(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-09 14:00

BEIJING - The influential "American Science" magazine published a photo Friday which it claimed to be of a wild South China tiger, which was taken in northwest China.

The photograph, purporting to be the first sighting of a South China tiger for more than 30 years, has already aroused intensive concern among Chinese netizens as well as scientists and scholars, after it was released on October 12. [File photo]

The magazine quoted Gary Koehler of Washington State's Department of Fish and Wildlife as saying that "it's tremendously exciting news, if it can be substantiated".

The photograph, purporting to be the first sighting of a South China tiger for more than 30 years, has already aroused intensive concern among Chinese netizens as well as scientists and scholars, after it was released on October 12.

The photo was chosen from 71 digital and film photos, reportedly taken by a local farmer named Zhou Zhenglong in early October in Zhenping County, Shaanxi Province.

There are doubts over its veracity and suggestions that digital technology may have been used to alter the image by netizens and a botanist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In additioin the international foundation, Save China's Tigers (SCT), also issued a claim commenting on the alleged spotting of the South China tiger.

The claim said that a tiger needs about 20 square kilometers of habitat for its own survival. Zhenping County has a tiger reserve zone of up to 140 square kilometers, so even if there are tigers, it will only be a very small population.

Tigers, as solitary animals, are not easily spotted by humans. So it would have been extraordinary for Mr. Zhou to spot and photograph the tiger for two days in a row, the claim said.

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