Flaco
Remembering the NYC owl.
Last month the news came across that Flaco, an escaped Eurasian Eagle-Owl, had died. The big raptor had been delighting Manhattan residents since making it out of its zoo enclosure about a year ago.
There were a lot of dimensions to the story that were interesting. There weren’t easy answers either. And New York makes a dramatic setting for wildlife stories. Just think back to the 1999 book, “Red-Tails in Love,” about Central Park buteos.
Early on, I also found the Flaco story funny, probably due to my Gen X irreverence and maybe because of some ambivalence about wild animals in zoos. The owl had escaped, and it was presumed it couldn’t survive on its own. Then they couldn’t re-capture it, and it did survive on its own.
Although, it was vandals that caused Flaco to escape in the first place. And as time went on, there were fears that Flaco would consume a rat laden with poison, and thus poison himself. It was a valid concern and added a layer to the story that was hard to reconcile.
In the end, Flaco was presumed to have died due to blunt force trauma, or a building collision. Reports, though, suggested that Flaco fell from a perch when died, which seems odd. At the time of this writing, there haven’t been results of toxicology reports.
Ryan Mandelbaum writing in his
Substack had a wonderful account that captured the complexities of Flaco’s story:and should flaco have been free? i don’t know. what’s free? who determines “should?” he shouldn’t have been allowed to fly free in nyc because he wasn’t native to here or accustomed to the threats the city poses. or maybe he should have been allowed to fly free in nyc because people wanted him to be free in nyc and he brought them more joy that way. personally, i wish they would have brought him someplace bigger and nicer where he could fly around without the potential to harm himself or our native wildlife.
but ultimately, flaco discourse is based on three things. the first is whether or not we should be keeping animals in captivity. the second is how we reckon with wildlife trying to survive in our built spaces, and the third is that there are societal forces that cause us to relate deeply to the story of a sad owl escaping his small house.
In another moving remembrance, Barry Petchesky of Defector detailed Flaco’s life to his time as an owlet in North Carolina:
From the day he was hatched at a breeding center in North Carolina to the night he fell from the sky into an Upper West Side courtyard, every moment of Flaco's life was observed, mediated, and constrained by humans. The same could be said of any captive or domestic animal, and of a shocking number of wild animals. But few illustrate the uneasy dominance of the Anthropocene as succinctly as the Eurasian eagle-owl who fled from the zoo, lived on the run, and died by our hand just as surely as if he had been shot with a rifle.
Few, if any, places have been left untouched by humanity. Our impact is felt by nearly every species on the planet—maybe all. It’s an important context to keep in mind, whether in a big urban area or in a seemingly pristine wilderness. There really are Flacos all around us.
Upcoming FLUDDLES showings
FLUDDLES is my documentary about the watery areas that aren’t quite ponds or marshes but aren’t quite puddles either. Fluddles are home to myriad bird species and provide untold benefits for the health of our ecosystems and waterways. If you’re local to Illinois, I hope to see you at an upcoming screening. Soon we’ll have a link available on my website where you can watch from anywhere, too.
NORMAL, April 22, Normal Theater, 7 p.m.
In partnership with Grand Prairie Bird Alliance
CHAMPAIGN, April 26, Champaign Public Library, 4 p.m.
In partnership with Grand Prairie Friends & Champaign County Audubon Society
WILL COUNTY, May 3, Four Rivers Environmental Education Center, 6:30 p.m.
In partnership with Forest Preserve District of Will County
CHICAGO, May 9, Details TBA
A sign of spring
Just after my essay about what’s left of Bell Bowl Prairie, I saw this photo showing an Eastern Pasqueflower in Winnebago County, Illinois. This one’s from Harlem Hills Prairie, where another gravel hill prairie exists. As the glaciers retreated, they deposited gravel and soils that resulted in just the right substrate for some of our prettiest native grasses and forbs. Pasqueflowers bloom on the western-facing slopes, among the few places in the East where they exist to this day. Appropriately enough, pasque derives from the Hebrew word for Passover and Pasque Flower refers to the Easter (Passover) flowering period, in the spring.
TWiB Notes
Recently I learned that the Northern Wheatear isn’t named for a buff auricular patch or anything like that. Rather, wheatear is a rough combination of the words white and arse, a reference to the bird’s white rump patch. So it is actually a Northern White Arse…..There is a legislative push in Illinois to address some of the threats to wetlands including fluddles since a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year. Illinois Environmental Council has more on the topic here……An acquisition of nearly 1,000 acres in northern Illinois may be the largest in the region since the mid-1990s. Tamarack Farms, purchased by the Conservation Fund, Illinois Audubon Society and Openlands, is the newest addition to the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge…..NASA has set up a citizen science project, Eclipse Soundscapes, for the April 8 solar eclipse. Nature may do unexpected things when the skies go dark in the middle of the day.
If you liked today’s post, you might like this past post…
A lot of people, both within NYC and outside, shared some very strong views on Flaco and on his year of freedom. The consensus was that better to be free and flying than contained and restrained.
I share this view. I abhor zoos and, in accordance with my conscience, I have not been to a zoo or acquarium in decades. No, they are not built for the benefit of non-human animals.
Thanks for the note about Eclipse Soundscapes. I plan to sign up!