Halloran, who worked with the wildlife organization Save The Chimps, posted the video of Vanilla being released at the chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida, gazing up in awe at the blue sky. The video was picked up by national media including CNN, USA Today, The Weather Channel, and was seen around the world from England to China.
Vanilla the Chimp was bred in a biomedical research lab in New York. The first years of her life were dedicated to invasive procedures due to the fact that Chimpanzees share 98 percent of their DNA with humans.
At the age of 28, Vanilla was rescued from a facility in California after spending most of her life in biomedical research labs. She was brought to her forever home at the Florida sanctuary where she made friends and saw the sky for the very first time.
“All of us that have worked here have 225 moments not captured on camera that are just as special as what happened in Vanilla’s video,” Halloran said. “They all had to make that step through the door onto the island.”
Formerly Director of Chimpanzee Behavior and Care at Save the Chimps, Halloran now works with The Elgin Center in Vero Beach that provides consultation services to animal sanctuaries, including Save the Chimps. He is also finishing a textbook for Cambridge University Press on animal care and welfare.
For the Flagler College alum who majored in Philosophy and Theater, finding his passion has improved not only his quality of life, but also the lives of over 200 chimpanzees.
“When I was 18, I was very high-minded that you go into school and study what you’re interested in, not what was going to get you a job,” said Halloran. “I am so glad I did that.”
Halloran said he always wanted to work with animals, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. After Flagler, Halloran began to intern at Zoo Atlanta working with golden lion tamarins, before becoming a zookeeper. He fell in love with apes, specifically chimps, and went on to grad school at Florida Atlantic University to study biological anthropology.
He had many jobs in the ecology industry but when he discovered the position for Save the Chimps, he went after it immediately. The organization helps rescue chimps from the entertainment industry, laboratories and personal ownerships, relocating them to the sanctuary where they can live on specially-built islands with other rescued chimps.
Halloran goes to the chimps, wherever they are in the world, and performs behavioral assessments on them to see where they would best thrive, whether that be at the sanctuary or an accredited zoo. “For us, what thriving really means is chimpanzees able to live their lives to the fullest. For a chimp, like a human, they need a rich social environment where they can choose who they want to be around, when they want to eat, where they want to go. It’s so important for chimpanzees to have a cognitive stimulating area,” Halloran said.
Halloran said attention from viral videos like Vanilla’s could help lead the world to understanding the true importance of all species. “Jane Goodall said that chimpanzees are kind of the door-opening species. They are like humans so we should care about them. Well, chimps aren’t that different from gorillas so we should care about the gorillas. Then gorillas aren’t that different from another species and so on and so forth,” he said.
