ANIMAL PLANET'S "THE ZOO" RETURNS FOR A SECOND SEASON MARCH 10 at 9 PM ET/PT

Animal Planet's THE ZOO, the first-ever series to go behind the scenes at the world-famous Bronx Zoo, returns for an all-new season on Saturday, March 10 at 9 PM ET/PT. THE ZOO shares an unscripted look at the knowledge and diverse skills needed to operate a zoo. It focuses on the level of care given to the animals, the bond that exists between the animals and the staff, and how the higher purpose of zoos and aquariums is conservation of species in the wild.

All-new stories and animals this season include Dave, a red kangaroo who bounces back from arthritic symptoms after undergoing chryotherapy; breeding komodo dragons; keepers training bats, a golden eagle and Indian gharials; the head-starting of hellbenders, a giant salamander found in Eastern North America, for introduction into the wild; and how a keeper deals with retiring after 31 years of caring for Happy, Patty and Maxine, the zoo's three female Asian elephants.

This season, viewers can also catch the new original mid-form series, THE ZOO: FROM THE INSIDE, which takes audiences behind the scenes and offers them exclusive looks at operations zoo guests never see. Stories include: an after-hours look at the animal commissary, where food is stored and delivered every night for the animals; feeding time with tigers and baby penguins; and much more. The web series will be available to fans on Animal Planet GO and Facebook Watch.

THE ZOO premiered in Feb. 2017 to 1.1 million Total Viewers and pushed Animal Planet into ad-supported cable's Top 10 in the timeslot among viewers. Throughout the season, every episode of THE ZOO averaged more than one million viewers making it Animal Planet's most watched freshman series since July 2015.

The first season of THE ZOO can be watched in its entirety on the Animal Planet Go app which allows viewers to watch live and catch up on full episodes of their favorite Animal Planet programs on multiple devices anytime, anywhere.

THE ZOO is produced for Animal Planet by Left/Right Productions and Copper Pot. Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver are the executive producers for Left/Right Productions. David LaMattina and Chad Walker are the executive producers for Copper Pot. Lisa Lucas is the executive producer; Patrick Keegan is supervising producer for Animal Planet.