Winning wildlife photo may be a fraud

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20 January 2010

"Storybook Wolf" is being investigated

Behind the scenes of the world's largest nature photo competition looms a potential scandal.

A member of the panel of judges, nature journalist Rosamund Kidman Cox, admits to Suomen Luonto (Nature of Finland) magazine that this year's overall winner photo, taken by Spaniard José Luis Rodríguez, is currently being investigated because of a suspected fraud.

The photographer has given the impression that the picture represents a wild wolf. Now, however, the competition organisation has received evidence indicating that the wolf would actually be a tame one and lives in captivity. The pieces of evidence are now under investigation.

The rules of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition are very clear: ”Images of captive animals must be declared. The judges will take preference to images taken in free and wild conditions.” Therefore a wolf photo representing a wild wolf has better chances to win than a wolf photo with a captive animal.

The panel of judges selected the winner from among 43,000 photos. Suomen Luonto magazine has tried to reach the head of the panel, Mark Carwardine, for an interview, but have had no reply.

”I'm just a judge in the competition”, Kidman Cox says. ”But you'll find Mark (Carwardine) is not going to say anything different than me. Because we're just waiting for a piece of evidence,” she continues.

About a possible official statement that the WPY organisation will make about the situation, Kidman Cox answers: ”I'm hoping that there will be a statement that the competition will make, but it's not my decision.”

In addition to being one of the judges, Kidman Cox is the former editor of BBC Wildlife Magazine, the other one of the WPY head organisers.

The evidence being examined includes photo comparisons between the winning photo and a captive wolf named Ossian. Also included is a comparison between the contest winner photo and a photo that is claimed to be taken in the Cañada Real Center zoological park near Madrid. The views are strikingly similar.

The pieces of evidence are apparently collected by a group of Spanish photographers. They are concerned about the reputation of all Spanish photographers and, thus, want to bring the evidence in public.

”I hope the truth will come out finally,” one of the photographers says to Suomen Luonto magazine, ”there are many of us [Spanish nature photographers] who have strong ethics.”

The behaviour of the wolf in the photograph also calls its legitimacy into question. Questions have been asked as to why the wolf is jumping over the fence as this is deemed by some to be unnatural bahaviour as a wild wolf may have gone under the gate.

The WPY is the world's most respected and largest nature photo competition. The winner gets a huge merit for life. The competition celebrated its 45th anniversary this year.

If the cheating would be true, it would undoubtedly be one of the most significant cases of fraud in the history of nature photographing – if not the most significant.