#owl flaco

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

The Bronx Zoo has just released Flaco's necropsy results.

He was not thriving, as the people championing the ideal of "freedom" claimed.

He was poisoned.

He was sick.

He was suffering.

"Freedom" would have eventually killed him. A building just happened to do it first.

"Postmortem testing has been completed for Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that was found down in the courtyard of a Manhattan building a little over a year after his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo was vandalized on February 2, 2023. Onlookers reported that Flaco had flown into a building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on February 23, 2024, and acute trauma was found at necropsy. Bronx Zoo veterinary pathologists determined that in addition to the traumatic injuries, Flaco had two significant underlying conditions. He had a severe pigeon herpesvirus from eating feral pigeons that had become part of his diet, and exposure to four different anticoagulant rodenticides that are commonly used for rat control in New York City. These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building. The identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal disease in birds of prey including owls infected by eating pigeons. This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls. In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain.   No other contributing factors were identified through the extensive testing that was performed. Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors—infectious disease, toxin exposures, and traumatic injuries—that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting."

The naturalistic fallacy kills animals in horrible ways. The romanticism of what humans want to think of as a "free, wild, pure life" cannot be allowed supplant the reality of injury, sickness, and death. Releasing captive animals (or keeping them from being recaptured) because it's "better" for them to suffer untethered than live a healthy, safe, captive life is inhumane and horrific.

Flaco's life didn't have to end in pain, sickness, and suffering.

Flaco's death didn't have to be tragic.

But once the idea of "freedom" entered the chat, Flaco's fate was unavoidable.

[a-bichol]

i am obsessed with himmmmm

(studies from the bird watching twitter!)

[todaysbird]

let this be a reminder that we have no business using commercial rodenticides in the unregulated way that we do & that rodenticides indiscriminately kill both invasive ‘pest’ rodents along with native species, and anything that might predate on them

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

just learned about Flaco the Eurasian eagle owl who people “freed” from the Central Park zoo. people tracked his location on Twitter and every time zoo keepers tried to get him back they would make noise and scare him away. as a result, he died not even a year after his escape after striking a window. he was 13 years old, he would have lived another 40 years if he had been left alone.

being a conservationist really makes me hate the general public sometimes

[haltraveler]

This Flaco situation is like if, in The Martian, people started protesting the effort to save Mark Whatney because he’s free now and how dare you try to put him back in that cramped spaceship!

And NASA keeps trying to explain that Mars is not an environment where people can live but the public said “but look you said he’d be dead by now and he’s thriving!”

And then NASA tells them it’s a ridiculously astonishing feat that he survived a week, let alone months but there are so many dangerous things that can and eventually will kill him. But public outcry gets the funding for a rescue mission cut.

Then when he eventually dies from one of the hazards NASA warned about people all talk about how inspiring his life was and how at least he got to be free and happy on Mars.

[herpsandbirds]

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped the central park zoo has died in apparent building collision. It is a dark day.

:C

I was really rooting for him. This is a really sad time for all of us.

RIP FLACO !!!

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo), male, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, species found across much of Eurasia

photograph via: Manhattan Bird Alert

photograph by JACQUELINE EMERY

photograph by David Barrett 

Read more about Flaco the Owl:

Death of Flaco, NYC’s Celebrity Owl, Calls Attention to Bird Strikes - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Central Park's Flaco had a family. Conservationists fear other owls will become targets for release. - Gothamist

Flaco the owl dies after colliding with a New York building | AP News

[julialundman]

“Flaco, the NYC Eagle-Owl”, 13”x13” watercolor and colored pencil on cream paper. My tribute to Flaco, who escaped his zoo enclosure and made his way over to Central Park. This painting will be on the online gallery website @everydayoriginal tomorrow, April 30th, available to purchase. Thanks for your consideration! 🩷🦉🩷

[dopescissorscashwagon]

🦉🦉🦉Flaco and the Central Park squirrel (cont). After a lengthy stare down, the squirrel decided to take the lower branch and Flaco chose to let it pass! Flaco then went back to sleep and they both lived happily ever after! 😊

📸 by Above96th

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

ok. i’m making a more cohesive post about flaco the owl because i’m seeing a lot of people reblogging that post praising him and excited about him venturing further into nyc. as cool as it may be to see him around, i think a lot of people lack the knowledge to understand why it’s not necessarily a good thing.

as someone who’s studying wildlife and who’s been working in wildlife spaces since i was 17, i have a lot of feelings about this, but i think this article i’m going to link is more succinct and explains better the harms flaco poses/risks he faces if he remains out of captivity. i’ve been following this story since he was let out and agree with the biologists i’ve seen supporting flaco’s recapture over birders or others who support him remaining outside captivity.

i also want to clear up a misconception from the post i’ve seen going around: flaco didn’t just “escape” the zoo - it wasn’t a desperate bid for freedom or something. his enclosure was vandalised and someone purposefully let him out. that action very well could have killed him, and, considering there are still many risks, could still lead to his premature death.

[honeyhobbs]

Its Flaco the eurasion eagle owl's one year anniversary of living loose in New York city and peeping in windows and hooting at the moon!

[orcinus-veterinarius]

The idiots are already out saying Flaco is better off dead than in a life of captivity.

[octavio-world]

rip flaco, you were too good for this world

[regal-ls]

[emotiondelivered]

[howsublime]

In 2023, when Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl, escaped the zoo in NYC, I I sketched his wikipedia photo where he looks like a prototype for Totoro, the forest spirit.

NYT has an article about him today, on the anniversary of his escape, with great photos. But there is also a video in it that is very sad - I did not know that at first, after his escape, he just sat on the sidewalk surrounded by people. He looks terrified there.

PS: Love the scientific name for these species - Bubo bubo.

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

I deeply appreciate your post about Flaco. I'm really angry that he's dead. I hope the people who were celebrating his "freedom" from captivity will learn from this. It really made me sick to see people supporting a life for Flaco that they wouldn't even choose for themselves. He was restricted at the zoo, but he was safe and cared for. People willingly accept restrictions all the time for safety and care.

I think a lot of it comes from people not understanding how animal care works and how animals live in captivity when zoos are fully licensed and focused on proper animal care. To be fair, I haven’t been to the Central Park Zoo where he’d been housed, but it looks pretty reputable. He would have had proper food, stimulation/enrichment, and care had he not been released or had been recaptured and returned. It’s misunderstandings at best and intentional ignorance at worst that leads to these situations. And I especially don’t want people to forget that this wasn’t just an escaped animal who died; this was a nonnative species who got out because people purposefully vandalised his enclosure, and it was uninformed but still intense public opinion which lead to him not being recaptured. Maybe it’s because I’m angry and because I’ve been saying this would happen since the beginning, but I place a portion of the blame on anyone who refused to do more research and instead advocated against recapture