The beloved Central Park owl who captivated jaded New Yorkers before she was killed in a truck collision had dangerous, "potentially lethal" levels of rat poison in her system, authorities said Tuesday.
Barry, a 2-year-old barred owl and celebrity in Manhattan's ardent bird-watching community, died when a Central Park Conservancy maintenance vehicle struck her early Aug. 6.
But what was unknown at the time of death was the level of poison in Barry's liver, which could have impaired her ability to fly and possibly avoid the truck, the nonprofit digital news organization The City first reported Monday night.
The Wildlife Health Unit of the state Department of Environmental Conservation conducted a necropsy on Aug. 10. While "the final diagnosis is the owl died from blunt force trauma consistent with a vehicle accident," examiners also found the rat poisons bromadiolone and difethialone in the creature's liver, according to an executive summary of the necropsy.
The report cited no evidence that Barry was poisoned intentionally.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.
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