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Shots of tiger in the wild not real
By Ma Lie and Luo Hongyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-30 07:09

Shots of tiger in the wild not real

This is how, according to police, Zhou went about his con job: He heard from members of a search team that photographs of paw marks, feces or the hide of a South China tiger could get him thousands of yuan in reward, and a photo of a real tiger in the wild was worth 1 million yuan.

Zhou acted as a guide for the team in 2006 for which he earned 1,000 yuan.

A policeman displays a photograph of the endangered South China tiger "shot" by farmer Zhou Zhenglong during a press conference announcing the result of an investigation into the photograph after it was proved fake in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province June 29, 2008.[Xinhua]

The lure of easy money made him ask other villagers for tiger photographs. He hid his real motive by saying the photos would help his nephew overcome some psychological problem.

A villager surnamed Peng found a picture with a tiger in his neighbor's house and borrowed it to give it to Zhou. Zhou cut out the tiger from the picture, placed it on the grass and shot several pictures with a camera he had borrowed from his brother-in-law on Sep 27.

But unhappy with the results, he decided to shoot some more photos in a "better spot" on Oct 3. He found such a spot in front of a small tree where he shot the photos that have since created a storm.

This is where the provincial forestry department entered the scene. It claimed, on Oct 12, that Zhou's photos were proof that the rare tiger species still existed in the wild.

Netizens immediately accused Zhou of doctoring the tiger images with digital software, and said the local authorities had approved of the photos because they would boost tourism in the province.

The accusations drove Zhou to make a tiger paw with wood with the help of another villager, surnamed Yi, which he used to make marks on snow and take their photographs.

"The provincial government has learned a lesson from this scandal it reflects the problems in our work," said Xue Chunhua, Shaanxi provincial government spokesman.

Shi Ying, deputy head of the Shaanxi provincial academy of social sciences, said the scandal shows the Internet is becoming an important medium for public opinion.

"The government is paying more attention to Netizens ... this will increase the legal awareness of officials."

 

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