let this be a reminder that we have no business using commercial rodenticides in the unregulated way that we do & that rodenticides indiscriminately kill both invasive ‘pest’ rodents along with native species, and anything that might predate on them

i am obsessed with himmmmm

(studies from the bird watching twitter!)

just learned about Flaco the Eurasian eagle owl who people “freed” from the Central Park zoo. people tracked his location on Twitter and every time zoo keepers tried to get him back they would make noise and scare him away. as a result, he died not even a year after his escape after striking a window. he was 13 years old, he would have lived another 40 years if he had been left alone.

being a conservationist really makes me hate the general public sometimes

This Flaco situation is like if, in The Martian, people started protesting the effort to save Mark Whatney because he’s free now and how dare you try to put him back in that cramped spaceship!

And NASA keeps trying to explain that Mars is not an environment where people can live but the public said “but look you said he’d be dead by now and he’s thriving!”

And then NASA tells them it’s a ridiculously astonishing feat that he survived a week, let alone months but there are so many dangerous things that can and eventually will kill him. But public outcry gets the funding for a rescue mission cut.

Then when he eventually dies from one of the hazards NASA warned about people all talk about how inspiring his life was and how at least he got to be free and happy on Mars.

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped the central park zoo has died in apparent building collision. It is a dark day.

:C

I was really rooting for him. This is a really sad time for all of us.

RIP FLACO !!!

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo), male, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, species found across much of Eurasia

photograph via: Manhattan Bird Alert

photograph by JACQUELINE EMERY

photograph by David Barrett 

Read more about Flaco the Owl:

Death of Flaco, NYC’s Celebrity Owl, Calls Attention to Bird Strikes - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Central Park's Flaco had a family. Conservationists fear other owls will become targets for release. - Gothamist

Flaco the owl dies after colliding with a New York building | AP News

ok. i’m making a more cohesive post about flaco the owl because i’m seeing a lot of people reblogging that post praising him and excited about him venturing further into nyc. as cool as it may be to see him around, i think a lot of people lack the knowledge to understand why it’s not necessarily a good thing.

as someone who’s studying wildlife and who’s been working in wildlife spaces since i was 17, i have a lot of feelings about this, but i think this article i’m going to link is more succinct and explains better the harms flaco poses/risks he faces if he remains out of captivity. i’ve been following this story since he was let out and agree with the biologists i’ve seen supporting flaco’s recapture over birders or others who support him remaining outside captivity.

i also want to clear up a misconception from the post i’ve seen going around: flaco didn’t just “escape” the zoo - it wasn’t a desperate bid for freedom or something. his enclosure was vandalised and someone purposefully let him out. that action very well could have killed him, and, considering there are still many risks, could still lead to his premature death.

The idiots are already out saying Flaco is better off dead than in a life of captivity.

Its Flaco the eurasion eagle owl's one year anniversary of living loose in New York city and peeping in windows and hooting at the moon!

To those whoever knew about Flaco the Owl, May he forever soar the skies in wings with peace...🦉

Flaco, Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl and Defier of Doubts, Is Dead - The New York Times

"He was initially placed with the snow leopards, snow monkeys and red pandas. Later, he was moved to an enclosure the size of a department store window near the penguin house exit."

To me a year of freedom sounds better than living in a window.

rip flaco, you were too good for this world

Behbeh

fucking devastated about Flaco man RIP

I deeply appreciate your post about Flaco. I'm really angry that he's dead. I hope the people who were celebrating his "freedom" from captivity will learn from this. It really made me sick to see people supporting a life for Flaco that they wouldn't even choose for themselves. He was restricted at the zoo, but he was safe and cared for. People willingly accept restrictions all the time for safety and care.

I think a lot of it comes from people not understanding how animal care works and how animals live in captivity when zoos are fully licensed and focused on proper animal care. To be fair, I haven’t been to the Central Park Zoo where he’d been housed, but it looks pretty reputable. He would have had proper food, stimulation/enrichment, and care had he not been released or had been recaptured and returned. It’s misunderstandings at best and intentional ignorance at worst that leads to these situations. And I especially don’t want people to forget that this wasn’t just an escaped animal who died; this was a nonnative species who got out because people purposefully vandalised his enclosure, and it was uninformed but still intense public opinion which lead to him not being recaptured. Maybe it’s because I’m angry and because I’ve been saying this would happen since the beginning, but I place a portion of the blame on anyone who refused to do more research and instead advocated against recapture

'Flaco Is Free' - Art By RoseJW 🌹🖤🎶

Sorry you were stuck in a zoo and then harassed by people, you are free now Flaco......

Piece Available - 6x4" Inches, Pen On File Card.

#Flaco #Owl #Free #Manifest #Create #Recovery #Healer #Power #Independent #Universe #Genuine #RealBeauty #NaturalBeauty #Soul #Color #Decorative #Pattern #Conceptual #Abstract #Pen #AbstractFigurative

#Art #Drawing #FineArt #Rose #RJW #RosannaJacksonWright

- For Tibby