Flaco the Owl, who escaped from the zoo, leaves Central Park and heads to the East Village
Flaco the Eurasian eagle owl, whose February escape from the Central Park Zoo captured public attention in New York and beyond, showed up Monday in Manhattan’s East Village, about five miles from the wooded park area where he had settled since he was born. was free.
Just before 5 p.m., Flaco, who had spent most of the past nine months in and around the North Woods portion of the park, was seen perched on a tree branch in a sculpture garden next to Kenkeleba House, an artist space on East Second Street. between Avenue B and C.
About five minutes later he swooped down, turned left and found a landing spot on a building on East Third Street, sitting quietly between two bushes, silhouetted against the dim sky. A few minutes later it flew away again, heading east to points unknown.
It appeared to be the first significant foray outside the park for Flaco, who quickly learned how to fend for himself after fleeing the zoo, tucking into a steady diet of rats despite the fear that he would spend his entire 13-year life in had spent in captivity. his survival instincts dulled.
Several nature photographers and bird watchers were in the garden to document Flaco’s stop in Alphabet City. It was unclear when he had arrived, but David Barrett, who was there and who the operator is Manhattan Bird Alert account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, said he had received a tip about Flaco’s whereabouts earlier in the day.
Mr Barrett said he contacted Kenkeleba House and asked Corrine Jennings, the director, to open the garden so he and other Flaco followers could view the owl in a new environment.
“That was very surprising,” Ms. Jennings said, “to get a call about a bird.”
Flaco was last seen in Central Park last Tuesday, according to Mr. Barrett and the others with their cameras trained on Monday’s owl. The group speculated that he may have been chased out of the park by the fireworks there Friday as part of the New York City Marathon festivities.
David Lei, a photographer who was at the sculpture garden, said he and others had been looking for Flaco since last week and were concerned for his well-being. Mr Lei said he was relieved to finally see him again, and in apparently good health. He suggested that Flaco might be looking for a partner.
Flaco could enter a dangerous new phase of his life free. Bird experts interviewed in the immediate aftermath of his escape cited crashing into a vehicle and consuming rat poison as two of the biggest potential dangers he faced.
The New York City Parks Department does not use rodenticides on its properties, limiting Flaco’s exposure to such poisons while he remains on park property. And there is significantly more car traffic outside Central Park than inside.
After Flaco escaped, staff from the Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoo, tried for a time to retrieve him using baited traps. (He narrowly avoided such an attempt.)
Within a few weeks, however, the association said it would cease these efforts but continue to monitor him. A spokeswoman for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Flaco’s latest adventure.
Mr. Lei acknowledged his concerns about how Flaco would fare after venturing out of the park in a post on
“I was worried when I saw Flaco in the East Village,” he wrote. “But part of celebrating his freedom and pursuing happiness is understanding that he is now writing his own story.”