(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-18 19:32

"Zhou asked me to develop all the photos on October 11, and specially enlarge a relatively clear one, without any other technological treatment, which was the one to be released," he said.

Xu Taoqing, a research fellow of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Animals Studies, said that it would be "simply impractical" for Zhou to bring either a "paper" tiger or a real, domesticated tiger to the mountain for the purposes of faking a photograph, because it was a six-hour walk from the county seat of Zhenping to the mountain.

The owner of the disputed photo, Zhou, from Wencai Village in Chengguan Township, was angered by the suspicious remarks.

"It's beyond doubt that I really took the photos of a South China tiger. If they (netizens) have doubts about the photo provided by the forestry department, they can go and ask the officials," he said.

Zhou acknowledged that he only gave two digital pictures to the forestry department, and besides, the two photos were not "the clearest ones."

Zhou has been given 20,000 yuan (US$2,666) as a reward for finding the tiger by the Shaanxi forestry authorities.

But Zhou, who believes he will be further hugely rewarded by authorities because of the photos, refused to show his original photos to reporters or anyone else.

"I must protect my intellectual property rights for which I have risked my life," he said.

Despite suspicions about the authenticity of the photo, no netizens have actually doubted the real existence of the South China tigers, an endangered tiger subspecies believed to have been extinct in the wild for more than 30 years.

The South China tiger, from which other sub-species such as the Siberian tiger evolved, is listed as one of the world's ten most endangered animals.

It is the only tiger subspecies native to China's central and southern areas. In the early 1950s, its population was 4,000 across the country. Since 1964, no sightings of wild tigers have been reported in Shaanxi.

Its former habitats were in Guangdong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the central provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi.

Xu Taoqing said that Zhenping County has been a distribution area for wild South China tigers in history, and local residents have heard roars and seen traces of tigers over recent years.

The Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Department organized a 30-member South China Tiger research team in 2006, which has carried out surveys in Zhenping since June last year. It said villagers had reported 17 sightings of South China tigers and heard their roars six times, but the claims could not be confirmed.

They also found footprints, excrement, hair and teeth of South China tigers during the survey in Zhenping, which led them to believe the tigers still exist in the wild in China.

The forestry department has banned all hunting around the mountain where the wild South China tiger was believed to be spotted and ordered checkpoints at the main entrances to the mountain area to prevent uncontrolled entry and protect the endangered species and its habitat.

"We will take this opportunity to draw up an overall protection plan and apply for establishing a nature reserve for the South China tiger in areas around the mountain," Zhu Julong said.

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