Chimpanzee has emotional reaction to seeing sky for first time in 28 years at Florida sanctuary

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - A chimpanzee that was caged for 28 years finally saw the sky for the first time in a heartwarming video shared by an animal sanctuary in Florida. 

The 28-year-old chimp named Vanilla now lives at a privately funded sanctuary in Fort Pierce after being housed in a California facility where she lived "inside a chain-link fence cage with no grass and very little enrichment," rescue organization Save the Chimps told Storyful. 

Before that, Vanilla lived at a now-closed New York rescue lab where the animals were kept in small cages. According to Vanilla's bio on Save the Chimps' website, the chimps were houses in 5x5x7 cages suspended from the ground like "bird cages." 

"She had never been outside of a lab cage or the garage-sized enclosure she was transferred to in California," Save the Chimps said. 

Save the Chimps shared a video of Vanilla seeing the sky for the first time and interacting with other chimpanzees on the property. She's "awestruck as she beholds the open sky for the first time at her new island home," the organization said. 

"My first time outside, i was in awe of the open sky, a sight I had never seen in my life as my former homes had cage tops," Vanilla's description reads. "I enjoy exploring the island and relaxing and grooming with my family on the island."

Vanilla is settling in well, Save the Chimps said. Chimpanzees go through a quarantine process before being introduced to the larger family groups at the sanctuary, according to their website. 

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"When she’s not exploring the island with her friends she can usually be found perched atop a three-story climbing platform surveying her new world," Save the Chimps said. "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."