BATON ROUGE, La. – Fulfilling the wishes of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a caged Bengal tiger was wheeled onto the Tiger Stadium field for the first time in nearly a decade before kickoff of Saturday night’s game between No. 14 LSU and No. 11 Alabama.

Kaplan was not Mike VII living on campus.

Following the death of the school’s previous Tiger, Mike VI, in 2016, LSU announced that future Mike the Tigers would no longer be brought to the field.

Mike VI, who died of a rare form of cancer, had been to 33 of 58 homes between 2007 and 2015, according to the school’s website.

The university’s current live mascot, Mike VII (an 8-year-old, 345-pound tiger donated to the school from a shelter in 2017), is not brought to the field for games, but visitors can still see the tiger in his 15,000-pound form. square meter enclosure located on the campus adjacent to the stadium.

As a solution, Landry arranged for a tiger to be brought from Florida for the match; This upset animal rights activists who protested outside the stadium.

As the tiger was pulled onto the field with a black curtain draped over the cage, a short video detailing the history of LSU’s live mascot played on large display boards.

The stadium lights dimmed and a spotlight was pointed at the cage as the curtain was raised, revealing the tiger inside as many fans cheered.

Initially the tiger was lying down and soon it started walking in a circle.

Minutes later, the cage was removed from the field as pregame festivities continued.

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