To see this in your everyday life, Jeff urges kids to look in their very own yards and communities. You might find a frog in a stream, a bald eagle in a tree, a mountain lion, a bear, or a box turtle. It’s easy for everyone to recognize the importance of saving tigers or monkeys. But in your community, it’s unlikely that it is a tiger that needs saving. Instead, it could be a local animal species or a particular habitat. There are examples of wildlife failures everywhere. But there can also be examples of success! And that part is up to us.
Jeff wants others to know that for many threatened species and habitats, we are nearly at the point of no return—but we aren’t there yet. He says, “While we live in what could end up being the dark days of conservation, we also live in a time of incredible hope.” We can still save what remains.
So what if you want to go even further than taking small steps? What if you want to help Earth in the same ways that Jeff has? Well, you can follow in his footsteps! Start by going to the sources: books, magazines, and Web sites are great resources of information. Jeff says, “Read up on areas and animals that interest you.”
Even better, interact with other people who share an interest in nature! Sign up for classes, attend nature camps, or volunteer at a local science center or preserve. And, of course, try your best to do well in school. School would have been easier for Jeff if he had been able to study hard and get better grades. Jeff reminds kids, “Your formal education is crucial. These things will help you hone in on an area of naturalism that most appeals to you. The most important thing is to be active and involved.”
Jeff firmly believes that if kids work hard and trust in themselves, there is very little they cannot achieve. There may be obstacles to achieving your dreams—there were for him! “Many people in my life thought my goals were impossible or silly and that they wouldn’t materialize. But I didn’t believe them,” Jeff says. He learned that the people who really succeed are those who are persistent. He offers, “If there isn’t a path carved out for you, blaze a new trail. Carve your own path; find alternative ways to get there. Always believe in yourself because no one else will. Retain personal passion, drive, and the confidence that you can do it.”
CHAPTER SIX
where everybody Knows Your Name
Jeff Corwin’s fans know him as the funny, charm ing face of animal conservation. But who is Jeff when the cameras have shut off? Jeff wears many hats in his life: he is a husband, a father, a runner, a chef . . . you name it! Let’s take a look inside what it’s like being Jeff Corwin!
When it comes to life experiences, Jeff Corwin has seen and done a lot! Take his television appearances for example. Not only does Jeff have his own shows, but he has been featured on Iron Chef America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show, Access Hollywood, and Extra. He even made a cameo appearance on an episode of the hit crime show CSI: Miami, in which he helped detectives retrieve a human foot from inside a live crocodile. Jeff won an Emmy for Best Performer in a Children’s Series, and Men’s Journal once called him “the world’s greatest animal show host.” Jeff appeared in Maxim’s fall fashion issue and on Entertainment Weekly’s highly regarded It List.
And then there’re the places he’s been! Jeff says, “I’ve been around the world probably five or six times. There are countries that few people go to, like Borneo, that I’ve been to many times. I go to Africa probably three or four times a year. But there are still a few places out there that I’m longing to go . . . like Antarctica and mainland China, especially to see the giant Chinese salamander.”
Despite Jeff’s fame and incredible achievements, he still feels he is a humble guy. And his family helps him stay that way. As Jeff’s wife, Natasha, said when People magazine named him one of the Most Beautiful People, “Okay, Mr. Beautiful, take out the trash.” Jeff’s family is proud of him, of course. But it’s not because of his success on television. They just appreciate that Jeff is a good son, husband, and father. He says, “I don’t live in a TV world. I live a regular life. I don’t live around a lot of animals. . . . I live five miles from where I grew up.” To Jeff, fame is just a moment in his life—it’s fleeting. And that’s okay, because he knows that, at heart, he will always be a conservationist and naturalist.
Jeff realizes the blessings in his life: “My career has a value. It is a tool to allow me to share the message I want to share, and to build a life for my family that I want them to have. But that’s all it is, and life outside of that with friends and family is far more significant.”
Downtime is rare in Jeff’s life. He’s usually traveling from continent to continent. But when Jeff is at home, he’s at his house—a hundred-year-old farm-house set on a twenty-two-acre island. The island sits a mile off the coast of Boston’s south shore and is shared by twelve other families. But only five families, including Jeff’s, live there year-round. It can be reached only by water or on foot after the tide has gone out. It contains woods, marshland, and a fruitful animal habitat—all of Jeff’s favorite things.
