Vanilla the chimpanzee spent his early years in an experimental animal laboratory in upstate New York. Now he has an entire island as his playground.
The 28-year-old chimpanzee jumps from the building into the open air and literally looks around with a round lip.
Opposite is the pack’s alpha male, Dwight, who greets his surprised fellow member, Vanilla, with a hug.
Privately funded Save the Chimps organization published a video of 28-year-old Vanilla, who, according to the organization, has now gotten out of cage life for the first time, to the chimpanzee reserve on the island.
The conservation area is located on the east coast of Florida, where the chimpanzees have a three-hectare island at their disposal.
The organization says that before arriving on the island, Vanilla has never been outside a laboratory cage or garage-sized enclosure.
According to the organization, Vanilla spent her early years in a small cage at a primate research lab in upstate New York. The laboratory in question has since been closed.
After his experimental animal phase, in 1995 Vanilla was transferred as part of a group of thirty chimpanzees for protection to the Wildlife Waystation in California, but in that place, according to the organization, life continued in an enclosure, without grass and with little stimulation.
In 2019, however, the chimpanzees had to find a new home when wildfires raging in California threatened the Wildlife Waystation.
Now Vanilla and the other chimpanzees who were in California live as part of a larger group at the Save the Chimps reserve on an island in Florida.
Vanilla’s favorite pastime is exploring the island or hanging out on a three-story climbing frame, the organization says.
– He gets along with all the other 18 chimpanzees and has a particularly playful relationship with the alpha male Dwight, from whom he steals food, the Save the Chimps organization describes to the Soryful website that forwarded the video.