Flaco, the beloved Eurasian eagle owl who soared freely around the city after escaping from the Central Park Zoo a year ago, died from an “acute traumatic injury,” according to autopsy results recently released.
The Wildlife Conservation Society on Saturday released details of the winged local celebrity’s initial necropsy, which was conducted a day after he flew into the side of an Upper West Side building.
Pathologists at the Bronx Zoo found that Flaco’s body, weighing 4.1 pounds, had absorbed most of the fatal impact, saying there was “significant hemorrhaging under the sternum and at the back of the body cavity around the liver.
Beloved Flaco died from an “acute traumatic injury,” according to preliminary autopsy results. David Lei
Flaco appeared to have been spared head trauma, although there was a “small amount of bleeding” behind his left eye, according to the report.
No bones in the owl were fractured or broken, according to preliminary findings.
The autopsy revealed that Flaco was doing well before his death, having lost only an ounce or two since his escape and maintaining his health with “good muscularity and adequate fat reserves.”
Zookeepers were initially concerned that he wouldn’t be able to eat enough to survive because he had been raised in captivity.
Pathologists will now investigate whether “potential exposures to rodenticides or other toxins” or possible cases of “West Nile virus and avian flu” contributed to the owl’s death, officials said.
The WCS estimates that about 250,000 birds suffer a similar loss each year in this skyscraper city. One reason is that birds mistake the reflection of a window for the actual trees and sky.
“Flaco’s tragic and untimely death highlights the problem of bird strikes and their devastating effects on wild bird populations,” the group said.
He was in captivity for 12 years, but flew away from the Central Park Zoo last winter after vandals defaced his enclosure.
About 250,000 birds die each year when they fly into New York City buildings, including some that mistake the reflection of trees and sky in windows for reality. David Lei
New Yorkers traveled to X and gathered in Manhattan’s Central Park and at 267 W. 89th St., where he died, to mourn the beloved owl.
“I am sad beyond words about his death. It stings especially because he just spent a year in the wild and he seemed to be doing really well,” said one man who had taken thousands of photos of the free bird.
2024-02-25 18:10:44
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