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Zachary "Zach" Varmitech is a genius inventor and robotics engineer, the CEO of Varmitech Industries, who uses animals in his inventions for various purposes, mainly to make money off them or to make them do things that he’s too unbelievably lazy to do himself.

Voiced by Zachary Bennett, he is the main antagonist of Wild Kratts.

Physical Appearance[]

Chara-zach-5889-10110

Concept art of Zach

Zach is a man with a very thin build and very pale skin; he is barely taller than Chris. He has shiny black hair and emerald green eyes, sporting a small goatee. He also has a wrinkle on his face. His head is triangular in shape. He wears a black turtleneck sweater, gray pants, and pointy black shoes.

Personality[]

Zach is extremely arrogant, stubborn, and self-centered; he is also extremely narcissistic, often referring to himself as "the world's greatest mind" and programming his computers to call him "My Greatness", in spite of the fact that his inventions often fail, and is even shown to have his own cologne.

Zach is portrayed more comically than the other villains along with more slapstick moments; his screams are girlish, he constantly trips and falls, and he has to deal with the literal mindedness of his Zachbots. He is childish, as he often whines, gets scared, brags, and bullies, all in a very childish manner (plus, he likes sweets, such as lollipops and cookies). He is also somewhat sadistic, as he has been shown to resort to outright killing the Kratt brothers, such as when he lured them into an Arctic storm and attempted to drown them. Zach fully believes his inventions are superior to Aviva's, and often employs sabotage and unfair play to prove it, only to get his comeuppance in the end and get humiliated. Zach also seems to be very interested in the Wild Kratts's Miniaturizer, having made several thwarted attempts to steal it for himself when he gets the chance.

He has an enormous ego, one that nearly rivals, if not outright surpasses, that of Donita Donata's. His arrogance is not unfounded, however, as he actually is a pretty good inventor, and he is also very wealthy. Despite this, he is also a coward. Due to his dislike of the Wild Kratts and their interferences, he usually refers to them as "Wild Ratts" with at least one of the Wild Kratts usually correcting them, especially the Kratt brothers. This has backfired on him at least once when giving orders to his computer, which corrected him before following its commands. As seen in "Aquafrog" and "A Huge Orange Problem", Zach has very little concern for wildlife, willing to carelessly dispose of toxic chemicals in an inhabited pond just to clean his plane and blindly cut down trees in the Borneo forest just to get black wood for a side table. Both times he has shown selfishness and petty arrogance, usually leaving out of cowardice. He is shown to be very dramatic at times, like in "Animals Who Live to be 100 Years Old" where he freaked out over a wrinkle.

He is so unbelievably lazy because he refuses to do everything himself.

Abilities[]

Zach's plots typically involve collecting animals and turning them into robots, but not all of Zach's plots deal directly with animals, rather the animals simply just get in the way. These plots include stealing inventions and trying to win competitions by cheating.

He has professional robotics and engineering skills, with highly advanced tools and weaponry. His inventions are able to display holograms, laser-like projections, hovering capabilities, and/or being able to camouflage. He has an army of robot minions known as Zachbots. He makes his robots do the dirty work, while he thinks up the plans.

Due to his immense wealth and affinity for technology, Zach possesses various means of transportation, more than the other villains. His primary means of travel are his aircrafts, including a V-shaped jet, a large, gray cargo propeller plane, and a large, gray cargo jet. To travel by water, he either uses a steel-plated yacht or a gray submarine. All of his vehicles have a monochromatic or dark color scheme and his jet notably has smokier engines than the Tortuga HQ.

In terms of physical strength, he is apparently weak as Gourmand once stated that he'd rather have Zach's arm strength than cook a farm turkey. In "Choose Your Swordfish", it is shown that Zach has competent fencing skills, but not as good as Aviva.

