'Ever since Jeff was a little boy, he's loved animals,' Valerie Corwin said of her son. 'He watched all the animal shows growing up. He was always coming home with something from the woods. I got used to cleaning his room and seeing something come slithering out of a drawer or scampering across the room. It could be a snake or a squirrel.'

Some 20 years later, the kid who imagined himself as 'Jim' from the original 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom' television show is still bringing the animal kingdom into homes.

'I am so lucky,' said Corwin. 'I get a paycheck for traveling and telling wildlife stories. I love to communicate. I see myself as a teacher and my medium is television. It's been a wonderful ride so far.'

Entering its fifth season, 'The Jeff Corwin Experience' (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.) has become a mainstay at the Animal Planet network. More than a half-million viewers each week tune in to watch the affable Corwin tangle with crocodiles, caress deadly spiders, and mug it up with the world's most venomous snakes.

Capitalizing on the off-beat Corwin's popularity - he was once described by a People magazine writer as bringing 'hipster-geek edge' to animal hunting - Animal Planet this fall gave him a 10-week spinoff, 'King of the Jungle,' in which Corwin oversees zoology students battling it out Survivor-like in an attempt to land their own Animal Planet show. The successful show wrapped up recently, just weeks after his first book, 'Jeff Corwin Living on the Edge,' hit the bookstands to critical praise and solid sales.

'Jeff Corwin represents what Animal Planet is all about,' said Michael Cascio, the cable channel's executive vice president and general manager. 'Like the network, he's entertaining, informative, and unique.'

Born in Quincy and raised in Norwell, the oldest of Marcy and Valerie Corwin's three children picked up his animal-loving gene from his father. When not patrolling Boston's streets, Marcy Corwin was taking his only son to the Blue Hills area in search of rattlesnakes and raccoons.

'I remember we gave Jeff a book on reptiles once,' said Valerie Corwin, a retired nurse. 'Jeff wore it thin because he took it to bed every night. It's all he ever wanted to read about and study.'

Corwin would eventually earn two bachelor of science degrees, in biology and anthropology, from Bridgewater State College under the guidance of biology professor Dr. John Jahoda. 'Bridgewater State gave me a great education,' said Corwin, who founded the interactive EcoZone Wetlands Museum in Norwell.

Corwin's first break in television came in 1994 when a Disney Channel executive, impressed by Corwin's knowledge and easy-going manner, hired him as host of the nature show, 'Going Wild.' Though the program carried strong numbers during its three-year, 45-episode run, the television marriage broke off, said Corwin, when 'Disney wanted me to be a little sillier. They wanted to push the envelope in a way that I was not comfortable.'

Corwin devoted the next two years to earning his master's degree in wildlife and fisheries conservation from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He emerged before the camera in 1999 with The Experience. As executive producer, he is basically free to call the shots, from what animals are to be explored to where in the world the film crew of eight will head next.

His frequent flier account, he said, sits at 500,000 miles.

'I travel 10 months a year, usually visiting 10 to 15 countries during that time,' he said. 'I've been around the world eight times. When I'm not filming somewhere, I'm speaking somewhere.'

Though he's had his share of life-before-the-eyes moments - most notably the time he was charged by an African elephant, when Corwin escaped by standing perfectly still even as the snorting beast closed to within 20 feet - Corwin and his crew rarely find themselves in jeopardy.

For that, he credits a deep knowledge of and respect for his subjects.

'I'm not like [Discovery Channel Croc Hunter] Steve Irwin,' Corwin said of the Australian zoologist who never met an angry crocodile or snake he didn't want to embrace. 'I'm there to teach, not titillate. Steve's Neiman Marcus, and I'm Kohl's. I'm just a regular guy.'

A regular guy who happens to be all over television and now book shelves.

'I can't tell you what it means to me to have written a book,' he said of the 308-page tome that captures his experiences at four of the world's most diverse ecosystems: the Costa Rica rainforest, the East African Savannah of Tanzania, the Pantanal of Brazil, and the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.

'Next to my wife and the birth of our daughter, Maya Rose, five months ago, this book is the biggest thing in my life. In fact, I call it my second child because you pour so much of your heart into it. I always dreamed of two things: hosting an animal show on TV and writing a book. I can say I've done both.'