What killed Flaco the owl? New York zoologists testing for toxins, disease as contributing factors

NEW YORK — New York City’s famous owl Flaco died from a traumatic impact, zoologists confirmed a day after it reportedly flew into a building, with further tests planned to determine whether the Eurasian eagle owl might have been sick.

What happened in Flaco’s final hours is top of mind for his fans across the city, who cheered him on as he defied the odds by fending for himself despite a life in captivity. Police are still looking to arrest whoever let him out of his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo a year ago.

Flaco was in good physical condition, the autopsy showed, and managed to catch prey even though he had no experience with hunting, having come to the zoo as a young boy thirteen years earlier. According to the necropsy report released Saturday, the owl weighed 1.89 kilograms, just 2% less than when it was last measured at the zoo.

Flaco was found dead on a sidewalk Friday after apparently hitting a building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“The main impact appears to have been on the body as there was significant bleeding below the sternum and into the back of the body cavity around the liver,” the report said.

The Central Park Zoo placed the blame squarely on the person who cut open Flaco’s enclosure. But they are investigating illness as a possible factor and plan to release an update in about two weeks.

“This includes microscopic examination of tissue samples; toxicology tests to evaluate potential exposure to rodenticides or other toxins; and testing for infectious diseases such as West Nile virus and bird flu,” the zoo statement said.

Praise from his admirers poured in over the weekend. So did speculation about which of the many urban threats to wildlife may have contributed to his death.

Flaco fans who listened to his nightly hooting on the Upper West Side reported that he had gone quiet in the days before his death and theorized that he may have been ill.