Flaco Update

A necropsy has been performed on Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl that had escaped from the Central Park Zoo, and it appears that he had high levels of rat poison in his system, as well as a severe infection contracted from pigeons.

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and life on the loose captivated New York, had enough rat poison and pigeon virus in his system to kill him even if he had not died after apparently striking an Upper West Side building last month.

The finding, from a necropsy conducted by Bronx Zoo pathologists after Flaco’s death on Feb. 23, validated widespread concerns about the hazards he faced living as a free bird in Manhattan for just over a year. He would have turned 14 this month.

“Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors — infectious disease, toxin exposures and traumatic injuries — that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting,” the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the Central Park and Bronx Zoos, said in a statement on Monday.

Initial necropsy findings released the day after what onlookers described as a deadly building strike suggested Flaco had sustained an acute traumatic injury to his body, with signs of substantial hemorrhage under his sternum and in his back near his liver.

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In confirming the role of traumatic injuries, those tests found he had a severe pigeon herpesvirus, which the conservation society attributed to his eating feral pigeons.

 I'm still bummed about his death.