On October 3, 2003, Chris and Martin spoke with The Kratt Club about their exciting new National Geographic Channel series Be The Creature. We are pleased to share with you our exclusive conversation with the Kratt Brothers.
The Kratt Club - Hello!
Chris Kratt - Hi, it’s Chris. How are you?
The Kratt Club - We are very good.
Martin Kratt - Hi, it’s Martin. How you doing?
The Kratt Club - Hi Martin.
Martin Kratt - It’s good talking to you!
The Kratt Club - Well, thank you very much for joining us. So, we want to talk about the new show Be The Creature that will be debuting this week. How does the new show differ from Kratts’ Creatures and Zoboomafoo?
Chris Kratt - Well, the new show is for adults. It’s a primetime show, and Martin and I go on expeditions around the world to really get in the animals lives, to live with them 24/7 on their turf, by their rules. And so it’s really looking at the animal world from their perspective.
Martin Kratt - We spend a month with each type of animal. We live with snow monkeys in the Shika Mountains of Japan, and survive with them through a blizzard. We live with banded mongoose, and experience how this group of mongoose is always under the threat of attack from Malibu storks and giant monitor lizards, and we get to know the individual animals in these wild groups, and really join them in their struggle for survival. One of the things I’ve really taken away from this is, I don’t know who invented the phrase “creature comforts”, because these creatures, they don’t have near the comforts that we as humans have. They’re out there, it’s just them and the natural world, and they live on their natural abilities. They’re smart…and luck.
Chris Kratt - Another great thing is by spending so much time with these animals, we’re really starting to see individual personalities come through, like you could see differences among members of a lion pride, or members of a pack of wild dogs. You can see individual personalities, or what we’ve always called “creaturenalities” coming out.
The Kratt Club - What animals did you not get to film this time that you would like to film for the second season?
Martin Kratt - Oh, what we’re really excited to do in the second season is to film wolves, we’d like to do something on orangutans, Komodo dragons…ah…
Chris Kratt - We’d like to do pandas, we’d like to do the sardine run where all the marine animals come together to feed on the sardines.
Martin Kratt- Everything from huge animals like mountain gorillas down to little creatures like chipmunks, because there are so many hidden secrets in these animals’ lives. For example, when you deal with the smaller animals like the banded mongoose, which is the size of a squirrel, and you get in there on their level and you use different camera techniques, it’s just as exciting and amazing as the bigger animals like a lion.
The Kratt Club. - We were wondering which of the two of you do the majority of the filming duties, or if you share it pretty equally, and if you’re going to be directing any of the episodes?
Martin Kratt- We switch off directing the episodes. One of us will take one episode, the other of us will take another episode, and we basically do the same thing with the camera. Somebody will start out with the camera in the morning, and then we’ll switch, and halfway through we’ll switch back again, so it’s very fluid.
The Kratt Club - Of all the locations that you’ve been to, were any of them especially memorable, and were there any places that you would really rather not go visit again?
Chris Kratt - Well, one that was really memorable was when we went to Uganda to spend time with chimpanzees. And you know you really see a difference when you hang out with wild chimpanzees; you really see different sides of chimpanzees than most people are used to seeing when they see a baby chimp in a zoo, or see somebody holding a baby chimp. They have an intense life. They go on organized hunts. Males get together and go on organized hunts to kill and eat monkeys. They have wars with neighboring troops. So when you spend time with adult wild chimpanzees, you realize that they’re not the cuddly little animals that a lot of people want to have as pets.
Martin Kratt - They’re very multi-dimensional creatures just like humans. You know humans are cute, they can be nice, and humans can also be pretty mean. So looking at chimpanzees, you kind of get a look at…it really gave us a better look at humans too. Some scientists think that chimpanzees should be included in the same genus as humans are.
Chris Kratt - It’s one of the great things about the series as a whole too, because by putting ourselves into the lives of the creatures and trying to do some of the things they do, you really start to appreciate the similarities and differences that we have. You really realize that animals have some incredible special abilities. In one episode, I think it’s the premier episode this Sunday at 8; we dig for clams with brown bears during low tide. A brown bear, one female, was able to catch 25 clams in the amount of time that I was only able to catch one, and I was trying really hard!
Martin Kratt - You can really appreciate the power of their claws and the power of their shoulder muscles to allow them to dig so fast. And the second part of your question, where we might not want to go back again… the bat cave expedition! Wow!!
The Kratt Club - Tell us about that!
