11/14/2022 0 Comments Mike the tiger video ambush predator![]() It’s no wonder they are such a fun fish to chase with a fly rod. Once hooked, they explode away, ripping your hands to shreds and usually going airborne, showing off with acrobatic aerial cartwheels. But tigers are just lightning fast and more violent. They are an ambush predator, like many other fish that you are familiar with, using stealth and cover to their advantage. We’ve even seen rods ripped out of the angler’s hands from the strike! A tigerfish eat is unlike anything else. They have been known to take finger guards right off your hands and cut through your sun gloves and stripping tape. It has been described as “bone shaking” when they eat your fly. No other freshwater gamefish takes your fly harder than a tigerfish. International Fly Fishing Travel Magazine.And even though fans may not see him as often, Mike remains a lasting symbol of strength, inspiring thousands each season.Skip to content The Fly Shop 800♶69♳474 Menu That was Mike on the field.”Įven though Mike VII is the first tiger to remain in his enclosure on gameday Saturdays instead of gracing the sidelines, he’s still a cheerleader for the team, often eating a pre-game snack of meat laid out in the shape of the opponent’s mascot. “Imagine having a large party in your backyard with lots of people and music-you won’t see your cat for a week. “If it’s best for Mike, then it’s best for LSU,” Baker says. Despite the rah-rah value a live tiger can bring to a football game, the caretaking philosophy of LSU’s veterinarians has evolved to focus exclusively on Mike’s well-being. Since 1936, when LSU Athletic Department trainer Chellis “Mike” Chambers (Mike’s namesake) and a handful of students and faculty members brought Mike I to campus, the tigers have roared the team on to victory from the sidelines-a tradition that ended last year. Photo: Eddy Perez, LSU Strategic Communications Now, one of those cats is safe inside a 15,000-square-foot habitat, complete with a waterfall and pool, synthetic rocks that can be warmed or cooled, and lush greenspace, adjacent to Tiger Stadium. Although Baker believes the sanctuary’s then-owner would not have put his fourteen tigers in harm, any potential buyer easily could have. Ten years later, after Mike VI lost a battle with cancer, Baker helped acquire Mike VII-née Harvey-from a Florida sanctuary that was being forced to downsize. “Had I brought him to Louisiana, I would’ve been arrested as soon as I stepped off the plane and LSU would have been named in a criminal lawsuit.” The school went back to the drawing board, before legally obtaining a tiger from a sanctuary in Indiana that could not properly care for its cats. “I was twenty-four hours away from flying to the east coast to get a tiger when I was told by a federal agent it had been illegally sold,” Baker says. That’s what propelled LSU to begin seeking out tigers that need to be saved.įinding Mike VI in 2007, for instance, nearly ran Baker and the university into a legal landmine. Over-breeding leads to a black-market tiger trade, a cycle with grim outcomes. “There are so many tigers in this country because people breed them irresponsibly,” Baker says. More tigers live in captivity or as exotic pets-as many as 7,000 in the U.S., according to some estimates-than in the wild, where only 2,500 Bengal tigers remain, mostly in India and surrounding countries. David Baker, LSU’s attending veterinarian who took over the care of Mike V in 1994, then helped locate Mike VI in 2007, and now supervises the care of Mike VII since the big cat arrived on campus last year. “It’s a very serious business to be acquiring an animal on the endangered species list-especially an apex predator,” says Dr. But what happens when the mascot is also an endangered species? For Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and Mike, their seventh in a line of Bengal tiger mascots, the answer is: Whatever’s best for Mike. Many college football teams rally around live-animal mascots-hounds, raptors, horses, longhorn bulls. ![]()
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