Flaco: The Owl Who Escaped Captivity and Won the Hearts of the World - Hardcover

by Jonathan Hollingsworth (Editor), Carl Safina (Foreword by)

Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl had spent the first twelve years of his life in a small enclosure in the Central Park Zoo, unable to fly, until the night of February 2^nd, 2023, when an unknown liberator cut a hole in the steel mesh of his cage and set him free. Flaco eluded the nets and traps of zoo authorities and park rangers who feared that Flaco couldn't survive on his own, and instead, proved them all wrong, learning to hunt, fly, and make the city his home.

With rich imagery and illustrations, FLACO celebrates the work of the photographers who documented Flaco in his favorite city haunts, features works by artists who were inspired by Flaco's story, and memorializes the objects left at the base of Flaco's favorite Central Park oak upon his tragic passing.
FLACO is the ultimate tribute to the owl whose story captured the imagination and inspired millions around the world.

Author Biography

Jonathan Hollingsworth is a New York City-based writer and photographer whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Independent, The Sunday Times Magazine (London), BBC News Magazine, Die Welt and Photo District News, among others. He is the author of the Left Behind: Life and Death Along the U.S. Border and What We Think Now: Young People's Response to the War in Iraq. He has had solo exhibitions at the UCR / California Museum of Photography, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Center for Photography at Woodstock.

Carl Safina is an ecologist, author, and founding President of the Safina Center. He is the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University. His work centers on animal psychology and the relationship between humans and nature. His newest book, Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe, is a moving account of raising, then freeing, an orphaned screech owl, whose lasting friendship with him illuminates humanity's relationship with the natural world.