Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Mike The Tiger

I've mentioned in previous post about LSU's mascot, Mike the Tiger  & had several people ask me about this.  Yes, LSU has a LIVE Bengal Tiger. The current tiger is the 6th one LSU has had. The previous ones have lived anywhere from 17-20 yrs. Mike VI will be 6 yrs old this year. The last weight that I heard was 460 lbs. but he should grow to be around 600 lbs. LSU always had a small cage (2000 sq. ft.) that housed Mike. Several years ago it was determined that this wasn't sufficient. A fundraising campaign began & a $3 million habitat was built. YES, you read that right, 3 MILLION dollars!! The new habitat is in the same location as the old one but it's 13,000 sq. ft. I've yet to understand why a tiger needs a better home that the majority of humans in the world but whatever.

I've been out to see Mike tons of times & he's always asleep. Laziest tiger ever apparently. Sunday afternoon I brought my nephew, Logan out to see him. Logan LOVES to be outside & he loves animals. Mike was asleep. Of course. Luckily, he was sleeping out in the open so we could at least see him. Logan's reaction when he saw him was to point & say "WOOOW". It was hilarious. I can only imagine how mesmerized he would've been if Mike was walking around or playing in his pool. People say he does those things & there are pictures to prove it. Maybe one day.

I still took some pictures.
Logan was checking out Mike.
He was also checking out all the kids that were around!
How can he sleep with all of those people looking at him??
Mike's Habitat & his swimming pool. Logan was eyeing Mike's ball. He loves balls!
Logan was in the process of "giving up" his pacifier & for some odd reason there was one in the water. Thankfully, he didn't see it or hear the little boy screaming that there was a nunnie in the water!! Crisis averted.
Another shot of his habitat.
Being that all you saw was his back here's a shot I got from mikethetiger.com. He's really pretty.

You know, I said that I've never seen him awake. That's not entirely true. Before all the home football games Mike is loaded into a trailer & he's paraded around the stadium with the cheerleaders on top of the trailer. He roars, the crowd goes crazy. So, I've just never seen him awake in his habitat. Apparently, he's really spoiled too. There have been several football games that he didn't make because "he didn't want to get in his trailer" says his Vet. Hmmm, he didn't want to? WTH??? Throw a steak in there & move it buddy! After all, riding around Tiger Stadium is his ONLY job!

I'm linking to Outdoor Wednesday.

Toodles!

9 comments:

  1. I've never seen him awake at his habitat either. Hopefully one day.......

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  2. I'm thinking the same thing as Kristin. I'm sure he is very lonely and very bored. I hate to see animals confined like this and not free. 13,000 sf is nothing compared to out in the wild which is where he should be living.

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  3. I have seen him twice walking a certain path in the nice weather. He's worn the path out. I wish I could see him in the water.

    I am conflicted because I hate the thought of him being captive, but this new habitat is pretty awesome. And I love seeing him. I love animals though so it's weird for me.

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  4. Okay, I'm still cracking up over the "nunnie" in the water! He is a beautiful animal, but he should really own up to his responsibilities.
    CAS

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  5. Hey Traci! Hope I didn't come across as mean when I left you a comment. I am pretty passionate when it comes to animals. I just hope and pray he is content, ya know? Thanks for writing me back. Have a great night!

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  6. That's a lot of cat food. Wow, 3 Million dollars. Thanks for telling me about him.

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  7. This seems sort of sad to me...and I agree that is a lot of money for the school mascot. I would think maybe the library or the health center could have found use for that kind of money. It is interesting and always fun to take little ones to see real animals!

    Thanks for visiting me!

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  8. Great post! I love visiting Mike even though I don't ever think I've seen him awake either.

    Funny story....we had a bunch of people over watching an LSU football game a few years ago & we started talking about Mike. One of the ditzy girls thought his "habitat" was the cage he gets pulled around the stadium in! She was whining about how sad it was for him to live in "that little cage". I had to correct her & tell her he had a mulit-million dollar habitat!

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