An eagle owl escaped from the zoo in February last year… New York City mascot
Citizens commemorating the 1st anniversary of ‘Free Flaco’
Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that has become New York’s new mascot, is receiving a lot of attention from citizens to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his escape from the zoo.
On the 2nd, the New York Times (NYT) published an article titled ‘The year the owl Flacco roamed free’, detailing what happened in New York City after Flacco escaped from the zoo.
Last February, Flacco, who was living at the Central Park Zoo in New York, USA, began to attract public attention when he escaped while someone made a hole in the barbed wire.
The Eurasian eagle owl is a bird of prey with a wingspan of up to 2 m and is characterized by hunting rodents, rabbits, etc. and living in rocky areas and bush areas.
After Flacco escaped from a zoo after 13 years, the New York Times quoted a New York Society of Ornithology scholar as saying, “Many owls have survived in New York, but they face deadly threats, such as ingesting rat poison or being hit by windows.” did.
Accordingly, Flaco became New York’s new mascot as citizens shared the time and place where they found Flaco online or campaigned against its capture.
The ‘X (formerly Twitter)’ account ‘Manhattan Bird Alert’ consistently records Flacco’s daily life and whereabouts, and citizens also share photos of their discovery of Flacco, providing updates on Flacco’s current status online. There are a lot of posts.
Currently, to mark the one-year anniversary of Flacco’s escape from the zoo, citizens are sharing congratulatory messages and photos, such as drawing their own ‘fan art’ or making goods. It appears that Flacco’s popularity is gradually expanding into a ‘fandom’.
Meanwhile, in Korea, fandom culture related to animals is growing as the panda ‘Fubao’ is loved by many citizens for its cute appearance, and companion animals such as ‘Jjangjeolmi’, which has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram, attract the public’s attention. It’s getting bigger.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.