Coronavirus: After Bronx Zoo tiger tests positive, LSU adds extra fencing in front of Mike the Tiger's habitat
LSU is taking extra precautions after a tiger at the Bronx Zoo was diagnosed with coronavirus.
The school added extra fencing on Tuesday around Mike the Tiger’s habitat. Mike’s enclosure is located near Tiger Stadium and people can typically go up to the walls and see Mike if he’s out and about.
Mike is still taking visitors. But now those visitors can’t get as close as they used to as the school has set up temporary fencing in front of Mike’s habitat to adhere to proper social distancing protocols.
"[We're] aware that the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories has confirmed [coronavirus] in one tiger at a zoo in New York. This is the first instance of a tiger being infected with COVID-19," a spokesperson for the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine said in a statement.
"As Mike’s caretakers, his health and wellbeing are our primary concern. We will, as always, monitor him closely."
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You can see the temporary barriers on the live feed of Mike’s enclosure.
The tiger at the Bronx Zoo is the first animal in the United States to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Zoo officials said they believed the tiger contracted the virus from a caretaker who was asymptomatic at the time the person worked with the tiger.
Per the Advocate, caretakers for Mike have been wearing masks and gloves in his nighthouse for the past three weeks. The current Mike the Tiger is the seventh in school history and was born in September of 2016.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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