By Dennis Romero -
NBC News
Flaco, the famous owl from the Central Park Zoo (New York) who escaped after someone vandalized his exhibit more than a year ago, died this Friday, the zoo reported.
The owl crashed into a building on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, not far from Central Park, the zoo said in a statement shared by the World Conservation Society, the organization that manages it.
Skinny.Julie Larsen Maher/WCS
Residents of the building contacted the World Bird Fund and rehabilitation center officials picked up the unresponsive bird around 7 p.m., according to the zoo.
Flaco was pronounced dead shortly after and transferred to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy.
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The bird fled its zoo exhibit in Central Park on the afternoon of Feb. 2, 2023, after someone cut the steel mesh around its habitat, allowing the majestic bird to wander around the city, the park said. zoo at the moment.
The owl had arrived at the zoo 13 years earlier when it was just a chick.
Some expressed concern about his ability to survive in the big city, but Flaco ate plenty of prey, according to the institution.
"We observed him successfully hunting, trapping and feeding on prey," the Central Park Zoo said in a statement ten days after his disappearance.
"We have seen rapid improvement in their flying skills and their ability to confidently maneuver around the park."
"People didn't expect it to survive
," Jacqueline Emery, a bird watcher who documented the owl's daily movements, told The Associated Press in early February.
"People in New York especially connect with him because of his resilience."
Flaco was skilled enough to survive in the city and evade authorities, first on Fifth Avenue, near the park, the night he escaped and then other times.
The owl became a frequent and famous traveler in Manhattan during the year following his escape.
"There are a lot of eyes on Flaco," the zoo said in a statement at the time.
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No one has taken the blame for cutting the mesh from his habitat, but whoever did is "responsible for his death," the zoo said in another statement on Friday.
"We are still hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will eventually make an arrest," he said.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said he did not know the status of the case, but that officers would respond after reviewing it.