Celebrity Owl Flaco Dies a Year after Becoming Beloved by New York City for Zoo Escape

A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco sits in a tree in New York's Central Park, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP)
A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco sits in a tree in New York's Central Park, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP)
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Celebrity Owl Flaco Dies a Year after Becoming Beloved by New York City for Zoo Escape

A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco sits in a tree in New York's Central Park, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP)
A Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco sits in a tree in New York's Central Park, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP)

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from New York City’s Central Park Zoo and became one of the city’s most beloved celebrities as he flew around Manhattan, has died, zoo officials announced Friday.

A little over one year after he was freed from his cage at the zoo in a criminal act that has yet to be solved, Flaco appears to have collided with an Upper West Side building, the zoo said in a statement.

“The vandal who damaged Flaco’s exhibit jeopardized the safety of the bird and is ultimately responsible for his death,” the statement said. “We are still hopeful that the NYPD which is investigating the vandalism will ultimately make an arrest.”

Staff from the Wild Bird Fund, a wildlife rehabilitation center, responded to the scene and declared Flaco dead shortly after the collision. He was taken to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy.

“We hoped only to see Flaco hooting wildly from the top of our local water tower, never in the clinic,” the World Bird Fund wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Flaco's time in the sky began on Feb. 2, 2023, when 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 the owl that had arrived at the zoo as a fledgling 13 years earlier.

Since the zoo suspended efforts to re-capture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime.

Until now, Flaco had defied the odds, thriving in the urban jungle despite a lifetime in captivity. He became one of the city’s most beloved characters. By day he lounged in Manhattan’s courtyards and parks or perches on fire escapes. He spent his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city’s abundant rats.

He was known for turning up unexpectedly at New Yorkers’ windows and was tracked around the Big Apple by bird watchers. His death prompted an outpouring of grief on social media Friday night.

One of Flaco’s most dedicated observers, David Barrett, suggested a temporary memorial at the bird's favorite oak tree in Central Park.

There, fellow birders could “lay flowers, leave a note, or just be with others who loved Flaco,” Barrett wrote in a post on X for the account Manhattan Bird Alert, which documented the bird’s whereabouts.



Prince William Begins a Visit to South Africa That Focuses on Climate and the Environment

Britain's Prince William, the Prince of Wales attends the "Homelessness: Reframed" exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Sept. 5, 2024 in London. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Britain's Prince William, the Prince of Wales attends the "Homelessness: Reframed" exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Sept. 5, 2024 in London. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Prince William Begins a Visit to South Africa That Focuses on Climate and the Environment

Britain's Prince William, the Prince of Wales attends the "Homelessness: Reframed" exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Sept. 5, 2024 in London. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Britain's Prince William, the Prince of Wales attends the "Homelessness: Reframed" exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Sept. 5, 2024 in London. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Britain's Prince William will speak with young environmentalists and local fishermen during a visit to South Africa starting Monday that will see his annual Earthshot Prize award $1.2 million in grants to five organizations for innovative environmental ideas.

The 42-year-old heir to the throne will also attend a global wildlife summit and spend time at a sea rescue institute during his four days in Cape Town, with the centerpiece of his trip the Earthshot awards ceremony on Wednesday night.

He'll use the visit to highlight other issues close to his heart, like the work of rangers on the frontline of conservation efforts, officials said.

William, the Prince of Wales, last visited Africa in 2018, but he has a strong connection to the continent. William traveled to Africa as a boy after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a Paris car crash in 1997. He and his wife, Kate, got engaged at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya in 2010. And he said he came up with the idea for the Earthshot awards while in Namibia in 2018.

"Africa has always held a special place in my heart as somewhere I found comfort as a teenager, where I proposed to my wife, and most recently as the founding inspiration behind the Earthshot Prize," William said in a statement ahead of his visit.

Kate, Princess of Wales, and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are not traveling to South Africa. Kate, 42, only recently returned to some public duties after completing treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer.

William's trip follows soon after his brother Harry, the Duke of Sussex, visited South Africa and neighboring Lesotho last month for a youth charity he set up with a member of Lesotho's royal family.

William formed the Earthshot Prize through his Royal Foundation in 2020 to encourage new ideas to solve environmental problems and it launched in 2021. The first three awards ceremonies were held in Britain, the U.S. and Singapore. William said he wanted this year's awards to inspire young people involved in climate action across Africa, a continent of some 1.5 billion people that contributes the least to global warming but is especially vulnerable to climatic shocks.

The wider southern African region is currently experiencing its worst drought and hunger crisis in decades, with 27 million people severely affected, according to the United Nations.

The Earthshot prizes are awarded in five categories: protecting and restoring nature, clean air, reviving oceans, building a waste-free world and fixing the climate. This year's finalists include a company in Kenya that develops solar-powered systems for homes, a group in Ecuador that brings Indigenous communities together to protect forests, and a conservation project in Kazakhstan that is saving the critically endangered Saiga antelope from extinction.

The awards ceremony will be held in a temporary, reusable dome that has been erected on a field next to a sports stadium in Cape Town. The 470-foot-long dome has hosted other events in South Africa and will be packed to be used again after the Earthshot prizes, organizers said.

While climate change and threats to the environment are at the center of William's visit, he will briefly break away from those topics to go to a high school in an underprivileged Cape Town neighborhood, where he's expected to join kids at a rugby practice.

Rugby is one of South Africa's most popular sports and the country's national team, the Springboks, are the reigning world champions. William is also a rugby follower.

“I can promise that you will see the Prince of Wales playing some rugby,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson said of the planned school visit.