American television presenters Chris Kratt, 57, and Martin Kratt, 60, are expanding their educational wildlife franchise across television, digital platforms, and live stage shows while managing wildlife conservation projects in Montana.
The duo, who rose to global fame through their children's series Zoboomafoo, continue to reach young audiences on PBS KIDS with new episodes of Wild Kratts and interactive digital tools.
The current animated series Wild Kratts, aimed at children aged four to eight, uses animated avatars to blend scientific facts with action and comedy. The brothers recently released a new episode titled The Butternut Tree, building on the television franchise that launched in Canada and the United States on January 3, 2011, where it is known in Latin America as Aventuras con los Kratt.
Alongside new broadcast episodes, the project's digital portal operates as an educational hub containing games and teaching materials focused on global biodiversity. In partnership with their broadcasting network, the creators developed the Creature Power Up app for Wear OS smartwatches, which encourages daily physical exercise by challenging children to match animal movements, such as the speed of a cheetah, to unlock species data.
The creators are also taking their production directly to families across the United States with a theatrical stage show titled Wild Kratts LIVE! 2.0: Activate Creature Powers! Scheduled to tour nationwide during October and November, the live performance features a large-format screen that allows the brothers to interact directly with the audience. During the shows, the duo promotes their long-standing motto that learning about wildlife is the essential first step toward valuing and protecting animals.
Conservation Work and Montana Sanctuary
Beyond their television and stage productions, the brothers maintain an active role in environmental protection through the Kratt Brothers Creature Hero Foundation. The non-profit organization supports global biodiversity preservation by directing funds toward land conservation and habitat protection.
The foundation's largest conservation milestone is the establishment of Grizzly Gulch, a protected wildlife sanctuary in Montana. According to official Wild Kratts digital records, the organization secured more than 676 hectares of land adjacent to Glacier National Park. The sanctuary provides protected habitat for native wildlife species, including grizzly bears, wolves, and elk.
Glacier National Park, located in northwestern Montana along the Canadian border, encompasses over one million acres of wilderness and serves as a critical ecosystem for North American wildlife. The addition of the adjacent Grizzly Gulch sanctuary extends this protected habitat corridor, helping shield vulnerable animal populations from development.
The Legacy of Zoboomafoo and Jovian
The Kratt brothers began their television careers with the series Kratts' Creatures before achieving worldwide recognition with Zoboomafoo, which premiered on January 25, 1999. The series ran for 65 episodes during its original broadcast period, which concluded on November 21, 2001.
The show combined scientific outreach, physical comedy, puppetry, and direct animal encounters. The series was co-hosted by a Coquerel's sifaka lemur named Jovian, who lived at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina. Martin Kratt explained that the production team combined physical puppet sequences with live footage of Jovian to make the on-screen lemur character appear as realistic and lively as possible.
Data from Duke University indicates that the 65 episodes of Zoboomafoo educated millions of young viewers about primate preservation and the natural habitats of lemurs. Jovian remained at the university's research facility until November 10, 2014, when he died of kidney failure at twenty and a half years old, as confirmed by the institution.
Jovian's family line continues at the North Carolina facility. In January 2026, the Duke Lemur Center announced the birth of Junius, a male Coquerel's sifaka born on October 12, 2025, to parents Francesca and Remus. University officials highlighted the scientific importance of the birth, noting that Coquerel's sifakas, native to Madagascar, face a critical risk of extinction in the wild. The center described the newborn primate as part of an illustrious family lineage connected to the historic television series.
Over two decades after Zoboomafoo first aired, Chris and Martin Kratt continue to use television, digital technology, live stage performances, and direct land preservation to teach children about wildlife conservation.
