Netizens dispute if animal in photos is rare tiger

Photo by Bao Shuguang.

Photo by Bao Shuguang.
Photos of what could be an extremely rare South China tiger that were shot by tourists at Sanqing Mountain Jiangxi Province on Oct. 15 and published by media have triggered great disputes lately.

However, Bao Shuguang, the tourist who shot the photos, insisted that his photos were real but he could not be sure whether the animal was a tiger or not.

Bao said he visited Sanqing Mountain with his friends on Oct. 15 and found a yellow animal about 100 meters in front of him in the afternoon. Although he yelled "Tiger!" and shot 4 vague photos of it, he could not make sure that it was a tiger. Two or three minutes later, the animal walked into the woods.

Many tourists also saw the animal at the time. However, the photos they shot were even more unclear.

Li Hua, an official from Sanqing Mountain Administration Committee, said the animal could not be confirmed as a tiger or not due to the vague image of its flower pattern and facial looks. However, he also revealed that one expert from Zhongshan University said it looked very much like a South China tiger after he saw the photo.

The South China tiger is listed as animal under first-class state protection and also considered as one of ten critically endangered creatures by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource. Experts predict that there are only 10 to 30 wild South China tigers in China, and the tiger is even much more precious than the giant panda. And that's why the news of a potential tiger discovery would trigger such great disputes.

Some Netizens claim it is just more hype, and some even say somewhere local zoos would put tigers in the mountains just to let tourist witness them.

As of now, there have been no any official comments about the alleged tiger sighting.

By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online