(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-18 14:34

BEIJING -- An award-winning photographer and activist in Tibetan antelope protection has apologized to the public for a picture he faked showing more than 20 of the fiddle-footed animals roaming peacefully under a railway bridge where a train was roaring past.

"I've carefully read through all the Internet postings about the questioned picture, which I'm ready to say, was modified with Photoshop software," wrote Liu Weiqiang, 41, on a forum of xitek.com, a website for photographer, on Saturday.

A posting appeared on the same forum last Friday pointing out three evidences to show Liu's photo was fabricated: including a red line, which, visible only after being amplified many times, was apparently the joint of two separate pictures, and the incredible calmness of the antelopes at the roaring train.

Zoologists say Tibetan antelopes are easily disturbed by even the slightest sound. Yet the herd on Liu's photo were running calmly in an orderly queue.

Liu, a photographer with Daqing Evening News in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, allegedly "shot" the photo showing the critically-endangered Tibetan antelopes totally undisturbed by the roaring train on June 23, 2006, a week before the landmark railway to Tibet opened to traffic.

His work, named "Qinghai-Tibet railway opening green passageway for wild animals", was among "the 10 most impressive news photos of 2006", an annual event sponsored by Chinese Central Television (CCTV).

"It was designed to be a poster, but was published on many websites for free," Liu wrote in the posting. "I was surprised it stood out in the CCTV photo contest."

At CCTV's award granting ceremony on December 27, 2006, Liu said he had been waiting for eight days and eight nights in the uninhabited land of Hoh Xil, more than 4,000 meters above sea level, to shoot the creature, according to scripts of the event still available at CCTV.com.

In his posting Liu said he had actually downplayed the hardship he suffered. "I spent at least two weeks there waiting for the antelopes and train to appear together, but they never did."

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