"I DON'T CAPTURE an animal for the sake of television," said Brady Barr.

"There's a scientific spine — I'm doing research and the camera's there to document it," said the host of TV's "Dangerous Encounters," set to give a kid-friendly talk on Saturday at the National Geographic Museum.

Those who have watched Barr crawling around in a crocodile or hippo costume — or screaming in a river of bat guano while being bitten by a giant python — may scoff, but Barr says there are scientific rationales behind even his most novel National Geographic Channel exploits.

Barr, the only person to capture all 23 species of croc in the wild, said seizing them is very dangerous — for the animals, which die from stress — and that he was seeking a better way to study them.

He mentioned this to a group of children and one suggested he dress up as a crocodile, which "proved incredibly successful. I entered their world. [The animals] accepted me. It allowed me to crawl up to them and attach a scientific device.
"What might look like a funny ploy is based on science — and was the idea of an 8-year-old."

In addition to sounding alarms about the state of nature and sharing nightmarish tales about places such as Indonesia's "Snake Palace," Barr offers children the world's most important advice.

"I wasn't the best student, wasn't the brightest, didn't have special privileges. What I did have was passion. I wanted to work with these animals and didn't let anybody tell me I couldn't. That's all it takes. You can't fathom what doors are gonna open. I try to make them believe they can do whatever they want."

» National Geographic Museum, 1600 M street NW; Sat., noon, $10, $8 children 12 & under; 202-857-7700. (Farragut North)

Written by Express contributor Tim Follos
Photo courtesy National Geographic Channel

Posted by Express at 12:01 AM on April 24, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Farragut North , Museums & Galleries , Television , The District , Top Stories