ANIMAL MAGNETISM BROTHERS TAME KIDS' CURIOSITY WITH HELP FROM FURRY FRIENDS.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Remember Marlin Perkins, that mustaschioed gent on ``Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom,'' who sat behind reeds or dense grass talking over distant shots of the courtship rituals of this species or the predatory habits of that one?

It was an OK way to pass time on a Sunday afternoon in the '60s, but with all the channels and videos to choose from these days, wildlife photographers have to do a little more to capture young viewers' interest in animals.

Chris and Martin Kratt seem to have found the answer: You start with a solid knowledge of your wild subjects, have a lot of patience, add a puppet with an ``I'll try anything once'' attitude and a mud pit. The result is the PBS kids' series ``Zoboomafoo,'' which is kicking off new episodes this week (7:30 a.m. weekdays on KCET).

The show, taped in Montreal, takes place mainly on a woodchip-littered stage dubbed Animal Junction, decked out with ropes, platforms, ladders, a swimming pool and even an animal snack dispenser. The title character is a springy legged lemur, played by a real animal in each show's opening minutes and later by a puppet that talks and interacts with animals. There also are outdoor adventures from locations around the world, and a daily fantasy claymation segment.

The Kratt brothers hold science degrees, 30-year-old Chris in biology and 34-year-old Martin in zoology, and both have done research fellowships and field studies. But they'll let other scientists keep all the ``B.S., M.S., Ph.D.'' alphabet soup after their names - the Kratts prefer to call themselves ``creature adventurers.''

Even with their higher learning, they are not above getting down on their hands and knees with their untrained and often unpredictable studio guests, or even landing face down in the mud pit - and coming up laughing.

``It actually feels pretty good,'' Martin Kratt said of the slimy stuff in a phone interview. ``I can see why people go to those spas for mudbaths now. As long as it's a good consistency, I'm happy.''

The Kratts, also known for their PBS series ``Kratts' Creatures'' and appearances on TBS and Nickelodeon, borrow wild animals from conservation groups or organizations that take creatures to schools.

They shoot at least 30 hours of tape for each half-hour episode. But despite all that excess footage, they don't have the killer outtake reel you might be imagining.

``We put most of the outtake stuff in the show itself,'' Martin said.

So when a serval kitten urinates on Zoboo's paw, the director does not yell, ``Cut, do it over.'' After all, it's the animal's natural behavior, and in that instance, a process little kids can understand and laugh about, unlike, say, mating.

``In the studio, it's always interesting to see how the animals react to Zoboo,'' Martin said. ``There's the peregrine falcon who loves to jump on his head, dig in his claws and start plucking out all Zoboo's fur. Or the baby snow monkey who was cold and we had to warm her up. For whatever reason, she loved Zoboo. She would just jump on him and hug him and bounce on his head.

``That's the thing I love, being a zoologist in background,'' he added. ``You can learn too much out in the wild, but the neat thing about this show is the animals come in and you get perspectives and see behavior that you never see in the wild.''

Probably no one has been more surprised about the animals' behavior than Gordon Robertson, the veteran puppeteer manipulating Zoboo through his close encounters with everything from puppies to vultures and caribou.

``He's breaking new ground in puppeteering every single day, when he's lying there underneath an elephant, doing his thing when that emu starts pecking at his eyeballs,'' Martin said. Robertson even has submerged his hand in a shark tank with only his fake-fur alter ego for protection.

``And he's so game for it all. He hadn't really worked that much with animals before, but now he's got all these war stories that he tells his fellow puppeteers.''

Martin says the on-set injuries to date have amounted to ``a nip and a scrape here and there, but nothing big.''

The greater dangers are in the natural habitat, where the Kratts' enthusiasm sometimes overshadows their concerns for their own safety.

``When we were in India we found a mother tiger and two cubs, and Chris and I were filming them from the back of an elephant. We were so into it because these cubs were just 3 months old, they had just come out of the den and it was such a rare find,'' Martin recalled. ``Chris was filming, and he started leaning off the elephant ... and the saddle broke and, Chris went falling off the elephant.

``We're 20 feet from the tiger, so he grabbed onto this rope on the elephant saddle and he's hanging there, hanging onto the camera. I reached over and grabbed the camera and then hauled in Chris,'' Martin said, laughing.

Martin says he and his brother hope they'll still be at it when their hair is as white as, well, Marlin Perkins'.

``We have so many projects in our idea bank, and there are so many creatures to meet,'' he said. ``We could keep on creature adventuring until we're old guys.''

THE FACTS

--The show: ``Zoboomafoo.''

--What: Wildlife show for preschoolers and older.

--The stars: Chris and Martin Kratt.

--Where: KCET.

--When: 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- 2) Chris, left, and Martin Kratt, with the lovable lemur, Zoboo, teaches preschoolers how to make friends with animals in ``Zoboomafoo.'' Above, Zoboo strikes a pose on the Animal Junction stage.

Box: THE FACTS (see text)