Pale Male, Hawk That Stole Central Park’s Heart, Reportedly Dead At 33

Pale Male, an urban-dwelling red-tailed hawk that enraptured nature-starved Manhattanites for years and inspired fierce duels of public sentiment, has reportedly died at age of 33. Hawk rehabilitator Bobby Horvath announced in an emotional Facebook post that he had received the sickened hawk from an Urban Park Ranger that came across him in the park, and that Pale Male eventually succumbed to renal failure (presumably due to old age) in his care.

Twenty-odd years ago, Pale Male forged a nest with his steadfast partner Lola on the ornamental spikes of a housing co-op at 927 Fifth Ave., and Central Park loungers quickly formed a voyeuristic love affair with the couple–maintained by binoculars–that lasted beyond Lola’s sudden disappearance in 2011.

Protests erupted after members of the co-op’s board evicted the hawks from their nest in 2004, with famous co-op residents such as Mary Tyler Moore leading the dissenters and super-fans such as Lincoln Karim deploying scorched-earth tactics (he was arrested for harassing the evictors). Needless to say, these protests were ultimately successful, with architect Dan Ionescu being commissioned to build a new semi-permanent basket nest that could be removed if necessary.

After Lola’s passing, Pale Male took a new partner, Lima, who shortly thereafter was tragically killed by eating a poisoned rat. His next partner, Zena, disappeared in a similar manner to Lola. At the time of his death, Pale Male had been in a solid eleven year relationship with Octavia, so named for being his eighth mate. Over the course of his lifetime, Pale Male had reputedly fathered at least twenty-five hawks.