Once upon a time, there was an owl named Flaco that lived in a small zoo in the middle of a large park in the largest city in America. His story is a spoiler of escape, freedom, and resilience.
When CNN, The Guardian and The Daily Mail joined New York-based media outlets to recount Flaco’s adventures, owl concerns escape from Central Park Zoo spread beyond his homeland. New Yorkers and tourists follow his story with a mixture of anxiety and hope – worried that after a lifetime in captivity, the owl won’t know how to feed himself or keep himself safe. .
Early titles such as “The ape at the Central Park Zoo is still free” suggested that Flaco’s escape was a variation on the plot of the animated movie “Madagascar,” in which a disgruntled zebra give up the comforts of Central Park Zoo and go on a rickshaw. But the latest chapter in the story of Flaco – who was born in captivity and created “his public debut” at the zoo in 2010 — beginning with a violent act that endangered its life.
When a vandal cut the wire mesh on his fence on February 2, the only world Flaco knew was forcibly broken – a potentially fatal injury. From her tiny apartment (furnished only with some tree branches, fake rocks, and a mural of a mountain landscape), Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl is suddenly free in Central Park and exposed to all the dangers and thrills of Gotham’s real life. .
It’s a kind of existential moment for the owl: its species is native to much of Europe and Asia, but not North America, and it’s suddenly there, perhaps the only one of its kind. in the wilds of the entire continent. Karla Bloem, the zoo’s chief executive, said that during the first hours and days outside the zoo, Flaco “looked nervous”. International Owl Center. She suggests that even his flight was a bit wobbly at first; like “someone has lived in their living room” for years, it takes a while “to build a bit of muscle and strength”.
Never before had the owl seen such open spaces. Never before had he been harassed by squirrels, noisy green jays, and crows that roamed the streets. Molly Eustis, a stage manager and owl lover, said it was amazing to watch Flaco learn, and “thinking ‘oh, this is probably the first time in his life he’s been in such a tall tree! ‘ and think about how that must feel for him. Or the first time he caught a mouse! Or feel the rain falling around you.”
Despite the stereotype that owls are kind of scholarly, experts say they tend to be patient, creatures of factual habits. Even so, owls throughout history have exerted a magnetic pull on our imaginations. Perhaps no other creature has been given such contradictory meanings across so many different cultures – as a protective spirit, a totem of erudition and a harbinger of death.
Centuries before Hedwig became Harry Potter’s faithful companion, the owl was known as a companion of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war – possibly due to her extraordinary vision and skill this bird’s extraordinary hunting ability. In the 20th-century adaptation of the legend of King Arthur, TH White gives the future king’s tutor, the wizard Merlyn, a companion named Archimedes — a talking owl who teaches young Arthur how to fly.
Owls are equally popular characters in folk tales and children’s books — like the Owl in “Winnie-the-Pooh,” who spells his name “Wol” and enjoys telling family stories.
In part, owls’ sense of mystery, nocturnal nature and elusiveness contribute to their allure. Or, like Deborah Jaffe“Owls are always the hardest birds to see, which makes them the most interesting birds to watch,” observes a longtime New Yorker who specializes in birds.
In part, it was their expressive eyes and almost human facial expression. Bella Hatkoff, an artist who has volunteered at Wild Bird Foundation. rounded body) tends to trigger protective emotions. Animals like panda bears and kittens also suit this design because of its “cuteness”, as do characters like Pikachu and Baby Yoda.
A graceful owl was painted some 30,000 years ago in Chauvet Cave in southern France — with its expressive little ears it bears a remarkable Flaco resemblance. And there are dozens of owl drawings, ceramics and sculptures created by Pablo Picasso — all inspired by a small owl with an injured claw he and his partner Françoise Gilot rescued on 1946. Picasso identified with the questioning gaze of the owl, and then he created a self-portrait of himself as an owl – with his own sharp eyes staring staring out from the outline of the bird.
Many New Yorkers, especially those living in small apartments during the Covid-19 era, empathized with Flaco’s story. David Barrett, who runs the famous Twitter account Manhattan Bird Alert — which many have relied on to follow Flaco’s journey — notes that people arriving in New York “need to learn new skills quickly if they want to survive, and they have to adapt to an unfamiliar environment.” similar to the environment in which they came. In Flaco’s success, they see their own success — or inspiration to keep working towards their own success.”
All of this is the reason many people feel so protective of the owl: a member of the species known for its hunting skills, but in Flaco’s case, innocent, inexperienced in self-preservation. me. His admirers worry that he might crash into a skyscraper window, run into a coyote in Central Park or get hit by a car, a fate met. Barry the Barred Owl in the summer of 2021. The biggest worry of his early days of freedom was that he wouldn’t know how to hunt and might starve to death – after all, he’d dined for a decade with delivery of what a zoo employee describes as Whole Foods quality dead rats and mice.
But after that Flaco defies everyone’s expectations. A longtime bird watcher Stella Hamilton As pointed out, he is “like a novice” who has mastered the art of survival, but is a novice who has compressed weeks of study into a few days. Despite being confined for life, the owl somehow “remains wild inside”.
Photographer David Lei saw Flaco on his first night of freedom, looking a bit dazed and out of place near the Plaza Hotel, and he’s been documenting the owl’s progress ever since. He watched Flaco’s first exploratory jumps from tree to tree. And he watched as Flaco not only master the art of flying but also become an increasingly confident hunter.
The Eurasian eagle owl is one of the largest species of owl in the world. And with its nearly six-foot wingspan, Flaco wowed onlookers with its nightly outing: a shadow of a cat crouched on a tree branch, suddenly soaring into the night sky, like a pterosaur. giant is spreading its wings across the park. Within a week, he had become the pinnacle predator he was born to, proudly showing off the rats he had killed with his bare claws.
There are still dangers – like ingesting rats that have ingested rat poison. But Flaco’s new mastery of hunting begins to change people’s minds about his future – not because of his safe return to the zoo but for a new life of freedom.
In the Netherlands, where Eurasian eagle owls are kept as pets, some have escaped. And follow Marjon Savelsberg, an owl researcher there, a lot of those birds “return to the wild and learn to survive, just like Flaco. And some even nest and raise their young with wild Eurasian eagle owls.”
When Flaco was living at the zoo, a longtime visitor described him as a grumpy and slightly chubby owl – like those of us stuck at home during the pandemic. But after just two weeks in Central Park, he had grown into a muscular and handsome prince who enthusiastically proclaimed his presence to assert his place in the city or find a suitable mate. yes.
After two weeks of freedom, Flaco could not be found in any of his favorite places. When he was discovered, a day later, about two miles north in the park, many New Yorkers breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t suffer the same fate as Barry, or move to the suburbs – he simply find someone a little wilder. where to hang out in 843 acre park.
Flaco’s eagle owl relative has adapted, on other continents, to live in forests and on savannas, mountains, farmland and in cities – a Eurasian eagle owl even grew up three owls on the windowsill of an apartment building in a Belgian city. And in the same way that Barry brought joy to New York during the darkest days of Covid, so Flaco has given a tired city still struggling to bounce back from the pandemic a sense of resilience. excited.
Michiko Kakutani is the author of “Ex Libris: 100+ Books You Should Read Again and Again.” Follow her on Twitter: @michikokakutani and on Instagram: @michi_kakutani
