After eight years of volunteering at Carleton University’s annual butterfly show, Igor Kabic has taken over as events coordinator and lead butterfly caretaker.
Kabic, 36, has big shoes to fill: Butterfly caretaker Ed Bruggink previously held the position for 25 years.
After graduating from Carleton biochemistry this year, Kabic is now responsible for more than 1,100 butterflies in the exhibit with 400 more hatching soon.
The Charlatan sat down with Kabic to discuss the transition, the delicate task of caring for the butterflies and what it means to carry on Bruggink’s legacy.
The Charlatan (TC): How did you become Carleton’s new butterfly caretaker?
Igor Kabic (IK): I have to go way back to before I got into Carleton, when I had an opportunity to volunteer for the butterfly show. Six years later, Ed was looking at retiring, and everyone told him to stay on for his 25th year, and he decided to do it.
Then, Ed talked to me and said I should take over his role. I told him I didn’t think the school would ever ask me. Then we came to this year, and the school ended up asking me.
Before accepting, I wanted to talk to Ed about it and he encouraged me to go for it. He said he would be there for me anytime I needed help. Now, he always reassures me and provides a lot of advice for everything.
TC: What was it like to volunteer with Ed and learn how to take care of the butterflies?
IK: Ed is such a wonderful person. He gave a lot of students opportunities to help with the butterflies. I wanted to continue that as well, being able to incorporate as many people to help as I could.
Other steps of the process included things every butterfly caretaker has to find their own way about. For general tips, I looked up journal articles and other web searches. Plus, Ed always gives his advice along the way. By the time I took over this position, I had a lot more to explore than I initially thought.
But with his guidance and also a good team backing me, I was able to do what I was hired to do and raise the butterflies.
TC: What does it mean to you to take on the role from Ed, who’s held it for so long?
IK: It means so much. I would love to have Ed’s legacy continue, and I’d love to do it for more years to come.
The butterfly show is extremely special. I hope people feel the same. Not just our Carleton community, but Ottawa and beyond, because when people come to visit, they fall in love with the butterflies.
It’s the magic of the butterflies that really runs the show.
TC: What about the logistics — were butterflies passed on to you or were you given new butterflies?
IK: We order butterflies from butterfly farms around the world. They’re usually in hot, tropical climates. When we get them, they’re in the chrysalis form. A butterfly goes from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis and then to the adult butterfly. So I get to raise them from that chrysalis form into the adult form, which takes around one to seven days.
TC: What does caring for a greenhouse full of butterflies look like?
IK: It’s just monitoring the heat and the humidity. Those are secret numbers that I hold to my heart, because every individual butterfly whisperer or caretaker, has their own numbers that they prefer.
It’s been an unusually hot October, so when we had that dip in temperature, it was a little bit easier to fast-track the temperature into the range that I wanted. In general, it’s been a battle keeping that perfect range. But it’s been going really well so far.
TC: What place do you think this exhibit and these butterflies have at Carleton University and the community?
IK: They’re intertwined together. Without Carleton, the show couldn’t happen. It’s our community, first and foremost, that really fuels the show.
Apart from that, it’s also our Ottawa community. We get to touch so many children’s lives by introducing them to butterflies and science itself, something that maybe they normally wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience before.
I don’t know if there’s another place as special as Carleton and the butterfly show, where children and adults can experience this kind of wonder and majesty.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