Arsenal[]

Quotes[]

""I'll get you, you Wild Ratts!""
~Zach saying Wild Ratts the first time (source)
"I'll get you one day/next time, Wild Ratts!"
~Zach vowing to destroy the Wild Kratts next time (source)
"Wild Ratts?!"
~Zach encountering Martin and Chris or Wild Kratts crew [citation needed]
"Mommy... GET IT OFF! Its icky feet are scratchy!"
~Zach after a draco lizard landed on his face (source)
"I will never learn anything!"
~Zach after Martin spits out crumbled Zachbots (source)
"Animals are no match for technology!"
~Zach to Wild Kratts Kids (source)
"Rule number one; Zach doesn't care!!"
~Zach to Chris (source)
"I said tea, not tree!"
~Zach to a Zachbot (source)

Background[]

Season 1[]

Mindcontrol aardvark

His first appearance was in the episode "Aardvark Town" where he's in Africa on an animal collecting trip and he's wanting to build a swimming pool to cool off. When he hears the Kratt brothers are looking for the best digger in Africa (which was the aardvark), Zach orders his Zachbots to search all the holes to find it. When they found her and several other animals living the holes she dug, he put mind-control armor on the aardvark and had the the other animals chained.

In "Flight of the Draco", Donita Donata hired him and his Zachbots as security for her treetop fashion show.

In "Platypus Cafe", Gourmand invited Zach and Donita to his restaurant, where he's found and captured Chris trying to save Plato's eggs. Later, Martin arrived to save the eggs and sent the villains floating down the river.

In "Polar Bears Don't Dance" while Chris and Martin are following a mother polar bear and her cub (whom Martin names Poby), Zach is fascinated by how the cub looks like he's dancing. So he steals the cub along with a walrus calf and plans to them to dance for his audience at the opening of his new ice resort. But when the Kratt brothers catch up to him, the animal's mothers think they're in danger from each other and they engage in an intense fight which changes Zach's mind and decides to kidnap them instead and make them fight. So he tricks the brothers by luring them into an arctic storm. After the storm passes by, the Kratt brothers infiltrate his ice palace and free the mothers, forcing Zach to escape, swearing that the Kratt brothers will pay for their interference.

In "Honey Seekers", Gourmand invites Zach once again to his restaurant for a cooked honey badger served with honey sauce. After Gourmand captures Chris and Aviva, Martin comes to the rescue with an army of honey badgers, who cause chaos in the kitchen and scare off the villains with their stink.

BC zach with sea bass 1

In "Bass Class", Zach is seen relaxing on his yacht and gets annoyed by Gavin's shiny trophy so he tries to take it from him. Chris tells him that if he wants a trophy he'd have to win one of his own, so Zach announces a bass fishing contest in which he cheats at multiple times. First he attempts to use live bait, then he has his Zachbot observer scare off the bass around Gavin's boat, next he has his Zachbots to go and buy a bass at the fish market, but Chris knows he's lying so Zach throws him overboard. Then he goes off to the spawning grounds to catch the father bass, but that fails as well, so he ends up creates bass-like Zachbots which at first works, but then, their paint comes off revealing Zach’s trick, forcing him to retreat.

In "Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus", he steals the Arctic Pearl from a museum and plans to give to Donita, only to end up losing it in the ocean. So he attaches a bunch of mind control helmets to a bunch of walruses and makes them slurp up dozens of clams to find it. And when the Kratt brothers use Walrus Powers to stop him he traps them under the ice which nearly kills them.

In "Tazzy Chris", Zach sees a headline ready the Wild Kratts will be tagging the endanger Tasmanian devil. Seeing how scary they look he travels to Tasmania and steals them all to power the T-devil security bots. In the end, the Wild Kratts bait the T-devils with decomposing food to free them.

In "Let the Rhinos Roll", Zach rounds up dozens of black rhinos and fits them out with body armor to create an army of living bulldozers so he can knock down trees and build a parking lot. In addition, he gives a baby rhino calf (whom Martin names Nubs) a contact lens camera so he can spy on the Wild Kratts crew. When Chris sneaks into his plane, Zach restrains him and tells Chris his plan; Zach also states that the contact lens has a GPS that he intends to use to find and destroy the Tortuga. The other Wild Kratts manage to find out about Zach’s plan and free the rhinos by luring them into a mud pit. Zach lands the mud and demand that someone get him out, then one of the rhinos uses its horn to send Zach up into a tree.

