Al Ain Zoo made a special cake for Lady, a western lowlands gorilla, a species described by the World Wildlife Fund as critically endangered.

Students from Tawam Private school Al Ain were invited to join the celebrations. They learnt about Lady’s life story.

Lady celebrates her 40th birthday. She was brought to the UAE from Cameroon in 1978, when she was four years old.

Lady drinks milk. She has lived alone in the zoo since 1998 when her male companion, another gorilla named Maxi, died from natural causes.

Zookeepers have been busy helping her fight off any loneliness, by giving her a TV and DVD player.

One of Lady’s companions is a rabbit.