Flaco is dead. A year after escaping from its enclosure at the New York Zoo, the famous eagle owl lost its life in a collision with a building, as announced by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in a press release relayed by The New York Times.
Regularly photographed by fans at the top of a tree in Central Park or on the pediment of a building, the raptor had become a true emblem of the “Big Apple”. He, who on February 2, 2023 had been freed from his cage by an unknown person, who is still wanted by the police for having created a hole in the fence, finally died in the Upper West Side on February 23, 2024.
Victim of acute traumatic shock
Despite a life spent in captivity, Flaco had adapted perfectly to freedom. Failing to capture it, the keepers kept a close eye on the 14-year-old owl to intervene in the event of a problem. It was the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which intervened to rescue the bird after its collision with a building.
Unfortunately, the trainers couldn’t do anything. A necropsy took place at the Bronx Zoo. The latter made it possible to confirm that Flaco had succumbed to acute traumatic shock. Questioned by the association, the Central Park Zoo specified that the owl “was in good physical condition at the time of its death, with good musculature and adequate fat reserves”. The animal weighed 1.86 kg at the time of its autopsy, compared to 1.9 kg when it was still in captivity.
A final tribute
But why did Flaco, who was used to flying in an urban environment, hit a building? This is the question that everyone affected by this death is asking themselves. “It is estimated that nearly a quarter of a million birds die each year in New York as a result of collisions with buildings,” detailed the zoo.
In New York, the disappearance of this mascot was a shock for local residents. A memorial was spontaneously created for the occasion and many Internet users shared their photos of Flaco on social networks, as a last tribute to the most famous raptor in the United States.
2024-03-05 14:32:00
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