment Vanilla saw a great-big blue sky for the very first time.

After fully integrating into her new family, the time came to go outside and experience the freedom of her new life and new home. Sanctuary staff filmed an apprehensive Vanilla waiting in a doorway as other chimps moved around her.

That's when alpha male Dwight greeted her with open arms, encouraging her to join him.

"She leaped into his arms, and he engulfed her in a big hug, a special moment caught on camera," the sanctuary staff wrote. "As she gained the courage to go farther, she was in awe, gazing up at the open and vast sky above her for the first time in her life."

Since her release, Vanilla is now a regular on the island, where she's spotted soaking up the sun, and playing and reveling in the companionship and freedom her new life provides her, according to the sanctuary staff.

Learn more about Vanilla and how you can support her in her new home.

In their natural homes in the wild, chimpanzees — who also happen to be humans' closest living genetic relatives — are never separated from their families and troops. Profoundly social beings, they spend every day together exploring, crafting, foraging, playing and grooming each other.

By the 21st century, more than 900 chimpanzees were housed in U.S. laboratories for experimental testing.

In 2015, the National Institutes of Health announced it planned to cut funding for chimpanzee testing and would retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. The announcement followed a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to classify all captive chimpanzees as "endangered," effectively ending invasive experiments on chimpanzees.