13 Years of Creature Adventuring

2/9/2024

Acadia Courville ‘26

Wild Kratts, a staple of many kids’ childhoods, recently celebrated its 13th anniversary on Jan. 3 of this year. However, it was long before the airing of the first episode in 2011 that the Kratt brothers were adventuring.

Their creature adventures began being displayed for the world on PBS in June of 1996, with their first show, Kratts Creatures. This show was revolutionary, as it was the first nature show aimed at children people had ever seen, and though the show finished airing later that summer, it continued to play reruns until 2000. In 1999, due to the popularity of a children’s show about wild-life, Zoboomafoo began airing on PBS featuring Martin and Chris Kratt as well as a puppet lemur (played by Gourd Robertson). Finally, in January 2011, Wild Kratts aired its first episode and has been running ever since.

In celebration of this anniversary, I’ve decided to share some of my most fond memories featuring this TV show that was an integral part of my childhood mornings. Almost every morning before elementary school, almost as far back as I can remember, my brother and I sat down to watch the morning episode of Wild Kratts at around 7:00 or 7:30. We would excitedly get ready for school as fast as we could solely so we could watch Chris and Martin on their daily adventures into the “Creature World.” Unfortunately, at some point PBS changed their morning air times and we could no longer watch Wild Kratts every school day, just on the weekends. Like the loyal creature-loving kids we were (and still are), we woke up at what now seems like ungodly hours of the morning to watch the Kratt brothers leave the Tortuga (their tortoise-shaped vehicle) and embark on their newest adventure. This also happened to be just about the only thing my brother and I could agree to watch until about 7 years ago—now we cannot agree on anything, but with or without him, I still love Wild Kratts.

Some of my favorite episodes include the one where Chris and Martin stop Gourmand (the evil chef) from making shark fin soup in what I assume is a hysterical and wacky way. Another one of my favorites takes place after Aviva built the time-traveling trampoline, and Chris and Martin travel back to observe the dodo bird and have to stop Gourmand’s great x15 grandfather from making dodo birds into his next meal. My very favorite episode of them all was the one about bats. I was absolutely obsessed with bats as a kid, and they were my favorite exhibit to go see in the zoo. In this episode, they help some Wild Kratts kids build bat boxes in an effort to give bats a home after they were displaced by a storm in the area. At this time, they also have a bat that they are rehabilitating whose bat box is above Aviva’s zucchini plant, and she uses its feces to fertilize her vegetables for her next round of chocolate zucchini bread.

Lastly, my most favorite thing about Wild Kratts as a whole is the community it has given me. As a small kid, it was so amazing to see other people be so excited about animals and all of their fascinating and unique abilities. Even years after I’ve stopped watching the show, Wild Kratts still comes up in daily conversations, and it’s amazing to see how much the show has affected others. Keep on creature adventuring!

There will be a Wild Kratts showing (with snacks) hosted by the sustainability club Saturday, March 2 to relive this nostalgic creature-related show!

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