In "Falcon City", Zach is first seen in the park trying to eat a cookie, but some pigeons take it. Later, when he orders his Zachbots to clean his building, it causes a problem for a peregrine falcon family and their chick (whom Martin names Fluff). The Kratt brothers get to work stopping the Zachbots, and then Aviva gets an idea to reprogram the Zachbots, causing them to fly south, taking Zach along with them.

Zach Scared of Koala Balloon

In "Koala Balloon", Zach falls ill with a cold, so he goes to Australia to get some eucalyptus leaves to make eucalyptus tea. But when he sees a baby koala in his potted eucalyptus plant he orders his Zachbots to send it away on balloons over the Australian outback.

In "Cheetah Racer", he spies on Aviva from his hidden spy cloud, overhearing how Aviva intended to create a vehicle that could outspeed a cheetah. Aviva and Zach argue, with it being decided to settle it over a race. Zach cheats by using Blur the cheetah to power his all-terrain vehicle, but Martin discovers this and put a stop to it, forcing Zach to activate the rockets to speed up, but Zach eventually loses control and ends up flying away from the race course, later reappearing to demand a rematch.

In "A Huge Orange Problem", Zach is seen flying over the jungles of Borneo in his jet and decides he wants a side table made from black wood. So he orders his Zachbots to cut down all the trees until they find one with black wood. The Wild Kratts put an end to his scheme and an orangutan tosses Zach into a tree in the middle of a lake, surrounded by gharials.

In "The Gecko Effect", Zach spies on the Wild Kratts and states that he could invent anything that the Wild Kratts can and lists the Miniaturizer as an example, believing that means the Miniaturizer should be his. When the Wild Kratts Miniaturize themselves to go look for the secrets of the gecko's toe powers, Zach sneaks in the Tortuga and claims the Miniaturizer. When the Wild Kratts return, Zach traps them in a jar and says that he'll keep them as his trophy pets and every now and then, shrink some animals for them to play with. Martin manages to trick Zach into dropping a normal-sized gecko into the jar, claiming that it’ll freak him out. While he contacts the other villains to brag about the Miniaturizer, the Wild Kratts escape and return to normal size. Then, Zach is scared off by two moonrats that accidentally gigantified themselves with the Miniaturizer.

In "Quillber's Birthday Present", Zach is in Africa once again on an animal collecting trip. When he orders the Zachbots to go get the animals, they all collapse because Zach forgot to charge them, leading to Zach thinking of doing the collecting himself when he sees some balloons floating by and gets an idea. When he overhears the Kratt brothers making preparations for Aviva's birthday party, Zach steals some of the balloons and begins tying them to animals for his robots by airlifting them of the ground so that they'll float up into his blimp. The Wild Kratts catch onto his scheme and uses Porcupine Powers to pop the balloons and save the animals, refusing to give up, Zach rams his blimp into Martin, taunting him that he’s not so tough without his quills, only for it to be revealed that Martin still had one quill left, which pops the blimp and sends Zach flying away.

Season 2[]

Falcon Chris Sees Zach with Disc

In "Race for the Hippo Disc", Zach is seen canoeing through an African river with one of his Zachbots looking for a new animal invention, then, the Hippo Disc falls out of the sky and lands on Zach’s head. Knowing that he could unlock the secret of the Creature Power Suit technology for his own use, Zach is delighted, until he's attacked by an angry bull hippo, but he is saved by Chris and Martin. Seeing that the Wild Kratts are looking for the lost Hippo Disc, he lets them lead him to it and steals it easily. Later that night, while trying to analyze the Disc, he is attacked by a hippo and gets stuck in a tree. Later, a charging hippo sends him flying into Martin, getting hold of several Creature Power Discs in the process and even though the Wild Kratts get them back, Zach captures a hippo calf whom Martin named Hipster and threatens to take him away if they don't hand over the Discs. Chris gives in and gives Zach the disc case, whom quickly flies away in his jet. As he is happy at his supposed victory, Zach opens the case, only to find out it’s full of cookies.

In "Creature Power Challenge", Zach attempts to ruin the brothers' fun by scattering a mud wallow everywhere, only to make things better for a rhino and elephant. Then he decides to ruin their fun by using Disrupt-o-bots to activate past transformations to ruin Chris and Martin's Creature Power Challenge and to keep the crew from interfering he hacks into their frequency which prevents them from communicating with them.

