May 28, 2019 (soranews24.com) - Increasing numbers of the nationally protected species are being affected by plastic bag consumption.
One of the highlights of a visit to Nara is the chance to walk amongst the city's free-roaming deer. And with more than two million foreign visitors last year alone, some of the deer in the area have been so well-fed by day trippers that they find it hard to stand on their feet during holiday periods.
However, it appears that some tourists have been feeding these nationally protected animals something other than the deer-friendly senbei crackers sold by vendors in the area. According to a recent report from the Nara Deer Welfare Association, the animals have been eating plastic, which has led to the deaths of a number of deer in recent months.
A veterinarian from the association said a sickly looking deer was found near Todaiji temple in Nara Park on 23 March, and although they attempted to feed it, it refused to eat. The severely weak 17-year-old female deer–which weighed 30 kilograms (66 pounds), 10 kilograms below the healthy weight range–died the next day.
An autopsy revealed that the stomach of the animal was almost entirely filled with hardened material that looked like a clump of polyethylene bags. The mass weighed 3.2 kilograms (7 pounds).
Like cows and sheep, deer chew their cud as part of a process called rumination in order to digest nutrients in plant-based foods. The food first enters the rumen, one of their four-chambered stomachs, where it's broken down by bacteria before being regurgitated for the animal to chew in order to be fully digested. However, the accumulation of so many bags inside the deer's stomach made it unable to regurgitate, digest, and ingest new food, resulting in its death.
