May 31, 2019 (NHK) - It's the peak season for deer giving birth in Nara Park, a popular tourist site in Japan's ancient capital. A tweet warning visitors of the dangers of touching baby deer has gone viral.
The Bambi-like fawns attract a lot of interest, but the tweet says touching the young animals could kill them. It's been re-tweeted more than 106,000 times.
The tweet from a local deer protection group says if a mother deer detects human scent on a fawn, they may stop taking care of it.
The tweet say, "Please do not touch baby deer. The mother will stop nursing them if they smell humans."
The group say deer become fearful when they detect human presence, this can result in the fawn being neglected. It can then weaken and die.
A veterinarian member of the group Rie Maruko says she was surprised by the twitter response. But she hopes it will raise awareness so that young deer can live healthy lives.