Jeff shares his home with his wife, Natasha, and daughters, Maya and Marina. When Jeff thinks about his home and family, he says, “If there is a heaven, I hope it will be something like this.” And the only pets the Corwins have are two cats. “I don’t have any exot ics living around me. My personal philosophy, after a lifetime of working and living with animals, is that exotic, nontraditional animals should only be kept for acceptable purposes, such as wildlife rehabilitation, outreach education, and conservation programs. But I do love animals, and I love being around them,” he says.
Jeff’s parents still live in the house in Norwell where Jeff was raised, which is one of the reasons he still lives in the area. He also just can’t imagine living anywhere else! Jeff says, “I have always loved the seasons, culture, architecture, sense of community, food, coastline, and history of New England.”
Jeff admits that when he was younger, he was very driven, and didn’t stop to enjoy his success as much as he should have. “But now I don’t feel the pressure to plow on through and not smell the roses,” he says. And smell the roses he does!
When Jeff is home, he enjoys many hobbies, like hunting for beach glass and foraging for mushrooms with his daughter Maya. Jeff also likes to go antiquing with Natasha, fish, and practice photography.
Jeff also loves cooking for his friends and family when he has the time. He tries to cook and eat locally grown foods, like the blueberries, apples, and raspberries he grows on his own property and the lobsters, clams, and mussels he catches from the waters around his house. He says that people should know where their food comes from and how far it had to travel in order to get to our tables. It’s one small way that we can save Earth’s resources.
When Jeff is home, he also spends time with friends, hanging out on the beach by a fire or enjoying a meal together. Jeff and Natasha’s friends are teachers, artists, businesspeople, and more. Some of Jeff’s friends are people he has known since he was a kid in Norwell, and others are people he’s met more recently.
One of Jeff’s great passions in life, aside from animals and family, is running. He runs about forty miles a week. But he never, ever runs to music. In a Runner’s World article, Jeff explained, “The last time I listened to music, I almost got hit by an airplane. I was jogging on a jungle runway in the middle of Belize and I kept feeling this weird wind every ten minutes that would blow by me.” It turns out that “wind” was actually a plane trying to land! But the music in Jeff’s ears was so loud, he could not hear the plane or the local villagers telling him to move! Needless to say, Jeff survived. But the plane’s pilot was very upset with him!
So what does the future hold for everyone’s favorite animal enthusiast? Jeff wants to continue to grow in his career, whether that’s through books, different types of shows, or different types of audiences. At the end of his life, Jeff would like to be remembered as a naturalist and not just as an entertainer. He, of course, enjoys the
entertainment element of his shows. But he feels that teaching people about endangered species and the environment is more important.
Though Jeff has no immediate plans to stop doing television shows, he envisions a calmer life for himself in the future. Jeff once said, “I see myself as a quirky science professor at a New England college. But I refuse to be boring! I’ll be the teacher who makes you laugh.” There would be no shortage of students signing up for that class!
Wherever the future endeavors of Jeff Corwin will lead him remains to be seen. But one thing is certain—it’s sure to be a wild time!
Resources
Defenders of Wildlife:
www.defenders.org
Events near you: http://www.defenders.org/take_action/upcom
ing_events/index.php
JASON Project:
www.jason.org
Rescue your local ecosystem and protect diverse species from
extinction. Register for JASON: http://www.jason.org/Public/Get
Involved/GetInvolved.aspx?pos=7
New England Wildlife Center:
www.newildlife.com
United Nations Environmental Programme:
www.unep.org
World Wildlife Fund (WWF):
www.worldwildlife.org
Learn about the five different ways you can get involved with the
WWF, including adopting an animal and learning to live green:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/how/index.html
Bibliography
Personal interview
Conducted on August 2-3, 2008
Books
Living on the Edge: Amazing Relationships in the Natural World
by Jeff Corwin
Rodale, 2003
Images of America series
by James Pierotti, with a foreword by Jeff Corwin
Arcadia Publishing, 2006
Articles
Boston Globe Archives:
“Celebrity Brings Environment Home”
by Kimberly Atkins, Globe staff correspondent
