{"id":14425,"date":"2024-02-01T08:07:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T16:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=14425"},"modified":"2024-02-07T08:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T16:11:36","slug":"who-freed-flaco-one-year-later-celebrity-owls-escape-from-central-park-zoo-remains-a-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2024\/02\/01\/who-freed-flaco-one-year-later-celebrity-owls-escape-from-central-park-zoo-remains-a-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Who freed Flaco? One year later, celebrity owl\u2019s escape from Central Park Zoo remains a mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Associated Press
\nby:\u00a0JAKE OFFENHARTZ<\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 This New York love story begins with a criminal act of sabotage.<\/p>\n

Under cover of darkness a year ago Friday, someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing a majestic Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco who had arrived at the zoo as a fledgling 13 years earlier.<\/p>\n

Immediately, Flaco fled the park, blinking his big orange eyes at pedestrians and police on Fifth Avenue before flying off into the night.<\/p>\n

In the year since his dramatic escape, Flaco has become one of the city\u2019s most beloved characters. By day he lounges in Manhattan\u2019s courtyards and parks or perches on fire escapes. He spends his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city\u2019s abundant rats.<\/p>\n

To the surprise of many experts, Flaco is thriving in the urban wilds. An apex predator with a nearly 6-foot (2-meter) wingspan, he has called on abilities some feared he hadn\u2019t developed during a lifetime in captivity, gamely exploring new neighborhoods and turning up unexpectedly at the windows of New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the underdog from the start. People did not expect him to survive,\u201d said Jacqueline Emery, one of several birders who document the owl\u2019s daily movements and share them online with his legions of admirers. \u201cNew Yorkers especially connect to him because of his resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Flaco enters his second year in the spotlight, it can be easy to forget that his freedom is the result of a crime, one that has improbably remained unsolved.<\/p>\n

The break-in happened steps from the shared headquarters of the New York City Parks Department and the Central Park Zoo, in the vicinity of at least one surveillance camera.<\/p>\n

But if they have collected any evidence on a potential suspect, police and zoo authorities have declined to share it. Since the zoo suspended efforts to re-capture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime.<\/p>\n

Privately, the zoo has sought to soften descriptions of Flaco\u2019s former living conditions, in a minivan-sized structure decorated with a painted mountain vista, barely twice the width of Flaco\u2019s extended wings.<\/p>\n

In internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request, zoo officials urged the Parks Department not to publicly describe Flaco as \u201craised in captivity.\u201d Likewise, the term \u201cescape\u201d should be avoided.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat puts the blame on the animal rather than the perpetrator,\u201d the zoo\u2019s then-communications director, Max Pulsinelli, wrote in one email. \u201cThis was a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the absence of official information, theories of the crime abound \u2013 a youthful prank, perhaps, or an attempted owl heist gone awry? For many invested in Flaco\u2019s fate, the most plausible explanation is that he was freed for ideological reasons.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the animal liberation theory point to the seemingly targeted nature of the crime, as well as the limitations of the owl\u2019s modest enclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it was someone who loved Flaco and wanted him free,\u201d said Nicole Barrantes, a wildlife campaign manager with World Animal Protection, who started a petition against Flaco being returned to the zoo. \u201cHis habitat was ridiculous. It was the saddest thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Break-ins and vandalism have long been tactics some activists have used to free animals. Such actions are often made public by the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, an anonymous online database.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s spokesperson, Jerry Vlasak, said no one had come forward to claim responsibility for Flaco\u2019s escape. \u201cWe never received a communique,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re certainly glad it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has operated the zoo since 1988, did not respond to the claims that Flaco\u2019s zoo habitat was inadequate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a criminal act that jeopardized the safety of the bird,\u201d the zoo said in a statement, adding that they are continuing to monitor reports of Flaco\u2019s activity and wellbeing and are \u201cprepared to resume recovery efforts if he shows any sign of difficulty or distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with his proficient hunting skills, Flaco faces many threats in the city, including a grave risk of consuming rodenticide through a poisoned rat. In 2021, another beloved Central Park owl, Barry, was fatally struck by a truck after ingesting a lethal dose of rat poison that may have impaired her flying.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the hazards are still there,\u201d cautioned Suzanne Shoemaker, the director of the Owl Moon Raptor Center in Maryland. \u201cHe\u2019s shown some good instincts to be able to make it this far. He\u2019s also lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flaco spent his initial months of freedom mostly in Central Park, which is loaded with wildlife, but has lately preferred more urban sections of Manhattan. There has been some speculation that he has been looking for a mate, though he most certainly won\u2019t find one. Eurasian eagle owls aren\u2019t native to North America.<\/p>\n

Stories of zoo animals breaking loose in the middle of the country\u2019s densest city have long captured the public imagination, while often ushering in calls for reforms.<\/p>\n

Following a series of bird thefts and \u201csenseless\u201d animal beatings in the 1970s, administrators ordered immediate security upgrades and the redesign of some pens at the zoo, which the city\u2019s parks commissioner at the time described as \u201cRikers Island for animals\u201d because of poor living conditions.<\/p>\n

A few years later, when a group of vandals made off with a boa constrictor and a parrot named \u201cPeanuts,\u201d officials accused the perpetrators of stealing the animals for \u201cvoodoo rites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since those days the zoo has been substantially redesigned.<\/p>\n

Wildlife groups have long warned that owls can be used as sacrifices in certain religious ceremonies \u2014 particularly birds like Flaco, who boasts prominent ear tufts. The Eurasian eagle-owl is also commonly used in falconry, selling for as much as $3,000.<\/p>\n

But while some have suggested Flaco was targeted for either financial or spiritual purposes, such speculation would seem undermined by the fact that he emerged from his damaged cage and into the bustling cityscape unscathed.<\/p>\n

On a recent night on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side, one of the Flaco\u2019s most dedicated observers, David Barrett, struck an ambivalent tone when asked how New Yorkers should think about the crime that made him an avian celebrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, the folk hero is Flaco,\u201d said Barrett, who runs the X account Manhattan Bird Alert, documenting the bird\u2019s whereabouts in real time. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing thing: He lives his whole life in captivity and in a matter of days he taught himself to fly and to hunt rats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuning his ears skyward, Barrett listened for the signature hoot that had echoed across Broadway on so many recent nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not our business to try to solve crimes,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re just glad he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Associated Press video journalist Ted Shaffrey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associated Press by:\u00a0JAKE OFFENHARTZ NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 This New York love story begins with a criminal act of sabotage. Under cover of darkness a year ago Friday, someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing a majestic Eurasian … <\/p>\n

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