From the ArcaMax Publishing, Weird News Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/weirdnews/s-370704-826828
XIAN, China (UPI) -- A Chinese farmer has been charged with fraud for
allegedly faking photographs and tracks of a South China tiger.
Officials in the Shaanxi provincial government say Zhou Zhenglong used
a neighbor's photograph and a wooden tiger claw, the state-run Xinhua
news agency reported. He claimed he took the photos with a cell phone.
Zhou received a reward of 20,000 yuan, or almost $3,000, from the
Provincial Forestry Department. He claimed to have taken the photos
Oct. 3, 2007.
Bai Shaokang of the Shaanxi Public Security Department said
investigators found the area where Zhou's photograph was taken.
"It was a small area with few tall trees, which was not a suitable
habitat for a real tiger," he said.
Police also measured the tree trunks and extrapolated the size of the
tiger in the picture. They found the tiger would have been 27
centimeters long and 35 centimeters wide -- about 9 inches by 11
inches.
Zhou, who formerly claimed he had "risked his life" to get the
pictures, now admits he got the idea when he guided a team searching
for tigers in 2006.