Flaco the Owl, whose high-flying adventures captivated Big Apple dwellers for more than a year after his escape from the Central Park Zoo, was ravaged by herpesvirus he contracted from eating New York City pigeons and a toxic soup of four different rat poisons when he died, a necropsy has revealed.
On Monday the Central Park Zoo released the results of its postmortem on the 13-year-old Eurasian Eagle Owl, who died Feb. 23 after flying into a building on the Upper West Side.
Flaco had “severe pigeon herpesvirus” from eating feral pigeons, which Bronx Zoo veterinary pathologists said had become a regular part of his diet.
He also had exposure to four different anticoagulant rodenticides commonly used for controlling rats in New York City.
“These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building,” the zoo said.
“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.”
Flaco escaped in February 2023 after vandals cut the stainless steel mesh on his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo, cops said at the time.