January 13, 2002, page 3, Globe South
“A TV Host’s Exotic Experiences Never End”
by Teri Borseti, Globe correspondent
December 18, 2003, page H2, Life at Home
Web Sites/Web Articles
Boston Globe:
“After 20 years, Corwin still thrives on call of the wild”
by Robert Carroll, Globe staff
January 4, 2004
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2004/01/04/after_20_
years_corwin_still_thrives_on_call_of_the_wild/
“Hanging with . . . Jeff Corwin: The South Shore-bred Animal
Planet host goes fishing on a sunny Sunday afternoon”
September 1, 2006
http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2006/09/01/hanging_
with__jeff_corwin/
“He’s just crackers about animals: Jeff Corwin cuts vacation short to
bring his critters to Plymouth”
by Robert Carroll, Globe correspondent
May 11, 2006
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/
11/hes_just_crackers_about_animals/
“Where the wild things are: Jeff Corwin finds creature comforts at
home, abroad”
by Bella English, Globe staff
September 18, 2007
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/09/18/where_the_
wild_things_are/?page=2
Defenders Magazine:
“Defenders in Action: Five Questions for Jeff Corwin”
Summer 2005
http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/defenders_magazine/
summer_2005/defenders_in_action_five_questions_for_jeff_corwin
.php?ht=
Defenders of Wildlife:
http://www.defenders.org
Entertainment Weekly:
“Jeff Corwin’s 5-Year Plan”
by Karyn L. Barr
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,535733,00.html
CNN transcript:
Larry King Live
“Interview with Jeff Corwin”
July 26, 2005
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/26/lkl.01.html
CNN transcript:
“Live From . . . Interview with Jeff Corwin”
November 10, 2003
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0311/10/lol.11.html
Extreme Science:
http://www.extremescience.com
Frog Matters:
“Where in the world was Jeff Corwin (in early April)?”
The Frog Blog of Jeff Davis
May 7, 2008
http://frogmatters.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/where-in-the-world-
was-jeff-corwin-in-early-april/
Heartland USA Magazine:
http://www.heartlandusamagazine.com/lifestyles/life_corwin.php
Hollywood.com:
“Jeff Corwin unveils a ‘Planet in Peril’”
by Emily Christianson
http://www.hollywood.com/feature/Planet_in_Peril_Jeff_Corwin_
Anderson_Cooper/4954710
JASON Project:
www.jason.org
Live discussion with Jeff Corwin on Animal Planet’s Web site:
http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/jeffcorwin/chat/transcript.html
Merriam Webster Dictionary Online:
http://www.merriam-webster.com
MLive.com:
Everything Michigan
“Wild time coming to Whiting: Animal Planet host, Jeff Corwin, to
thrill, educate with ‘Tales from the Field’”
by Carol Azizian (Flint Journal)
May 1, 2008
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/entertainment/index
.ssf/2008/05/wild_time_coming_to_whiting_an.html
MSN Encarta Encyclopedia Online:
http://www.msnencarta.com
MSNBC:
“Jeff Corwin continues monkey business: Kooky biologist’s latest
show is ‘Corwin’s Quest’”
Fri., June 24, 2005 (updated 11:53 a.m. ET)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8293179/
New York Magazine:
“What Animal Scares Jeff Corwin the Most?”
July 20, 2007
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/07/what_animal_scares_jeff_
corwin.html
Notable Biographies:
Corwin-Jeff.html
People magazine:
“Jeff Corwin: Animal Show Host”
May 13, 2002
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20137016,00.html
Runner’s World:
“I’m a runner: Jeff Corwin”
by Ben Court
August 2004
http://www.newrunner.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-410--9274-0,00
.html
South Shore Natural Science Center:
http://www.ssnsc.org/ecozone.htm
The New Hampshire (The Student Publication of the University of
New Hampshire):
“Jeff Corwin shares his animal adventures”
by Cara Murphy
December 3, 2004
http://media.www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/
news/2004/12/03/ArtsLiving/Jeff-Corwin.Shares.His.Animal
.Adventures-820438.shtml
Tripod.com:
“A Chat with Jeff Corwin”
http://members.tripod.com/~Poet70/Jeffchat.html
UMass Magazine Online:
“Experiencing Jeff Corwin: I can’t think of a creature that doesn’t
fascinate me”
by Christopher O’Carroll
Fall 2003
http://umassmag.com/fall_2003/Experiencing_Jeff_Corwin_569.
html
USA Today:
“CNN take
s stock of a ‘Planet in Peril’”
by Frazier Moore, AP television writer
October 22, 2007
http://usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-10-21-cnn_N.htm
United Nations Environmental Programme:
www.unep.org
Washington Post transcript:
“Animal Week: Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006
/04/06/DI2006040601068.html
World Wildlife Fund:
www.worldwildlife.org