In "Shadow: The Black Jaguar", Zach wants a large black cat to use as the spokesmodel for his new line of Zachbots, so he spies on the Wild Kratts to find a black cat, but after Chris and Martin start arguing over which cat species to creature adventure with, Zach decides to search for one himself and finds a black jaguar.

In "Aquafrog", after cleaning out his jet, Zach is left with barrels of toxic sludge which he decides to dump into the river which threatens all the animals downstream in Frogwater Pond.

Zach and Donita in Diving Suits

In "Rocket Jaw: Rescuer of the Reef", Zach roboticizes many parrotfishes and makes them munch off all the coral in the reef of the Caribbean Sea so he and Donita can sell coral themed jewelry.

In "Skunked!", Zach is working on his new Bubble Bot, only to get a call from a spotted skunk, whom Zach thinks is the Wild Kratts at first. When he sees that they've left their Creature Pod and Buzz Bikes in the middle of the desert, he decided to test out his new invention and go to the desert to steal their technology. Then he hears that their headquarters is infested with skunks he decides steal the Tortuga itself, but he can't get it out of hover mode so he decides to copy their secrets onto his flash drive and escape in his own ship.

In "Gila Monster Under My House" after overhearing how strong a Gila monster's jaw is compared to a power wrench, he decides to steal all the Gila monsters in the desert and use them as living batteries for his Gila Monster Power Wrenches.

Season 3[]

In "Mosquito Dragon", Zach tries to hack into the Wild Kratts database, but no luck. Then after a mosquito bites him, he gets the idea of creating mosquito robots to steal computer data from the Tortuga.

In "Under Frozen Pond", Zach calls Donita and Gourmand informing them about their annual villains' meeting to discuss how to defeat the Wild Kratts once and for all. He decides to hold the meeting on top of a frozen pond in the middle of the freezing wilderness, believing that there will be no animals nearby, and also unaware that the Wild Kratts and some Wild Kratts Kids are right under the water below them. The heroes soon resurface and return to their normal sizes. The villains spot them and claim that the pond is their spot, even though the Wild Kratts were there first. So they decided to settle this over a game of ice hockey, where Zach cheats twice but doesn't care. But the villains end up losing anyway and they go their separate ways with Zach stating, "This was a horrible place for a meeting anyway!"

In "Osprey" when Zach sees that the Wild Kratts have lost the keys to the Tortuga in the water, he sends his Zachbots out to search for them so he can steal their technology once again. And to keep the crew from contacting Chris and Martin he casts a communication blocking net, but they soon find out, so Zach orders one of his Zachbots to cut down the tree where the baby osprey Fluffy Flier is.

In "Bandito: The Black-Footed Ferret" after Martin's mishap with Aviva's Stone Digger leads to the discovery of an unknown colony of endangered black-footed ferrets, Zach decides to steal them so he can outfit them with robot parts to steal stuff.

In "The Amazing Creature Race", Zach is forced to exercise due to his doctor's orders. While watching the Wild Kratts on his big screen, he sees they're planning a race to see which animal is the best all-around runner. So he builds armor to fit out the animal who's the best who appears to be the pronghorn antelope. He then shows up and steals a pronghorn antelope who Martin named Pacer right out from under them, but Chris and Martin spoil his fun by flattening his tires and leading a herd of stampeding bison his way.

In "Lemur Legs", Zach and Donita are notified by Gourmand telling them that he'll be serving sifaka lemur legs as his main dish.

PM mantis aviva with zach

In "Praying Mantis", Zach hears the Wild Kratts and Wild Kratt Kids Gavin and Ronan talking about praying mantises and how they use their raptorial arms to catch prey. So he decides to create mechanical mantis arms of his own which uses to steal the Miniaturizer and in addition has two of his Zachbots kidnap Koki and Jimmy. He then uses the miniaturizer to enlarge his Zachbots to attack Martin (who of which has Praying Mantis Powers), then Aviva uses Mantis Powers herself only she's colossal which makes Zach super scared and sends him in his jet flying.

