China sacks officials over faked big cat snaps

China has given more than a dozen government officials their marching orders over faked photographs of the highly-endangered South China tiger, Xinhua reports. The faked tiger photo Last October, forestry officials in Zhenping county, northern Shaanxi province, published the photos citing them as evidence of the tiger's …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry...

... but how could anyone not think that pic was faked???

Paris cos even she isnt that daft.

[Robajob]

Is it just me...

Or is that the least convincing Photoshop job ever?

[Lukin Brewer]

Having been told it's a fake...

...it's quite easy to spot that the tiger is lit from the front (with what looks to be a flash) while the rest of the scene is lit from above, including the vegetation "to the fore of the tiger".

But even without that knowledge, the image still looks wrong, especially to someone who has had as much fun in Photoshop as I have.

A reasonable effort, me old chinas, but it needed more work before going public.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe...

...that anyone would fall for that obvious photoshop! I've seen better celebrity pr0n head-swaps! The lighting conditions are clearly dramatically different, and the tiger seems to have had his colour saturation turned way up too. The tiger's ears are missing (or it's wearing some kind of hat), and you can still see parts of the original background where it was very poorly cut around! Did it really take location of the original to determine it was a fake?!

[David Buckley]

was this...

real world chinese gold farmers?

and if a farmer has the mad photoshop skills to do that... why is he still farming and not working on the celebrity pr0n head replacements?

[Lloyd]

Extinct

And I thought that the South China tiger had become extinct after eating all of the Yangtze dolphins.

[Giuseppe]

Do a better job in Photoshop yourself then!

To all you that picked on Zhou Zhenglong's photoshopping skills, I challenge you to take his picture and improve it!

I know you can...

C'mon El Reg, this story is just screaming for a photoshop competition followup! (sans office lego men regularly seen re-enacting Heathrow security incidents on fridays)

[Law]

omg

that is almost as realistic as the usual optimus prime grabs that el-reg has been posting recently.... they deserved to be sacked, for being so dumb!!

Observe - I have photographic proof that Jobs is indeed Lucifer himself (see icon)

[Anonymous Coward]

Only believe it if...

the Tiger was holding up a recent copy of the local rag.

[Anonymous Coward]

and now....

the poor pandas can't get fresh bamboo shoots after the earthquakes

[Mark Roome]

Thats not the point

The point is that "up to 13 officials were dismissed" for accepting a picture at face value and giving out money. Imagine how better off the Western World would be if we did that to our rather more discerning and discrimiating officials.

Icon, cos they should just.

[Gordon Pryra]

Thats not even a bloody Tiger!!

How can a picture of an Elephant ever be mistaken for the Panthera tigris amoyensis?

[Rick]

I saw this

Here's the tiger that the farmer found..

http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/andrewsun/2007/11/17/this-is-our-tiger-identical-tiger-found-on-a-commercial-festival-print

>/ Paris cause shes always photoshopped...

[Anonymous Coward]

If only

If only they'd showed that tiger swimming in the Yangtse they might have gotten away with it.

Swimming beside the ghost of Mao, for the history challenged.

Mine's the Speedo.

[Frank]

@All of you

Yes it's lit from the front by camera flash, but the flash on a cheap camera is not as strong as the noonday sun and a tiger's hairs are in the form of layered tubes which reflect light, hence it's white fur seems bright. The camera is obviously a cheap one that saturates easily in the red/orange part of the spectrum (as mine does) so the tiger colours are saturated compared the the green foliage.

You can even see the shadow on top of the tiger's head due to the leaf that it's cleverly sat under, using it as a sunshade.

It's ears are not distinct because of it's natural feline response of flattening and throwing back it's ears when threatened or startled. (I'd like to see your response if a chinese farmer crept up on you and took a flash photo from 10 feet away as you were relaxing in your garden.) You people are so cynical.

Frank Gullible

[Anonymous John]

Lester

could do a more convincing fake with his Playmobil set.

[dave]

This is the sign of the beast

LOL Frank, learn to read previous posts-

Rick posted: http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/andrewsun/2007/11/17/this-is-our-tiger-identical-tiger-found-on-a-commercial-festival-print

Still think everyone's being too harsh?

[Lasse Saikkonen]

@dave: Verily

LOL dave. I mean... wow, you made my day.

[Ned Ludd]

@ dave

FFS it's called *sarcasm*

[dave]

Doh

^^ Sorry Frank, I obviously need to take my own advice. Coincidentally, we share last names.

[Jeffrey Nonken]

@dave

Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary? Go on, look it up for yourself!

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

@Jeffrey Nonken: I also have problems with dictionaries...

they never have a good index

(with thanks to Terry Pratchett)