Thirteen government officials have been punished and a man arrested for presenting false evidence to prove the highly endangered South China tiger existed in the wild.

The Shaanxi provincial government said Sunday that farmer Zhou Zhenglong had fudged some photographs for the purpose. The government had earlier claimed the photos were real.

A purported South China tiger is pictured in this file photo taken by farmer Zhou Zhenglong. [Xinhua]

The 54-year-old farmer from Zhenping county, who claimed to have photographed the "tiger" with a digital camera on Oct 3 last year, was arrested for alleged fraud on Saturday, said Bai Shaokang, spokesman for the Shaanxi provincial public security bureau. The provincial forestry department has revoked his 20,000-yuan reward ($2,915) too.