A look at New York’s biggest animal celebrities
As New York mourns Flacco the owl, FOX 5 NY takes a look at some of the other non-human celebrities who have managed to make it to the Big Apple.
NEW YORK – This weekend, New Yorkers mourned the loss of Flacco, a cuckoo who escaped from captivity in Central Park and captured the hearts of the entire Big Apple.
But Flacco isn’t the only inhuman New Yorker to find fame among the skyscrapers.
For example, there are countless celebrity rats that have emerged in recent years. Like a pizza rat, a bagel rat, and even a donut rat.
Meet the woman who caught a viral rat with a doughnut
Carly Hytner talks to Fox 5 NY’s Jennifer Williams about the moment she filmed a donut rat’s “love story” while waiting for a train in Lower Manhattan.
STATEN ISLAND CHUCK
And who needs to go all the way to Puxattown, Pennsylvania, when we have Staten Island Chuck, our very own weather-predicting groundhog whose relationship with city officials has been…complicated (Previous Staten Island Chuck bit former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped another).
Groundhog Day: Staten Island Did Chuck See His Shadow?
Groundhog day forecast. Staten Island Did Chuck See His Shadow?
LING-LING AND YONG-YONG
Going back in time, in 1987, the Bronx Zoo saw perhaps two of the biggest celebrities in town when they welcomed pandas Ling-Ling and Yong-Yong from China. The adorable cuddly bears became an instant sensation, attracting over one million visitors to the zoo that year.
FOX 5 Flashback: When “Panda-monium” took over New York
An era is coming to an end in American zoos as the last three giant pandas in the United States will return to China next month. The bears were loaned by the Chinese government in a deal that was originally brokered by President Richard Nixon 50 years ago. FOX 5 Flashback takes a look at the “Panda-monium” that took New York by storm when the furry animals first appeared at the Bronx Zoo in 1987.
GUS THE BEAR
Speaking of melting hearts, polar bear Gus became a household name, receiving therapy to cope with life in captivity and becoming a “symbol of the stress of life in New York.”
CENTRAL PARK MANDARIN DUCK
And remember the beautiful Mandarin duck that became an international celebrity when it landed on Central Park’s lake in 2018? Dubbed “Hot Duck” and “Tangerine Patinkin” by various New York publications, the duck’s fame led actress Bette Midler to publish a New York Times bestseller about it.
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 26: The now famous Mandarin duck, named Mandarin Patinkin, swims in a lake in Central Park on December 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
PALE MAN
And long before Hot Duck or Flaco flew into town, there was Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk that made its nest on 5th Avenue, even fighting off eviction attempts by condo owners and construction workers.
NEW YORK – DECEMBER 13: The famous Pale Male red-tailed hawk perched on an adjacent balcony overlooking Central Park after its nest was removed by building management last week December 13, 2004 in New York City. Angry bird lovers stepped up t
MING OF HARLEM
Finally, there is perhaps the most memorable wild New Yorker, a 425-pound tiger found in a Harlem public housing apartment in 2003.
NYPD Officer Martin Duffy rappelled down the side of 2430 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem to tranquilize a 400-pound Bengal-Siberian tiger named Ming. (John Roca/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Ming was a roughly three-year-old Siberian-Bengal tiger hybrid who lived illegally with his owner at the Drew-Hamilton Homes. After his discovery and capture, Ming was sent to an animal sanctuary in Ohio, where he lived until his death in 2019.
