Zhou was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and also fined 2,000 yuan
The Xunyang County People's Court also fined him 2,000 yuan (about 292 U.S. dollars) after convicting him of fraud.
According to the court, Zhou, 54, a farmer in Zhenping County, heard he might get an award of more than 100,000 yuan (14,606 U.S. dollars) if he could take pictures of a wild South China tiger. It is a subspecies that has not been seen for years.
Zhou came up with the idea of faking tiger photos for the prize.
On Oct. 3, 2007, he shot 62 photos of a tiger from a poster which he put amid foliage.
His fake photo of the endangered South China tiger
The provincial forestry department announced the news to the public on Oct. 12 and rewarded Zhou with 20,000 yuan (2,921 U.S. dollars).
But doubts arose immediately on the Internet, after netizens found an old Lunar New Year commemorative poster showing a tiger that resembled the photo.
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