Flaco is a Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from his enclosure on the Central Park Zoo late final week. As of the seventh of February, 2023, the runaway owl stays unfastened in New York Metropolis. Over the previous a number of days, social media has been abuzz with sightings of the lacking owl which has made its approach to a couple totally different parks and sanctuaries within the space close by the zoo.
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Flaco is believed to have escaped in a single day on Thursday as a direct results of deliberate tampering together with his enclosure. As of proper now, the Central Park Zoo is reporting that Flaco’s cage was minimize by unknown vandals. This occasion secures the Central Park Zoo a spot on a reasonably unlucky rising listing. In early 2023, a string of surprising zoo crimes have resulted in a number of lacking, stolen, or deceased animals.
On January twenty eighth or twenty ninth, 2023, Zoosiana, a zoo positioned in Broussard, Louisiana, was the goal of a thief who allegedly stole a dozen squirrel monkeys from the zoo’s squirrel monkey habitat. A neighborhood man has since been arrested in reference to this case. The Dallas Zoo has additionally skilled a rash of surprising occasions, culminating within the extensively publicized theft of two emperor tamarin monkeys. Starting in January, the Dallas Zoo skilled a “shut name” when its clouded leopard, Nova, was discovered to have escaped its enclosure. Nova was positioned close by and recaptured shortly after her escape, but it surely was found on the time that her cage had been intentionally minimize. The langur monkey habitat was additionally minimize, nevertheless no animals had been reported lacking.
A while after this occasion, an endangered lappet-faced vulture was discovered deceased in his cage with what police have described as a “wound.” In each instances, foul play was instantly suspected. It got here as a shock, then, that regardless of the elevated vigilance of the zoo’s employees, two emperor tamarin monkeys had been stolen from their vandalized enclosure in early February. The 2 monkeys had been later present in an unoccupied dwelling in Lancaster, Texas, some fifteen miles from the zoo. A suspect has been arrested in reference to the rash of thefts, however many questions nonetheless stay on this case, together with whether or not their could also be a connection to different zoo crimes.
Might Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl be the most recent sufferer in a nationwide zoo crime spree? In the meanwhile, the Central Park Zoo is reporting that the investigation into Flaco’s escape and the harm to his enclosure stays underneath investigation.
For New York Metropolis birders, the chance to view a Eurasian eagle-owl within the “wild” is a bittersweet one. Many onlookers have gathered within the areas the place Flaco has been sighted as a way to watch the runaway raptor. Even amongst essentially the most enthusiastic onlookers, questions surrounding Flaco’s capacity to outlive for for much longer within the wild loom giant. Flaco has been a zoo animal for the final decade and is probably going ill-equipped for all times within the wild. Zoo employees are persevering with their efforts to bait him with meals and stay hopeful that, given the truth that he has not strayed removed from the zoo, he’ll ultimately be recaptured and returned to his dwelling.
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