For years, Bart (30) dreamed of becoming a biologist. He has a fascination with butterflies and wants to protect endangered species. The fact that he could not complete his biology degree hindered him. But Bart, who was born with autism, did not give up. He delved into the world of butterflies by breeding them. He made important discoveries and now flies around the world – without a diploma – as a renowned butterfly expert.
“I just came back from a few months in Uganda. I did research on butterflies there. I was invited by a British entomologist who watches my YouTube videos,” says Bart Coppens as he walks into his room, pointing to a cupboard with mesh doors : “That’s where I leave the butterfly pupae of the wintering butterflies,” he says. He grabs a large brown chrysalis: “This will soon become a beautiful butterfly with beautiful colors.” “Fascinating, huh?”
Bart was born with a form of autism: preoccupation. People with this form of autism have a strong fascination with a particular subject. They also get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from it. Bart has been fascinated by butterflies from an early age. “You don’t have to have autism to admire butterflies, of course, but I think it plays a role in me,” he says. “It’s part of who I am.”
“Butterflies are predictable insects, you can easily understand them.” This ensures that working with butterflies gives Bart a nice feeling. “They don’t have complex motivations like humans do. There are many things about butterflies that I can understand just by looking at them. They make sense to me, always have made sense.”
“Already when I was a toddler, I knew that many species of butterflies are endangered,” says Bart. As a ten-year-old boy he already knew that he had to do something with his fascination with butterflies. In the years that followed, he read and learned a lot about the animals, but he wanted more. “I felt like I had to do something with all my knowledge to protect these insects,” he says, raising his hand with a butterfly on it to emphasize what he’s talking about.
Not a mainstream hobby, that’s what Bart calls breeding butterflies. “There were always people who raised their eyebrows when they heard about my passion,” he says. “I’m also sure there are people who think I’m a weirdo. It’s also an obsession that I can’t let go of, but I’m happy with that.”
Bart believes that butterflies and other insects receive little attention when it comes to protecting animal species. “People always talk about the climate and the environment and at the same time they pour millions into saving pandas. But people don’t really care about saving insects,” he says. “This is because people find them less charismatic, cute or cool. If you say to people: we have to protect a species of butterfly, they think you are crazy. While they have at least as much right to exist as a panda.”
Failed biologist
At the age of 18, Bart took serious steps to make his dream come true. He trained in biology to become an entomologist. “I was very excited about this. I thought it was the way to achieve my dream.” He just couldn’t complete the training. “I can’t sit still in class or at a desk to do homework.”
However, Bart did not give up and after a year made a second attempt to complete the biology course. This failed again. “I was bitter about that. It felt like my dream was shattered twice. I called myself a failed biologist for a long time afterward.”
Bart saw that as a nuisance. “If you are 25 years old, have big dreams but no diploma in your pocket, no one will take you seriously.”
Stubbornly
Bart has a good quality, he says laughing: “I’m stubborn and I never give up.” So he started his own website. “Because I compulsively want to talk about the subject and thereby make people aware of the importance of butterflies, I also wrote a lot about it.” He kept track of the life cycles of all the butterflies he bred. “I have hundreds of butterfly life cycles on the website.”
He also started making videos about the butterflies he breeds. He publishes the videos on his own YouTube channel. “I portray it in a fun way so that people get interested,” he says, “I did this for five years without anyone caring. Only then did I start to gain viewers and followers.”
Discovery
Bart now has 40,000 subscribers on YouTube and more than 200,000 followers on Instagram. His videos are watched by tens of thousands of people. In a low voice he says, “I have become an influencer.” Not only ordinary people became interested in what he does. Scientists also viewed his website and were impressed. Bart turned out to have made a special discovery. “I discovered the life cycle of a moth in Costa Rica about which nothing was previously known.” This was published in a scientific article under my name.”
Now Bart travels around the world at the invitation of researchers and nature organizations to participate in butterfly research and protection programs. He traveled to Cambodia and Laos to breed butterflies for butterfly gardens. He was also invited by the Reserva Ecologica de Guapiaçu nature reserve in Brazil to breed soon-to-be endangered butterflies in the rainforest. “I still have to arrange some papers and then I can go there,” he says with sparkling eyes. Artists also want Bart to feature butterflies in their artwork.
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Butterfly Man
It feels wrong for Bart that he was only taken seriously after he had gained a lot of followers on social media. “It’s strange that we live in a world where people are more likely to look at the number of followers someone has and not at the knowledge and passion that person has,” he says, “But hey, for me it’s an alternative way to share my dream, so I’m glad it turned out this way.”
Since last year, Bart has been studying environmental science at the Open University in Amsterdam. He can follow this at his own pace, which gives him confidence that he will be able to complete the study this time. He no longer sees himself as a failed biologist. “Because of what I have achieved, I secretly call myself a biologist,” he says, “although Butterfly Man actually sounds even better.”
Sunday interview
Every Sunday we publish an interview in text and photos of someone who does or has experienced something special. That can be a major event that the person deals with admirably. The Sunday interviews have in common that the story has a major influence on the life of the interviewee.
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