--- description: "She kissed him and he groomed her" title: Iris the Chimpanzee Finds Love at Florida Sanctuary image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd659cd6cc201d05f/6987858ecd6848773909a59d/150326-iris-chimp-meets-abdul-1251p_8255b6618c65b89563baa9e100095643.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Iris the Chimpanzee Finds Love at Florida Sanctuary by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2015 1:20 PM CUT  Iris, who did not have any chimp friends at a Georgia zoo, meets her new pal Abdul at the Florida sanctuary she now calls home. Iris, who did not have any chimp friends at a Georgia zoo, meets her new pal Abdul at the Florida sanctuary she now calls home.Save the Chimps/NBC by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2015 1:20 PM CUT At the lush Florida sanctuary that she now calls home, Iris is known as “a chimp’s chimp” who has little enthusiasm for human caretakers but a lot of interest in one particular male primate. “We introduced her to a male chimpanzee, 40 years old, and they immediately fell in love,” said Jen Feuerstein, sanctuary director at Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce. “She kissed him and he groomed her.” The organization took in Iris three weeks ago after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals negotiated to have her transferred from a zoo in Georgia where they allege she was kept… [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News._](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-zoo-chimpanzee-finds-love-florida-sanctuary-n329936?cid=par-time-article%5F20150327 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/"},"headline":"Iris the Chimpanzee Finds Love at Florida Sanctuary","datePublished":"2015-03-27T13:20:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:07.578Z","description":"\"She kissed him and he groomed her\"","url":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd659cd6cc201d05f/6987858ecd6848773909a59d/150326-iris-chimp-meets-abdul-1251p_8255b6618c65b89563baa9e100095643.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd659cd6cc201d05f/6987858ecd6848773909a59d/150326-iris-chimp-meets-abdul-1251p_8255b6618c65b89563baa9e100095643.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Iris, who did not have any chimp friends at a Georgia zoo, meets her new pal Abdul at the Florida sanctuary she now calls home.","caption":"Iris, who did not have any chimp friends at a Georgia zoo, meets her new pal Abdul at the Florida sanctuary she now calls home.","creditText":"Save the Chimps/NBC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/","name":"Iris the Chimpanzee Finds Love at Florida Sanctuary"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside the Canine Mind","description":"Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dTemQHb7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-09-11T01:23:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/","duration":"PT2M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3761353/iris-chimpanzee-finds-love/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```