Martin Kratt - It was like going to another planet without the fun of going on a spaceship, because of the atmosphere. You couldn’t breathe the air in there. It was all ammonia. We had to wear respirators and if your respirator leaked you’d burn out your lungs. There was a constant rain of bat guano and bat pee from ahead, plus mites that the bats scratched off themselves. The floor of the cave was writhing with beetles and beetle larvae that would eat any bats that fell. And flying all around us, and this was the good part…were 40 million bats in this cave the size of two school auditoriums. It’s the largest concentration of mammals in the world, and they created the ammonia environment and their droppings and themselves dropping, were the food for all these beetles. So it was truly like being in a hostile environment – it was 104 degrees because of their body heat! It was just super heated like a little oven, and we could only go in for an hour at a time, and then we’d have to come out and get re-hydrated and cool off a little. And outside it was still 95 degrees in the Texas heat.
Chris Kratt - The environment was hostile but the bats were not at all. You know bats are so misunderstood. A lot of people are scared of them, a lot of people think they try to bite them and everything, but they don’t! We were in with these bats and they were crawling around our heads and crawling on our faces.
Martin Kratt - One of them crawled inside Chris’ shirt.
Chris Kratt - He got inside my shirt. It was crawling around in there, and I mean they could have bitten us if they wanted to, but they didn’t. They’re very friendly animals really.
Martin Kratt - Don’t get me wrong, we loved it, but it was just really hard working in their world.
The Kratt Club - Now that you’re both new fathers, has being parents changed your writing focus, or your filming style in any way?
Martin Kratt - Well, I don’t think it’s really changed our filming style. One of the things I love about my son being two now, he’s really into Zoboomafoo. It’s just so great watching him watch those shows. And one of the great things is when we’re away on an expedition, like we go on a lion expedition, I can give him all the lion tapes from Kratts’ Creatures and Zoboomafoo that we made, and he can watch those and pretty much know what Daddy’s up to.
Chris Kratt - I think what it’s done for me is actually when I go out on an expedition I look at animals raising their babies in a different way, like more from a perspective of understanding what they’re going through and what they must be feeling. When we see a predation event like when this monitor lizard that came out and tried to grab one of the banded mongoose that we were with, one of the pups of the pack, and how all the adult mongoose came together to fight and battle this monitor lizard to save the pup. You can really understand why they’re doing it.
Martin Kratt - One other thing that I have appreciated after being there for the birth of both of my children, I really appreciate what the females of all species can do in giving birth, and I’m really amazed that so many animals around the world can give birth on their own without any help, and under the threat of predation. It’s just amazing!
Chris Kratt - It’s like the kangaroos that we just came back from filming…a female kangaroo can have three young all at the same time. One a fetus, one a pouch young, and one a young at foot. That’s a lot of energy that she’s got to expend to take care of these three joeys that depend on her.
The Kratt Club - Since you’ve had all these experiences at being the creatures, if you had the chance to actually become an animal for one day, which animal would each of you choose?
Martin Kratt - Become an animal for a day….oh, that’s a good question. I would definitely choose an orca, a killer whale, because being a killer whale you can explore so much of the sea that is really off limits to humans right now. Even with all our technology, submarines, diving equipment, remote cameras….we still don’t know what’s going on in the sea and the interactions of these amazing marine mammals and fish. With the powers of an orca you could get down there. You could see the behaviors that are happening that are just as interesting as any land creature, and you could be right there. We had a really hard time for example, filming the great white sharks because it was another world and that was really the challenge for that entire expedition to uncover some of the secrets of their lives.
Chris Kratt - It’s funny that you say that Martin, because I was thinking along the same lines, either some marine animal or a bird of some kind, to experience a different world that we don’t really live in. So if Martin’s going to be an orca, I’ll go with a macaw or a golden eagle.
The Kratt Club - Martin, we know that you are a very good wildlife photographer, you both are, but we also know that you’re an artist, and we were wondering what you get more satisfaction from…using a camera to capture a really special moment on film, or using your artistic talent to draw the animals that you’re studying?
Martin Kratt - Well, I think both. One of the things about filming wildlife is that you really have to put yourself in the head of the animal, because you always have to be where they’re going to go, so you have to think like them, you have to be a step ahead so that you can get your camera set up and be in position. And when you make the right choices and the animal comes where you think they were going to come, and do what you were hoping they were going to do, it’s such an exciting feeling. It’s like winning a sports event. With my drawing, if there’s an animal that I’m watching and I’m just really impressed by them, I just love to express it by drawing a picture and putting them in a pose. That’s more of a reflective expression for me doing the drawing.
The Kratt Club - You’ve learned a lot about animals throughout all of your years of film making, what have you learned about yourselves during all this time?
Chris Kratt - Hmmmmmm….
Martin Kratt - Ohhh that is so interesting.
The Kratt Club - Oh we made them think!
Martin Kratt - I think one of the things I’ve learned is that I’m doing what I really love to do, and it’s really fun. I’ve also realized how big the world is, and how’s it’s really going to be hard to get around to see everything. I also recently have been really kind of caught between the tug of doing what you love and also being with the family you love. One of the big challenges right now is traveling to do these great expeditions and missing home. But then of course the best part of every expedition is getting to the airport and having your children run up to you and say hello. That’s the best part about every expedition. So, I think it’s just like everybody is always going through the challenges of working and family, that’s been a big thing that I’ve had to think about lately.
