Watch the Moment a Lab-Kept Chimpanzee Sees the Sky for the Very First Time

A chimpanzee named Vanilla caught a glimpse of the sky for the first time in her life, and the moment was caught on video.

Vanilla was recently transported to a Fort Pierce, Florida-based chimpanzee sanctuary called Save the Chimps, one of the largest chimpanzee sanctuaries in the world that has a mission to provide refuge and care to chimpanzees in need.

After spending her early years locked in a small cage in a since-shuttered research lab in New York, Vanilla was eventually transferred to a California sanctuary, where she was kept in an indoor chain-link fence enclosure with no grass or enriching environment. Now, after 28 years, she resides on a three-acre island with other rescued chimps.

Vanilla arrived at the facility with her sister Shake, who went off to explore the island without hesitation. However, Vanilla was a bit more apprehensive, and needed the encouragement from an alpha male named Dwight. As you can see in the below video, Vanilla finally gained the courage to jump into Dwight's arms, and quickly became in awe of the blue sky above.

"She had never been outside of a lab cage or the garage-sized enclosure she was transferred to in California,” Save the Chimps told WFLA News Channel 8. "She gets along with all of the other 18 chimps on her island, and has a particularly playful relationship with the alpha male Dwight, from whom she steals food."

Save the Chimps says on its website that Vanilla and Shake have been regulars on the island since having been released, and the pair have taken to soaking up the sunshine and playing on the chimp family’s favorite climbing structure. "It’s a joy to see them reveling in the companionship and freedom that sanctuary life provides under the blue skies they deserved all along," the organization writes.

Truly, it's nothing but blue skies for Vanilla to live out the rest of her days on the island.