LONDON (AFP): A Spanish photographer was stripped of a major wildlife prize Wednesday after organisers in London said it was likely that the apparently wild wolf featured in his entry picture was tame.
Jose Luis Rodriguez won the highly prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in October with a stunning picture of a wolf leaping over a gate entitled "The Storybook Wolf".
However, doubts were raised about the wolf's provenance and following an investigation, the Natural History Museum in London and BBC Worldwide, who jointly run the prize, said the entry had been disqualified.
"It saddens us to confirm that after a careful and thorough investigation into the image 'The Storybook Wolf', the co-owners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition... have disqualified the winning entry of the photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez," they said in a statement.
"The judging panel was reconvened and concluded that it was likely that the wolf featured in the image was an animal model that can be hired for photographic purposes."
Rodriguez "strongly denies" that the wolf in the image is tame, it said.
The competition rules clearly state that photographs of tame animals may not be entered and any transgression "is taken very seriously", it added.
The 10,000-pound (16,300-dollar, 11,500-euro) prize was never awarded to the photographer although he did receive 500 pounds for winning his category, which organisers said they had agreed he could keep in lieu of royalty payments.
As a result of his disqualification, there will be no 2009 winner.
