Wednesday with the Central Park Zoo Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Flaco, was fascinating. This bird has acclimated to the park very quickly. Much quicker than I would have expected for an animal that has been in captivity its whole life.

It was hunting last tonight, and made multiple passes at Brown Rats. It is scoping out locations where the Manhattan schist is exposed and waiting patiently (for as long as 40 minutes last night) for a rodent to run over the rocks. Last night, Flaco used an area that I know well from tracking a coyote in 2010, who had a den in Hallett Nature Sanctuary. Different animal, but the same prey and territory!

Flaco’s hunting skills aren’t perfected and I haven’t seen him catch anything yet. But for him to go from being fed to hunting in less than a week is beyond expectations.

Eurasian Eagle-Owls can easily go for a week without eating, so there is no need to worry about Flaco at this point. But his independent streak is making it harder for the Wildlife Conservation Society staff to catch him. He hasn’t settled into any daily routines yet and doesn’t seem to be very hungry, which is helping him evade capture.

I don’t want to give away the zoo staff’s playbook, but last night I saw a wonderful, caring group of individuals do everything possible to catch Flaco. From what I saw they’re doing all of the right things, and have the correct folks in place. Unfortunately, Flaco just doesn’t want to go home yet.