Meet Lukrécia, our New Mascot!

Rector Attila Miseta emphasized in his opening speech at the adoption ceremony on 10 September in the PécsZoo that this cooperation provides a great opportunity to improve the university’s reputation, because every proper university needs a great mascot. He encouraged all ten faculties of the university to find their own animals to adopt. "Collaborations like this benefit everyone involved" - highlighted the rector.

According to Dávid Siptár, the manager of PécsZoo, this collaboration is a great milestone, because the zoo has become not only a popular tourist attraction but a platform for education as well: “When the new zoo was built in 2016 we did not want it to just be another tourist attraction where people only come to relax, we wanted to play an important part in education as well. Currently we are able provide a free outdoor education based natural science programme to up to one hundred children every day. We want the new generation to have a different attitude towards the natural sciences and hopefully many of them will grow up to become students at the University of Pécs” – explained Dávid Siptár at the adoption ceremony.

The Faculty of Sciences decided to adopt the male seal, Bonifác, while the Medical School adopted Brutus, the American buffalo. The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology adopted Mimike, the racoon. and Lukrécia, the white Bengal tiger was selected to be the mascot of the University of Pécs and adopted by the institution.

Why did she become the mascot of the University of Pécs? From a short description of the species, it might become more clear:

The tiger is the largest living feline today. Even though they can be active throughout the day, they hunt primarily during the night. Unlike other felines, tigers like water and are great swimmers. Thanks to their retractable claws and their muscular legs, they are excellent climbers and they can leap up to 10 meters far. It is amazing, that the long-term memory of tigers is approximately three times better than that of the average human.

More pictures about the adoption ceremony »