page_title: Mike the Tiger
section_title: Mike VI (2007–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: Mike the Tiger / History of Mike the Tiger / Mike VI (2007–2016)
caption_attribution_description: English: Mike the Tiger in water rfrmt
context_page_description: Mike the Tiger is the official mascot of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and serves as the graphic image of LSU sports. Mike is the name of both the live and costumed mascots.
  By tradition the tiger is a live Bengal tiger, although the current mascot and his two immediate predecessors are mixed-breeds. Mike V was a Bengal-Indochinese mix, Mike VI was a Bengal-Siberian hybrid, and Mike VII is also a Bengal–Siberian mix.
  LSU teams are called the Fighting Tigers and Lady Tigers, with "Lady Tigers" used only for women's teams in sports that are also sponsored for men, and the university's football team plays its home games in Tiger Stadium. LSU first adopted its "Tigers" nickname in the fall of 1896. The moniker references Confederate era military regiments; the Louisiana troops of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia became known as the Tigers during the Civil War after two New Orleans brigades, the Tiger Rifles and the Washington Artillery.
context_section_description: After Mike V's death, PETA contacted the university and urged it not to replace him with a new tiger.
  However, LSU chancellor Sean O'Keefe rejected PETA's request by stating that LSU would acquire a new tiger.  O'Keefe further defended LSU's decision by noting that four of the previous five Mikes lived to be at least 17 years, nearly twice the normal 8–10 year lifespan of tigers in the wild.  O'Keefe further explained that tigers were currently a critically endangered species in the wild, and any attempt to preserve them as a species would require some level of raising them in captivity, such as at LSU's veterinary school.
  LSU did not wish to buy a tiger but instead sought for one to be donated to the school. On July 27, 2007, WBRZ ABC News 2 announced that LSU had located a tiger at Great Cats of (Idaville) Indiana, an Indiana-based large cat and carnivore rescue facility.
  "Roscoe" arrived in Baton Rouge on Saturday, August 25, 2007, after a plane ride from Indiana and was kept quarantined in the "night house" in the LSU habitat, away from the public. On August 31, 2007, LSU officials decided that the tiger was adjusting well and allowed him into the public habitat during morning outings.  He was returned to the night house each evening. On his first outing on September 1, 2007, LSU staff invited members of the media and the public to view and take photographs of the tiger.
  On September 8, 2007, LSU staff acknowledged that "He's Mike VI" in a press release. A ceremony dedicating the tiger as officially "Mike VI" took place on September 14, 2007, Mike VI was to make his Death Valley debut at the September 22 game against the University of South Carolina, but LSU Veterinarian David Baker felt that a day game would be rough for the new tiger, delaying his anticipated debut until the October 6, 2007 night game against the University of Florida.
  By 2015, Mike VI was a 10-year old Siberian-Bengal mix male weighing over 420 pounds. The product of an "unintended breeding" at Great Cats, University staff believed his youth, size and temperament may give the athletic department a "more ferocious mascot much sooner than watching a cub grow up at LSU." Estimates by LSU Veterinary staff were that Mike VI may top out at 600 lb (270 kg) or more, making him LSU's largest tiger mascot ever.
  In Mike VI's first year as the LSU tiger, the LSU Tigers football team won the BCS National Championship for the 2007 college football season.
  On May 23, 2016, LSU issued a press release stating that Mike VI had been diagnosed with a spindle cell sarcoma, a type of cancer, which later spread. LSU announced on September 6 that despite treatment, the tiger's cancer was terminal, and that he would be expected to live at most two years. Mike VI would remain in his on-campus habitat, and would no longer attend games. On October 5, 2016 it was announced that Mike VI's cancer had returned and spread to his head. Vets at the LSU Veterinarian School announced that he had one to two months to live. Six days later, he was euthanized.
caption: Mike VI in water
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