RTÉ’s hugely popular The Zoo is returning to our screens this weekend

Sunday night telly, at its finest.

The hugely popular show The Zoo is returning to our screens this weekend and we couldn’t be happier. Yes, the show that gives audiences a sneak behind the closed doors at Dublin Zoo and the loveable animals who live there will return for its eighth season this Sunday and we’ll be meeting a whole host of new characters. In episode one, we see Sari, a Bornean orangutan soon to make a move from Barcelona Zoo, introduced to Dublin Zoo’s dominant male orangutan, Sibu, through an international programme dubbed ‘Tinder for Orangutans’. The Dublin Zookeepers will break the ice between the pair over video link before Sari joins the family permanently in the hopes she will make a good prospective mate for Sibu. With an ever-declining population, innovative techniques such as 'Tinder for Orangutans' could prove to be important to the efficiency of breeding and conservation efforts of the species worldwide. Other new members of the family include the very first Asian elephant born at Dublin Zoo 10 years ago, Asha, two rhino calves, African painted dog pups, baby mangabeys and Goeldi’s monkeys – and that’s just a few. This season the Dublin Zoo staff will also take a step a little further from their home in the Phoenix Park, as zookeepers head to visit some of the Irish conservation projects supported by Dublin Zoo including a nesting site of barn owns in Kerry and an Orangutan foundation based in Indonesia. The Zoo returns to RTÉ One this Sunday night, April 8, at 7.30pm.