Scarcity of tigers a lesson

It is less than a month away from the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese lunar calendar, when pictures of tigers will appear everywhere. Beyond cherishing the auspicious omen that the symbol of the tiger brings - as some believe - we should lament the near extinction of this feline.

There have been no new reports of discovery of South China tigers in the wild in recent decades. You can only find the tiger in zoos. Sporadic reports of traces of Siberian tigers in southwestern China provinces can hardly justify the existence of this species in the wilderness. Stories of ancient heroes killing tigers at the risk of their own lives and various Chinese idioms using tigers in expressions are all that is left of the ferocious feline.

That explains why a fake picture of a South China tiger in the wild taken by a rural villager could be so sensational in 2008 that it touched off a national debate over its authenticity. Even today many still wish from the bottom of their hearts that the picture would have been genuine.