Abstract

The wild South China tigers, with no authenticated sighting more than 25 years, are generally considered functionally extinct. A hunter has published a set of photographs of aSouth China tiger that he claims were taken in the Daba mountain of China on October 3^rd, 2007. Subsequently, a month later (but claimed a six-year-old product by its manufacturer),a tiger picture poster appeared in the public domain. The result has been a controversyover the authenticity of photographs; the tiger photos being widely believed to be copied from the tiger picture poster. However, upon analysis of all the photos, it is concluded that the tiger in the photos is a 3-dimensional, animate object, suggestive of a living tiger have been photographed from the mountain. Comparing the poster tiger with the photo tiger, it appears that the poster tiger is an artificial monster that had been copied and modified from the photo tiger. As good news, the wild South China tiger have not been extinct.

Key words: Wild South China tiger, photo-tiger, poster-tiger, authenticity.