Flaco was in similar locations on Sunday night, as he had been on Saturday night. It is hard to watch Flaco, hoot for hours knowing he will never find another Eurasian Eagle-Owl. He certainly is a stranger in a strange land. There isn’t much that can be done at this point. The genie is out of the bottle. Or maybe we need a new expression, the owl is out of the zoo.

Flaco is already a risk to native wildlife, and certainly would be if he had a mate, so it would be inappropriate to release a female Eurasian Eagle-Owl to join him. And of course if he bred, the offspring would be forced to mate with their siblings. So, introducing another owl isn’t a solution. (And for those thinking of introducing an infertile female owl might be a solution, even an infertile pair would be aggressive towards native wildlife, especially Peregrine Falcons.)

For those wishing he would mate with a native species, such as a Great Horned Owl, this is highly unlikely. Successful cross breeding of Eurasian Eagle-Owls with other bubo species, have only been recorded in captivity. And if Flaco had offspring with another bubo species, it could corrupt the gene pool for native species.

This is what happens when you glorify a criminal act, and create an environment where a zoo is allowed to abandon its responsibility to recover an animal in its collection.