Flaco, the Central Park Zoo's famous owl who went missing more than a year ago when vandals vandalized the exhibit, died Friday, zoo officials announced.
The owl crashed into a building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, near Central Park, the World Conservation Union, which operates the zoo, said in a statement.
The zoo said people in the building contacted the World Bird Fund, and members of the rehabilitation center took in the unresponsive bird around 7 p.m.
Flaco was pronounced dead shortly after and was transported to the Bronx Zoo for an autopsy. On Saturday, the Central Park Zoo released a statement about the initial discovery, saying it was consistent with “death due to acute trauma,” such as a collision with a building.
“The main effect seems to have been on the body,” he said.
Other findings will depend on tissue samples, toxicology tests that could reveal possible exposure to rodenticides or other toxins, and tests for infectious diseases, the zoo said. Conclusions from these investigations could take several weeks, he said.
The zoo estimates that collisions with New York City buildings kill more than 200,000 migratory birds each year, a figure echoed by the nonprofit New York City Audubon.
On the night of February 2, 2023, an owl went missing from an exhibit at the Central Park Zoo.
The Central Park Zoo said at the time that someone had cut through the steel mesh of Flaco's habitat, allowing the majestic bird to roam the city.
The owl arrived at the zoo as a chick 13 years ago. The zoo said some people were worried about Flaco's ability to survive in a big city, but Flaco had an abundant diet of prey.
“We observed him successfully hunting, catching and eating prey,” the Central Park Zoo said in a statement released 10 days after he went missing. “We saw rapid improvement in his flying skills and ability to maneuver confidently around the park.”
“People didn't expect him to survive,” Jacqueline Emery, a birdwatcher who recorded the owl's daily movements, told The Associated Press earlier this month. “Thanks to his resilience, New Yorkers in particular I have a connection with him.”
Flaco was so adept at surviving in the city that he evaded authorities, first on Fifth Avenue next to the park on the night of his escape, and several times thereafter.
The owl became a frequent celebrity flying around Manhattan in the year following the invasion, and the zoo said in a statement at the time that “Flaco has received a lot of attention.”
No one has claimed responsibility for invading the habitat.
The zoo said in a statement Friday that those who damage the exhibit are “ultimately responsible for its death.”
“We hope that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will eventually make an arrest,” the newspaper said.
The 2023 zoo break-in remains under investigation and no arrests have been made, the New York City Police Department said in an email Saturday.