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Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and subsequent life on the free in Manhattan captured the general public’s consideration, died Friday evening after apparently putting a constructing on the Higher West Facet, officers mentioned.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, mentioned in an announcement that Flaco had been discovered on the bottom after hitting a constructing on West 89th Road.
Constructing residents contacted the Wild Hen Fund, a rescue group, whose employees members responded rapidly, retrieved him and declared him lifeless a short while later, the society mentioned.
Zoo workers took him to the Bronx Zoo, the place a necropsy will likely be carried out to find out the reason for dying. He would have turned 14 subsequent month.
Flaco’s yr as a free hen started on the night of Feb. 2, 2023, when somebody shredded the mesh on the modest enclosure the place he had lived practically his total life. The police mentioned in January that no arrests had been made and that the investigation was persevering with.
“The vandal who broken Flaco’s exhibit jeopardized the protection of the hen and is in the end accountable for his dying,” the Wildlife Conservation Society mentioned in its assertion. “We’re nonetheless hopeful that the N.Y.P.D., which is investigating the vandalism, will in the end make an arrest.”
Flaco started attracting a passionate fan base nearly as quickly as he confirmed up on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk the evening he was set free. He seemed misplaced, with cops standing close by and Bergdorf Goodman a brief flight away.
“Effectively, that was a hoot,” the New York Police Division’s nineteenth Precinct posted on social media. “We tried to assist this lil sensible man, however he had sufficient of his rising viewers & flew off.”
Quickly, Flaco had settled in Central Park.
As the times handed and he remained free, the query of whether or not he might survive outdoors the zoo after a lifetime there turned his plight into an underdog’s story. When he confirmed that he might endure, he turned a feathered feel-good determine in troubled instances, with hen watchers, ornithologists and on a regular basis New Yorkers following him in particular person or, in lots of circumstances, monitoring his exploits on-line.
However every day outdoors captivity was dangerous — even with out the hazards offered by an city atmosphere. Wild Eurasian eagle-owls can reside greater than 40 years in captivity, however solely 20 on common of their pure habitat.
Putting a constructing, particularly a window, was one in every of a number of deadly threats he confronted. Others included dying by poisoning through the rodenticide within the rats that he ate, and a deadly collision with a automobile.
For greater than a yr, although, Flaco proved immune.
He was in a position to keep away from autos by sticking largely to rooftops, water towers and different elevated components of the constructed atmosphere after leaving Central Park final fall. However the danger that he can be killed in a constructing strike was nice: As many as 230,000 birds a yr die in New York Metropolis once they hit home windows, in response to the Nationwide Audubon Society.
David Lei, who, along with his companion, Jacqueline Emery, has adopted and photographed Flaco since his escape, mentioned in an electronic mail that he and Ms. Emery had been “unhappy past phrases however holding onto all our fond recollections of him.”
Flaco was hatched on March 15, 2010, on the Sylvan Heights Hen Park in Scotland Neck, N.C., in response to Affiliation of Zoos and Aquariums data.
He arrived on the Central Park Zoo lower than two months later. He was initially positioned with the snow leopards, snow monkeys and purple pandas. Later, he was moved to an enclosure the scale of a division retailer window close to the penguin home exit.
He was removed from his pure dwelling: Eurasian eagle-owls, recognized by the scientific title Bubo bubo, are apex predators usually present in a lot of Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and Central Asia. They’re among the many world’s largest owls, with a wingspan as large as six ft. They thrive in mountains and different rocky areas close to forests, swooping down at evening to hunt rodents, rabbits and different prey.
In a November 2010 information launch citing Flaco’s “massive talons” and “intense stare,” the conservation society mentioned he was “adjusting very properly to his new dwelling” and was “a very awe-inspiring sight.”
However Flaco’s life on the zoo was unremarkable. Solely after he left did he started to encourage true awe.
In his early days of freedom, conservation society workers tried a number of instances to retrieve him. They backed off after he proved {that a} lifetime of captivity had not dulled his important nature, and within the face of rising public sentiment that he be allowed to stay out of the zoo.
A turning level got here when he was seen devouring a rat and, later, coughing up an undigestible pellet of fur and bones.
“A significant concern for everybody initially was whether or not Flaco would have the ability to hunt and eat,” the conservation society mentioned in an announcement 10 days after his departure from the zoo. “That’s not a priority.”
With that fear put apart, the society mentioned it might “rethink our strategy” to addressing Flaco’s new circumstances: “We’ll proceed to watch him, although not as intensely, and look to opportunistically get better him when the state of affairs is correct.”
Earlier than lengthy, Flaco had settled into a cushty life on the park’s north finish, perching in favourite bushes and snatching up meals.
He left the park’s relative security round Halloween, embarking on a tour of Manhattan that took him to the East Village, the Decrease East Facet and the Higher East Facet, delighting these he encountered when he turned up on the terraces, air-conditioners and terraces that resembled the cliff ledges to which Eurasian eagle-owls are accustomed.
By December, Flaco had largely settled on the Higher West Facet, starting from the 70s to the 90s and from Central Park West to Riverside Drive, returning to sure buildings repeatedly.
He usually spent his days sleeping on fireplace escapes in courtyards, the place it was hotter and out of the wind. At nightfall, he would fly out in quest of prey.
Largely he ate rats, though he had recently been seen catching pigeons.
One poignant facet of Flaco’s Manhattan life was that, as a nonnative species, he was destined by no means to discover a mate. That didn’t cease him from attempting, generally hooting into the post-midnight darkness for hours to ascertain his territory and declare his curiosity in breeding.
Flaco’s final reported hoots had been heard from a water tower on West 86th Road east of Columbus Avenue at 3 a.m. final Sunday, in response to David Barrett’s Manhattan Hen Alert account on social media.
On Friday, Flaco was discovered only a few blocks away.
Catrin Einhorn contributed reporting.