Hello, my name is
Ariel

About Me

Ariel was born on February 24, 1994, at the Holloman Air Force Base outside Alamogordo, New Mexico, to her parents, Gertrude and Dalton. That same day, she was sent to the nursery to be raised by humans. For the first year of her life, she received routine physicals and treatment for chronic nasal congestion. At fifteen months old, Ariel was sent to Bioqual Inc. in Rockville, Maryland, along with five other babies. Unfortunately, there is no information about her time at Bioqual.

When Ariel was eight years old, her world changed again when she was moved to Bastrop, Texas. Fortunately, this was around the time Save the Chimps rescued the chimpanzees at the Coulston Foundation, a biomedical research lab in Alamogordo and began gathering all the chimpanzees on loan to other institutions to bring them home to the newly created sanctuary in its place.

In June 2003, at the age of nine, Ariel was finally free from research when she was returned home to Alamogordo. There, she made new friends and became part of the family group she lives with today, known as Kiley’s Family. Ariel had one final move to make—the best one of all—to her island home in sunny Florida.

A bit shy around her caregivers, Ariel enjoys spending time with the boys in her group, like Jimbo, Jaybee, and Christopher. She played an important role in helping a new member, a young girl named Lisa Marie, join the family. When the two met, it was an instant connection, as if Ariel had finally found the little sister she had always wanted. After many stops along the way, Ariel is finally home where she belongs.