Feel good/pissed thread: Former Research-Lab Chimps Go Outside For First Time

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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.

"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."

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