In the special "Back in Creature Time", Zach is bragging to his Zachbots about how he claims he's the greatest inventor ever, but he wants more inventions. So he orders his Zachbots to spy on the Wild Kratts while he works on his latest invention, the Invisibility Cloak. When he hears that Aviva has created a time machine, he's outraged, claiming that was his idea. That's when he gets the idea to put his Invisibility Cloak to the test. So he travels to the Philippines and sneaks into the Tortuga undetected, where he surprises Koki, hits the mute button so they communicate with the Kratt brothers, captures her and Jimmy and travels back in time so he can trap Chris, Martin and Aviva in the past. Once back in time he puts his plan into action, by having one of his Zachbots hide and wait to capture Aviva while he tells Chris and Martin that he's trapping them in time by jumping back to the future and disintegrating their end of the time machine. Fortunately with the help of Tasmanian Tiger Powers they are able to stop Zach and get back home as he flies away on his Zachbot.

Season 4[]

ACC zach laughing in his sleigh

In the holiday special "A Creature Christmas", Zach, Gourmand, Donita, and Dabio have teamed up in a holiday plot to steal the Wild Kratts baby animal friends by trapping them in giant Christmas ornaments, hanging from a robot tree in front of a mall owned by Zach called "Varmitech Village". The Wild Kratts' plan to split up and stop them backfired, so they regroup and head to Varmitech Village where they undecorated the tree setting the animals free. As the villains watch the Wild Kratts play happily with their baby animal friends, they pretend to be heartwarmed by them and say that they would help return the animals back to where they belong. When the villains give each of the Wild Kratts a present, they find out they've been tricked and get captured. The villains take all their belongings except for the Creature Power Discs so they would always be reminded of their defeat. The villains then leave them on a large ice float in the middle of the ocean and return to redecorate their tree. The villains had overlooked Aviva's latest invention, which was in Martin's pocket the entire time; a keychain with a button on it designed to summon his and Chris' Creature Power Suits whenever they needed them. With their suits back, they use their creature powers to get back to Varmitech Village. While the brothers undecorate the tree yet again, Zach's Zachbots and Donita's Mannequin Robots try to stop them. Jimmy activates the Tortuga's Disrupt-o-Blaster, causing them to be disabled. Zach reveals that the tree is actually a robot built to look like one and sends it out to destroy the Wild Kratts. After defeating the tree, they call out the baby animals by their names and the villains are soon trampled by them in an adorable defeat.

In "Animals Who Live to be 100 Years Old", Zach realizes he's getting old when he sees a wrinkle on his face. When Donita tells him there is no fountain of youth, he believes that if anyone can find it, it's the Wild Kratts. Coincidentally he hears they're looking for animals that live over 100 years old, so he decides to do his own research and stay one step ahead. First he tells them that he's going after a salamander called the human fish, but its really a trick so he can really go after the bowhead whale, who can live to be over 200 years old. Once they get there after stopping him, Zach angrily overrides their ship sending them into the Sea of Japan where they find a school of immortal jellyfish who have the creature power to live forever. Zach thinks he'll be able to live forever by eating them, but his plan backfires after Chris and Martin put a stop to it.

In "Panda Power Up!", Zach wants to make robotic stuffed animals out of real live animals and when he sees Aviva's stuffed panda toy land on his windshield, he decides to use giant pandas as his model. Once in China he soon bumps into the Wild Kratts' Tortuga and sees their engine control panel is open. He orders his Zachbots to drain their power. After finding Chris and Aviva, he takes the mother panda and Martin (with Giant Panda Powers) and drains the power from their Creature Pods and Buzz Bikes, leaving them with no technology or communications. Fortunately with the help of using bamboo as an energy source, they are able to catch up with Zach, release Martin and the other pandas, and retrieve Aviva's stuffed panda toy.

In "Golden Snub Nosed Monkey Man", Zach plans to capture the legendary yeti to put on display and charge money for admission. But when he thinks he's found one, he soon discovers that its really Martin in a Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Power Suit. When Martin tells Zach that he'll tell everyone who he is, Zach threatens to do bodily harm to Martin's monkey friend Blue Goggle. But soon Chris and Aviva show up and defeat Zach and save Martin and Blue Goggle.

