Central Park Zoo Releases Postmortem Testing Results for Flaco

March 25, 2024 5:46 PM

[newsroom.wcs.org] "The identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal disease in birds of prey including owls infected by eating pigeons. This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls. In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain. [...] Toxicology testing also revealed trace amounts of DDE, a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT, but the levels detected in Flaco were not clinically significant and did not contribute to his death. Although DDT has been banned in the United States since the early 1970s, it and its breakdown products are remarkably persistent in the environment, and this finding is reminder of the long legacy of DDT and its dire effects on wild bird populations." Previously and previously.
posted by AlSweigart (15 comments total)

So it was space herpes. I should'a known!
posted by hippybear at 6:01 PM on March 25

Flaco also had four anticoagulant rodenticides in his system. Rodenticides are a common cause of mortality in urban raptors.
posted by mollweide at 6:12 PM on March 25 [4 favorites]

R.I.P. Flaco.
posted by Czjewel at 6:28 PM on March 25 [1 favorite]

The autopsy turns out to be inconclusive. Acting on a hunch, Benson and Stabler follow up on the creepy high school teacher from the beginning of Act 2 and find out he's been selling violent raptor fetish videos on his MyFace page. Jack McCoy pushes for a first-degree raptorcide charge and after an emotional summation, the jury votes to convict. They all spend the last 10 minutes trying to explain everything to Ice-T.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:12 PM on March 25 [12 favorites]

Flaco was such an inspiration. One day I'll also escape my enclosure in Central park zoo and fly free across the rooftops of new york city. Me too, Flaco, me too. I'm sorry he had such a short time on the outside.
posted by Rinku at 7:35 PM on March 25 [6 favorites]

.
posted by brambleboy at 9:24 PM on March 25

.
posted by briank at 5:50 AM on March 26

Ice-T: "Word on the street is the pigeons are doin' DDT-slammers, they're calling it 'birbherbes', seen too many pigeons go down the wrong path, birbing with dirty needles..."
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:06 AM on March 26 [7 favorites]

It's sad all around.
posted by praemunire at 7:29 AM on March 26 [2 favorites]

The report also mentions traces of two different rat poisons. Poison shouldn't be used if there's a chance a predator may eat the poisoned animals, as it will concentrate in their tissues.
posted by riotnrrd at 8:48 AM on March 26 [1 favorite]

Poison shouldn't be used if there's a chance a predator may eat the poisoned animals, as it will concentrate in their tissues.

I'm pretty certain that New York City's truly epic rat problem precludes worrying about raptor's health.
posted by hippybear at 8:55 AM on March 26

This isn't just NYC and isn't just one hawk. Maureen Murray has been studying bioconcentration of poison in birds since the early 2000s in Massachusetts. By 2020, 100% of the red tailed hawks she looked at had rat poison exposure.

https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/etc.4853
posted by riotnrrd at 8:58 AM on March 26 [6 favorites]

If rat poison is so effective then why does NYC have a rat problem? That's because those poisons are not very effective as a means of population control. The root of the problem is that NYC makes tons of rat habitat and leaves tons of food laying around. Those are the things you work on to solve the problem.

And if you really can't make headway there and still want to use poison, be smart about it. Don't use the stuff that ends up killing and hurting tons of non-target animals, use gas in their burrows.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:17 AM on March 26 [6 favorites]

NYC currently doesn't use rat poison in Central Park during nesting season, but it's clearly more expensive and labor-intensive to use gas, and "just let the rodent population grow unchecked until you solve NYC's garbage problem (*)" is...not a workable approach.

(*) Heading towards containerization may be the only worthwhile thing the Adams administration has done, so it probably won't work or last or he'll cancel it in a fit of pique because someone looked cross-eyed at a cop once. But even if the program survives, it will take years to fully implement.
posted by praemunire at 9:54 AM on March 26

We have had great success getting rid of local rat populations with plaster of paris. The"cookies" are just plaster of Paris and flour and a little sugar and they don't kill local predators that feed on rats including coyotes and raptors.
posted by Thrakburzug at 3:08 AM on March 27