Arkansas’s Beloved Animal Mascot, Tusk, Died This Week

Tusk V, Arkansas University’s live mascot, died on Sunday from natural causes. He was four years old.

The fifth live mascot in the school’s history, Tusk V served the program from 2019 to ’22 following the retirement of his father, Tusk IV, and he will be succeeded by his brother, Tusk VI. Arkansas first introduced the Tusk mascot in the 1990s with Tusk I and have kept the honor in the Tusk family ever since.

The Tusk mascot primarily appears on the sidelines of Arkansas football home games, and occasionally attends other sporting events as necessary. He last publicly appeared at the Razorbacks’ 55–53 triple-overtime win at the Autozone Liberty Bowl over Kansas, and his last home game was a 42–27 win over Ole Miss to end the regular season home schedule in November.

Keith and Julie Stokes, who run the Stokes Family Farm in Dardanelle, Ark., have been the primary caretakers for every Tusk since the 1990s. They buried Tusk V outside his home.