Sep 27, 2020 (Japan Today) - The city of Nara in Nara prefecture is famous for its free-roaming deer population, who've been known to cross at pedestrian crossings and bow to tourists in Nara Park in return for senbei rice crackers.
The city of Nara in Nara prefecture is famous for its free-roaming deer population, who've been known to cross at pedestrian crossings and bow to tourists in Nara Park in return for senbei rice crackers.
The animals' love for gathering around tourists who feed them rice crackers has been well-documented over the years, but now that the tourists have largely disappeared due to travel restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, it appears the deer's dependence on senbei is more serious than first thought.
According to a recent news report, roughly 13 million tourists usually visit Nara Park every year, and the number of rice crackers sold annually amount to approximately 20 million. With around 900 deer living in the park, excluding the 400 that are housed in the 'Rokuen' deer shelter, this means each deer usually eats more than 60 rice crackers per day.
Each senbei weighs about three to four grams and is considered a snack for the deer, who eat about five kilograms of grass a day. However, the nutritional value of a rice cracker is higher than grass, making them extremely attractive to the animals. This encourages them to seek out the rice crackers to such an extent that some of the animals are said to have become dependent on them.