In "Red Panda Rescue", Zach wants to get Donita a weasel stoll for her birthday. So he hacks into the Wild Kratts computer system to see what type of weasels there are. When he sees Chris with a baby red panda, he decides that he wants to steal it. So he and his Zachbots break into the Tortuga and steal her right out from under the crew and puts Aviva, Koki and Jimmy Z in a communication blocking net. But before he can get away, Chris and Martin arrive and Zach quickly has his Zachbots form a protective circle and hides the red panda cub (whom Martin named Lost and Found) inside one of them. A chase soon begins as Chris and Martin pursue after Zach and his Zachbots, in the end, Lost and Found is rescued and Zach is left with no present for Donita.

In "Musk Ox Mania" while going through his "Finders Keepers Collection", Zach realizes he doesn't have anything from the Wild Kratts. By spying on them, Zach hears that Chris has lost his Creature Souvenir Collection, although he's initially not interested in it, Zach decides that it’s worth stealing after Chris mentions that it helps to activate Creature Powers. In the Arctic, Zach manages to get his hands on it and Chris asks for it back, but Zach refuses, but then a pack of Arctic wolves show up and try to attack Zach, thinking he is a musk ox due to his enormous hairy coat. Zach has his Zachbots for a defensive circle around him so that he can safely get to his plane, but the lead musk ox charges at him and destroys his Zachbots. With Zach left unprotected against the Arctic wolves he threw his coat and the Creature Souvenir collection before fleeing.

Appearances[]

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3
Season 4 Season 5 Season 6
Season 7

Trivia[]

  • In "Polar Bears Don't Dance", Zach's eyes are shown to be a lighter green than in subsequent episodes.
    • He is also shown to have fans that support him showing off his animal robots.
  • In "Bass Class", Zach is shown to be afraid of worms.
  • He refers to the Wild Kratts as "Wild Ratts".
  • In "Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus", Aviva claimed that Zach has six toes on his left foot, but in another episode, he is depicted with five toes.
    • Also in the episode, more facts are revealed about him: His favorite number is 22, he eats 4 radish sandwiches a day. his favorite is chartreuse, and his favorite is (obviously) himself.
  • Zach is the only villain who does not have a signature weapon used for restraint, instead relying on his robots.
  • In a flashback to his childhood, Zach is seen with a normal skin tone, freckles, and braces.
  • Zach probably has zoophobia, a fear of animals, since he often screams when he is near one.
  • Black balloons help lift Zach's spirits.
  • Zach went to science camp with Aviva when they were children, and from there he developed a rivalry with her.
  • Zach has been in the most episodes out of all the villains, which could lean on him almost being the main antagonist of the series.
  • As a child, he was still using animals to power his inventions.
  • Donita occasionally refers to Zach by his real name, "Zachary".
  • Zach's favorite food is tomato soup, as seen in "Skunked!".
  • In the episodes in which Shadow appears, he doesn't appear to be afraid of Zach, or at show any aggression towards him like the other animals in the show. It might be possible that Shadow likes Zach because his signature color is black like him.
  • In "Hammerheads", his favorite sweets are black and white cookies.
  • Zach is the only villain whose name is not an alliteration, Zachary Varmitech.
  • He is the first villain who has been miniaturized.
  • Zach is arguably the most evil of the villains. The other villains strictly target animals, whereas Zach also enjoys torturing the Wild Kratts, not to mention he is the only villain to trap them in situations where they could die, and multiple times at that.
  • He is an example of the word "manchild."
  • The show ambiguously hints that Zach has a crush on Donita.
  • Zach shares the same first name with his voice actor: Zachary Bennett.
Human characters in Wild Kratts
Wild Kratts crew
(main characters)
Villains
Recurring

Zach VarmitechDonita DonataDabioGaston GourmandRex

Minor
Wild Kratts kids

EllieKatieNuaAidanGavinKennyWarrenNinaJennyRonanYiJavierNolanPatriciaSaniDuyiMalaLeoniAvaEvanEdenManuelAudreyLeoScarlettStevenRose

Others
Unseen

Mom

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