Look at the joy in her eyes! We’d be overjoyed too if we ever get a chance to step out and see the skies after years of being trapped inside an industrial building. For one, while there are certainly ethical questions about this event, we decided to focus on the delight in the animal’s eyes.
Meet Vanilla, a 28-year-old chimp that has been staying in the infamous Prime Lab in New York City. In footage that has surfaced online, we can see the animal cautiously stepping out of the opening at first.
As if processing where she was, she then realized that she was in a different place and became excited. But the most beautiful part of the footage is when we can clearly see how much awe Vanilla had when looking at the sky. It’s a bit heartbreaking for us too, when we realized that this one wasn’t able to see the areas one would expect to be their natural habitat. A tragedy and heartwarming scene wrapped in one package. A bit bittersweet, right?
Image screenshot via USA Today