Former Research-Lab Chimps Go Outside For First Time: WATCH

BLUE RIDGE, GA — The winter storm that dumped ice and snow on north Georgia this week wasn't enough to stop a major milestone for 15 chimpanzees at a sanctuary there. The chimps, who used to live caged up in research labs, went outside for the first time in their lives.

Watch the video of the chimps going outside at the bottom of this story.

"There wasn't a dry human eye in the sanctuary ...," said Ali Crumpacker, executive director of Project Chimps in Blue Ridge, a mountain town about 90 miles north of Atlanta near the North Carolina state line. "This was the first time in their lives these former research chimps could look up at an unobstructed sky, feel soil and grass under their feet, and forage in a forested, natural environment."

On Tuesday, two separate groups of chimps — nine females and six males — were released briefly into the sanctuary's new Peachtree Habitat. The boys hung out for about 90 minutes and the ladies enjoyed about 45 minutes outside before heading back into more familiar territory.

"Some chimps reacted with fear and trepidation and others with wonder and curiosity," Crumpacker said on the sanctuary's website. "Some explored very briefly, while others ventured far into the enclosed, six-acre habitat."

Project Chimps is a 236-acre, nonprofit sanctuary founded in 2014 and opened in 2016. It is staffed by primate experts and other animal-care professionals working toward what they call unprecedented advances in the way captive primates are treated.

Currently, 31 chimpanzees live at the sanctuary, where up to 200 are expected to eventually reside.

It opened when University of Louisiana-Lafayette retired 220 chimps that had previously been used for research and, according to the organization, signals a growing awareness that the conditions under which chimpanzees have historically been used for research are unacceptable.

In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the status of all chimpanzees to "endangered." That opened up new protections for captive chimps. On the heels of that move, the National Institutes of Health officially ended its use of chimpanzees in medical research.

On Tuesday, both the female and male chimps paused suspiciously at the newly opened doorways of their enclosures before taking their first, tentative steps into the outdoor habitat. Video shared by the sanctuary shows the first chimps to step outside motioning toward their more reluctant friends — appearing to assure them that everything is OK.

They played and shared hugs and explored their new surroundings, grabbing fruit left out for them by sanctuary staff. During the video, sanctuary staffers can be heard laughing, and sometimes crying, as the chimps enjoy their new freedom.

"This is just the beginning of the chimps' time outdoors," the video says at the end. "This is their time to live."

Crumpacker said the Peachtree Habitat was funded by donations from Project Chimps board member Marsha Perelman, the American Anti-Vivisection Society, Solid Security Perimeter Solutions and National Anti-Vivisection Society.

For more information, visit the Project Chimps website. Watch the video below:

Photo via Project Chimps YouTube channel