May 10 (soranews24.com) - Tourists are shocked to see usually ravenous deer turn down their favourite treats.
The city of Nara, located in Kyoto’s bordering Nara Prefecture, is a well-known tourist destination, most famous for the iconic Todai-ji temple and its giant buddha, and a large population of wild-roaming deer.
Considered to be messengers of the Shinto gods, the deer in Nara are a protected species within the city, and visiting tourists delight in feeding the animals special senbei crackers sold specifically for their consumption.
The deer are so accustomed to receiving food from visitors that they’ve learnt to greet people with a bow during the interaction, and they’re usually so keen on the crackers that they’ve been known to crowd around and pursue their feeders, who can be so intimidated by the horned creatures that many have thrown their crackers in the air in an attempt to escape the hungry herd.
With their ravenous reputation being so well-known, visitors to the park were surprised to see the deer actually turning their noses up at the crackers on the weekend. The rare sight was captured by Japanese illustrator Hitoshi Yoneda, who goes by the Twitter handle @Brise_Marine, in a series of surprising photos that show the deer looking full and sleepy, and totally disinterested in eating their favourite treats.
If you’ve been to Nara, you’ll know how holding out one solitary senbei can cause the deer to come running, and they’re usually so keen to be the one to get the prized senbei, they’ll often compete with each other to get it. So to see whole piles of uneaten crackers around the animals is a rare and surprising sight.
