- This page is about the episode. For the animal character, see Erminator.
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"The Erminator" is the 19th episode of Season 5 of the PBS Kids show Wild Kratts. It is the 137th episode of the series overall. It premiered on January 22, 2019.
Synopsis[]
Martin and Chris try to prove to the gang that chickadees are winter surviving birds. So, they set out to follow them through the forest to find out their behaviors and Creature Powers, so that Aviva can make them a Chickadee Power Suit. But along the way, Martin gets distracted by an ermine and they accidentally split up from each other.
Plot[]
Characters[]
Animals[]
Animation[]
Note: Featured animals are in bold.
- American Ermine (called ermine): Erminator
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Snowshoe Hare
- Blue Jay
- Pileated Woodpecker
Computer Images[]
Mentioned[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
Live Action[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
- American badger (called badger)
- Wolverine
- Hooded skunk (called skunk)
- Sea otter
Trivia[]
- This is the first time someone other than Aviva made a Creature Power Suit. In this case, it's Martin.
- This episode reveals that when using similar Creature Powers for basis to make an entirely new Creature Power Disc, Aviva has to cross-expunge-delete to eliminate the residual activation codes. If she doesn't do that, the Creature Power Suits will reactivate all of their past activations. Once the activations are reactivated, the suits can be deactivated.
- Since the Wild Kratts Crew went on lots of adventures, it's possible that Aviva made a lot of Creature Power Suits. Because of this, the amount of Creature Powers that Martin's Creature Power Suit reactivated is unknown.
- Erminator the ermine, jumped onto the back of a large pileated woodpecker, who flew away with him still on its back. This is a reference to the famous photo of a least weasel on the back of a flying European green woodpecker.
- This is the first time someone uses the Miniaturizer to enlarge themselves to giant-size instead of their size being preprogrammed into a Creature Power.
- When Chris, while using Chickadee Power grabs his Woodpecker Power Disc, the Platypus Power Disc can be seen among the other discs sitting in his wing. This is a callback to the Season 2 episode, "Race for the Hippo Disc", in which Chris obtains the Platypus Power Disc in exchange for the Hippo Power Disc.
- Additionally, the Ermine Power Disc can be seen amongst the discs, despite Martin having only invented one disc.
- Just like Chris' Creature Power Disc Holder, his Chickadee Power Suit's wings can hold his Creature Power Discs, so that he can organize them.
- This is the second time the characters got frozen in ice. The first being "Musk Ox Mania".
Key Facts and Creature Moments[]
- Chickadees are quick and agile fliers.
- Late in the summer, the chickadee finishes growing a new set of warm feathers for the winter.
- Chickadees can puff up their feathers, making them 25 percent bigger. The puffed up feathers trap warm air, that stays warm, insulated by the feather layers, and keeps the chickadee nice and toasty.
- On cold nights, the chickadee can drop its body temperature so low that it goes into a state of hypothermia. That saves energy.
- Chickadees love to eat insects and insect larvae, and what better way to get insects than with a little help from a woodpecker. Chickadees scavenge off of the hole a woodpecker makes.
- Chickadees can remember where they hide food throughout the forest, and then go back later to get it.
- Ermines, also known as stoats, are brown in the summer, and then they change white in the winter for seasonal camouflage. They can grow it in as quickly as two weeks.
- Ermines usually eat rodents by chasing them through burrows, but will also hunt prey much bigger than themselves.
- An ermine hunting a woodpecker.
- An ermine hunting a snowshoe hare.
- Pine martens are another member of the weasel family. They look a lot like ermines, but their fur doesn't change colors with the seasons, and they spend a lot of time in the trees. They're part of a group of animals called mustelids, which includes weasels, badgers and otters.
- Badgers are tough carnivores who use their 8 centimeter claws to dig deep burrows.
- The wolverine is bigger than most other mustelids and is afraid of almost nothing. Wolverines have even been known to chase away grizzly bears.
- Some mustelids are specialized for the water, like sea otters. They're really unique in the weasel world. They'll spend almost their entire lives in the water, even eating while floating on their backs.