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Flaco, Central Park Owl, Died With High Levels of Rat Poison in System
(www.nytimes.com)
For owls that are superb.
One of the more interesting notes from the investigation:
Poisons are a huge problem for birds of prey. They make weakened animals dying of poison easy to catch, and it just accumulates in the bird. Having so many rescues in my news feed, I've seen videos of some of their last moments after being overcome by poison. Poisoning is cruel and indiscriminate.
I looked up the pigeon herpesvirus he caught from eating infected pigeons and the major issue caused is swelling of the respiratory system. Birds have the highest oxygen requirements of any vertebrate, so this is also a huge problem for a bird.
Flaco was born in captivity and was raised to live protected by people and we let him down. It is romantic to humanize his adventures outdoors, but this was always going to be his fate once he was let out. I'm glad he went swiftly compared to what was going to happen, but he could have contently lived another almost 30 years had he not been "liberated."
He was born to teach us the value of his life, and I hope we at least get that much from what happened to him. 😔