How does Mike the Tiger live? The answer is quick and simple, crappy. Crappy, in my opinion, means a small cage for a large animal that needs to roam. Something so celebrated on campus, such as Mike, should be treated with the utmost respect and honor. Mike has been living in that same cage since 1990. He is the fifth tiger in a series of five tigers since 1936. He was named after a well known athletic trainer named Chellis "Mike" Chambers. The Bengal Tiger has been a staple of LSU sports since our first athletic event.
One can tell why the tiger is so feared among the human race, the average size of a tiger is only around seven foot tall and around 450 lbs. Our tiger, Mike V, doesn't fit that stereotype quite as well. He is of the tamed breed. He mostly just sleeps in his tiny air conditioned room that is adjacent to his slightly larger cage, mostly due to having nothing else to do. When I see him out and about, he mostly just walks around in circles with the look of boredom upon his face. Cats need to roam, exercise, and interact with the outside world, not just in some tiny cage with little to do.
Mike doesn't have absolutely nothing to do, he has a few toys in which to entertain himself. There is a pile of rocks almost as high as his cage from which he can perch upon, with a small pond at the base. The pond water didn't look to clean to me, but I guess that is not bad because in the wild there is no clean water. Mike has a log, for scratching I assume, and a barrel and tire hanging from two ropes. It appears from the marks on the tire, barrel, and log that Mike plays with them. Hopefully, the many people that visit Mike daily amuse him as well.
When I observed people going up to the cage, they mostly just stared and admired the beautiful animals beauty and tranquility. I know that most of them must be thinking the same as me, how can such a big animal live in such a tiny cage. They read the informative plaques around the cage to learn more about Mike.
