Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, who became a New York City celebrity following his escape from the Central Park Zoo in 2023, has died.
© Chris Pietsch/The Register/Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK
(New York, NY) — The famed owl Flaco, who died last month after slamming into an Upper West Side building, had high levels of rat poison in his system, along with a severe pigeon virus. That’s the finding of a necropsy conducted by the Bronx Zoo. Investigators believe the pigeon virus came from eating feral pigeons and the poison in the owl’s system came from Flaco dinning on rats.
Flaco escaped from the Central Park Zoo last year, and instantly became a celebrity. Zoo workers believe someone cut the netting to his enclosure, setting him free. No one has been arrested for the vandalism. Efforts to retrieve the owl quickly proved pointless, and there were Flaco sightings across the city until his death. Flaco the Owl was 13 years old.
