South China Tiger Photos Are Fake

The controversial south China tiger photograph by farmer Zhou Zhenglong is fake, the Shaanxi Provincial government announces on Sunday, June 29, 2008. [File Photo: cnwest]

The controversial photographs of a rare South China tiger in the wild were fabricated by farmer Zhou Zhenglong, Shaanxi Provincial government officials said on Sunday.

Zhou, 54, from Zhenping county, claimed to have photographed the tiger with a digital camera on the afternoon of Oct. 3 last year, but he had been arrested on suspicion of fraud. The Provincial Forestry Department had revoked his reward of 20,000 yuan (2,915 U.S. dollars).

Police have seized an old tiger poster, which he allegedly borrowed from a farmer in another village in September to produce his photos. They also found a wooden model of tiger claw, which Zhou allegedly used to fabricate a South China tiger paw print on snow.

Thirteen local officials have been penalized in connection with the scandal, including Provincial Forestry Department deputy head Zhu Julong and Sun Chengqian, the official in charge of wildlife preservation Wang Wanyun, and media official Guan Ke who were sacked for dereliction of duty.

Li Qian, an official with the wildlife preservation station of the Zhenping county, was also sacked for failing to make a site verification of the photos before producing a verification report.

"I accepted the decision of the government," said Guan Ke. "I have reflected upon the whole tiger photo thing, and I have to say passion overcome senses when I was dealing with the issue."

"It was indeed hasty to publish Zhou's photos before fully making sure their authenticity," said Guan. "It's a bitter lesson for us all."

Xue Chunhua, spokesperson of the Shaanxi Provincial Government, said the government would draw a lesson from this scandal to reflect on the problems in its work.

Zhou's house was locked and calls to his wife, Luo Dacui, rang unanswered on Sunday.

A month-long police investigation found the photos were shot in the forest of Madaozi, 15 kilometers from the Wencai village of Zhenping county, at an altitude of 2,000 meters, said Bai Shaokang, spokesperson of the Public Security Department of Shaanxi.

"It was a small area with few tall trees, which was not a suitable habitat for a real tiger," he said.

Police also located the trees beside the South China tiger in Zhou's picture and measured them at 0.8 of a centimeter in diameter. Calculations showed the pictured tiger would have been just 27 centimeters long and 35 centimeters wide.

Zhou, who had previously insisted that he "risked his life to take the photos of a real tiger", allegedly said he was influenced by members of a search team, for whom he acted as guide in 2006. They told him that photos of footprints, feces, and fur of South China tigers could earn a reward of thousands of yuan, and if he could find a real tiger in the wild, he could get more than 1 million yuan.

Zhou earned 1,000 yuan acting as a guide for the search team, further fueling his desire for a greater reward.

He asked other villagers to seek tiger pictures for him on the excuse of helping his nephew overcome psychiatric problems. A villager surnamed Peng found such a picture from his neighbor and gave it to Zhou.

Zhou folded the picture around the outline of the tiger, posed it on the grass on the afternoon of Sep. 27, and took several pictures.

Dissatisfied, he found a better spot on Oct. 3 in front of a small tree and produced the controversial photos with a camera borrowed from his brother-in-law, one of the 13 penalized government officials.

The Provincial Forestry Department claimed at a press conference that the photos, first published on Oct. 12, were proof the rare tiger still existed in the wild.

But Internet users accused Zhou of making the tiger images with digital software, and local authorities of approving the photos to bolster tourism.

The "paper tiger" saga aroused widespread interest among the public after the appearance of a Lunar New Year commemorative poster with a picture of a tiger that bore a striking resemblance to the one in Zhou's pictures.

This led to strong public demands for official proof of authenticity.

Under pressure, Zhou made a wooden model of tiger claw with help from another villager surnamed Yi.

The embarrassed provincial forestry department apologized in a letter to the public for "inappropriately publicizing the discovery of the wild South China tiger" in February, but made no comment on the photo's authenticity.

The South China tiger, also called the "Amoy" or "Xiamen tiger, " is widely believed to be extinct in the wild. It is thought to be the progenitor of all modern tigers, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

It is considered critically endangered, mainly due to a loss of habitat. By 1996, its population numbered only 30 to 80, according to the World Conservation Union's Red List of threatened species.

Zhou's fellow villagers said they hoped the photos were genuine. "Now they've turned out to be fake, we are a bit disappointed," said Wang Guihe of Wencai village. "But publishing the truth is better than cheating people."

Meanwhile, the publisher of the tiger poster, which Zhou used for produce his tiger photos, announced on Sunday that it decided to withdraw its lawsuit against Zhou for misappropriating its publication.

Luo Guanglin, general manager of the Vista Printing and Wrapping Co. Ltd., based in Yiwu of the eastern Zhejiang Province, said he also planned to drop the suit against the Shaanxi media official Guan Ke, who was accused of slandering the company had violated Zhou's copyright of the tiger image.

The People's Court in Yiwu City accepted the lawsuit filed by Vista in January, which demanded 10,000 yuan (1,370 U.S. dollars) in compensation from Zhou and 20,000 yuan from Guan, for damage to its reputation. The firm also wants a public apology.

"It (the truth) comes all out of sudden, but I feel happy and relaxed when hearing about it," Luo told Xinhua.

Shi Ying, deputy head of the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said the event showed how the Internet played an increasingly important role in China's political arena.

"The Chinese government is paying more attention to Internet users, which will enhance the legal awareness of officials at all levels," he said. （Xinhua）