The Kratt Club - And Chris? How about you?
Chris Kratt - Well, I think recently it’s how much I missed actually being out in the wild with animals for long periods of time. That’s what Be The Creature gives us the opportunity to do - to really immerse ourselves in their lives rather than quickly see them and leaving again. And I think if you just learn a lot more about animals by staying with them for three or four weeks, but at the same time, just like Martin said it’s the hard part too, because you miss your family.
The Kratt Club - Could you give us a Grizzly Gulch update?
Martin Kratt - Grizzly Gulch is going really well. I think we’ve got over 500 elk wintering on the refuge, a lot of signs of mountain lions, and wolves. Mother bears with cubs have been using the land. There was a pretty horrific thing that happened nearby. A mother bear with three cubs was shot in the face by a hunter who claimed she was charging, but it’s questionable whether she was charging or not. The bullet lodged in the back of her neck. She was comatose for a while and the cubs were milling around. But then miraculously, she healed and that’s something about animals, their healing powers are incredible. She started getting up and walking around in circles very disoriented. The Fish and Wildlife Service helped her get into an artificial den with the cubs up in the mountains. She immerged this spring healthy and skinny, but healthy with her cubs all alive and they’ve been using Grizzly Gulch to recover.
The Kratt Club - Oh how wonderful!
Martin Kratt - Yeah!
Chris Kratt - And we’re getting very close to finishing off the loan with all the kind donations that people have been sending in, and also with support now from Dawn, who also wants to help us finish off the loan and protect this area forever.
Martin Kratt - You probably know how the dish washing liquid, Dawn, has been used for a long time for cleaning the birds caught in oil spills, so we’re working with them. They’re really great.
The Kratt Club - On a side note for that, we get a lot of people asking for addresses to either write you letters or to make donations. What address should we use?
Martin Kratt - Right now we really can’t write back because this schedule is just crazy and it looks like we’ll going into a second season, so we don’t want people to be expecting letters and then not getting them.
The Kratt Club - Chris, we’ve seen you do mountain climbing and scuba diving and rappelling. Were these hobbies that you enjoyed before going into your career filming wildlife, or did you learn and get more training on them once you realized these skills would come in really handy in your work?
Chris Kratt - We’ve both been doing those kinds of adventure sports ever since we were younger. I think both of us really started going to those kind of things hard in college, taking courses just out of interest, and they became something that were really helpful as a way to keep up with animals on our expeditions. Because you know, we can’t scale cliffs like a mountain goat, or breathe underwater like a shark, so they’ve come in really handy. We continue to practice things like our kayaking skills and you know you can always get better at these things. You kind of have to, just to keep up.
The Kratt Club - When will the new website associated with the Be The Creature be up and running? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Martin Kratt - Right now there’s one on National Geographic Channel website. But we’re also working on a new big website that’ll be a lot of fun. When will that launch Chris, do you know?
Note: The National Geographic Be The Creature website is located at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/btc/
Chris & Martin's Be The Creature Website is located at:
http://www.bethecreature.tv
Chris Kratt - The “big” one that Martin just started mentioning, that’ll go live in the spring probably, that’s what we’re shooting for. And that’s going to have gaming components, and everything. Both sites are Be The Creature sites; the other one is just more built up, the one in the spring.
Martin Kratt - We have some fun surprises that are going to be coming on that one.
The Kratt Club - Thank you for spending time with us, and we do have one more question….
Martin Kratt - Okay.
The Kratt Club - Tell us something about your brother. So Chris, tell us something about Martin and Martin tell us something about Chris that you’ve never talked about in an interview before.
Martin Kratt - Well you were talking about climbing before, and Chris is such a good climber. And I’m glad of that because climbing is probably one of my least favorite adventure activities to do.
The Kratt Club - Okay, and Chris?
Chris Kratt - Hah!! Something about Martin…. umm, just give me a minute…
Martin Kratt - I’ll give you one! You probably want to say that I’m always right.
The Kratt Club. - Oooo!
Chris Kratt- Well, I’ll just give you Martin’s little Achilles heel…he’s got a knee that he actually tore his anterior cruciate ligament and when he was hopping with kangaroos in one episode of Be The Creature he re-tore it, so he was able to really find out what it’s like to be an injured animal, and really think of the world from that perspective.
The Kratt Club - Well, you guys stay safe out there.
Chris Kratt - Thanks a lot!
Martin Kratt - Hope to see you soon!
The Kratt Club - Thank you so much for doing this.
The Kratt Club wishes to express their sincere appreciation to Chris Kratt, Martin Kratt, Susan McLennan, Kate Eyler-Walker and The National Geographic Channel for making this interview possible!
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