Flaco, the eagle owl who escaped from New York's Central Park Zoo and became one of the city's most popular celebrities as he flew through Manhattan, has died
From
RUTH BROWN Associated Press
February 24, 2024, 12:02 AM ET
3 minutes read
NEW YORK – Flaco, the eagle owl who escaped from New York's Central Park Zoo and became one of the city's most popular celebrities as he flew through Manhattan, has died, zoo officials announced Friday.
A little more than a year after he was freed from his cage at the zoo in an unsolved crime, Flaco appears to have collided with a building on the Upper West Side, the zoo said in a statement.
“The vandal who damaged Flaco’s exhibit endangered the bird’s safety and is ultimately responsible for its death,” the statement said. “We remain hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, ultimately makes an arrest.”
Staff at the Wild Bird Fund, a wildlife rehabilitation center, responded to the scene and pronounced Flaco dead shortly after the collision. He was taken to the Bronx Zoo for an autopsy.
“We were just hoping to see Flaco hooting wildly from the top of our local water tower, never in the clinic,” the World Bird Fund wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Flaco's time in the sky began on February 2, 2023, when someone broke through a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage and freed the owl, who had arrived at the zoo as a boy 13 years ago.
Since the zoo suspended efforts to recapture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime.
So far, Flaco had defied all odds and thrived despite a lifetime of imprisonment in the urban jungle. He became one of the city's most popular characters. During the day, he lounged in Manhattan's courtyards and parks or sat on fire escapes. He spent his nights honking on water towers and hunting the city's numerous rats.
He was known to appear unexpectedly at New Yorkers' windows and was followed by bird watchers around the Big Apple. His death sparked widespread sadness on social media on Friday evening.
One of Flaco's most dedicated observers, David Barrett, suggested a temporary memorial at the bird's favorite oak tree in Central Park.
There, other birders could “lay flowers, leave a message, or just be with others who love Flaco,” Barrett wrote in a post on X for the account Manhattan Bird Alert, which documented the bird's whereabouts.
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Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed.
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