BEIJING: A farmer accused of faking a photo of an endangered South China tiger went on trial on Saturday in north China, state media reported.

Zhou Zhenglong, 54, was accused of fraud and illegal ownership of guns and ammunition at a court in Shaanxi province, Xinhua news agency said.

Zhou claimed he took the photo of the rare animal in October last year, stirring up much excitement in China as the tiger was thought to be nearly extinct in the wild.

He was awarded 20,000 yuan ($3,000) by the provincial forestry department for the feat, Xinhua said.

But experts subsequently revealed the snaps were fake after doubts began to emerge online about their veracity, as some netizens found an old poster with a photo of a tiger which looked like Zhou’s picture, Xinhua said.

Police later arrested him after finding an old tiger poster that Zhou allegedly borrowed from a farmer in another village last September to produce his photos, the agency reported.

They also found a wooden model of a tiger claw that Zhou allegedly used to replicate the paw print of a South China tiger on snow, Xinhua said. The last wild South China tiger sighting was recorded in 1964.—AFP