NARA - Officials in Nara are urging visitors to treat the city's famous deer with care and respect as tourist numbers rise and the autumn mating season approaches, when male deer can become particularly aggressive.
At Nara Park, prefectural officials and members of a local deer protection organization distributed pamphlets explaining how visitors should interact with the animals.
The population of the nationally designated Natural Monument known as the Nara Deer has reached a record 1,700, while the number of tourists, particularly international visitors, has also increased sharply.
The pamphlets, written in Japanese, English and Chinese, explain rules visitors are expected to follow, including not feeding the deer anything other than specially sold deer crackers, and not touching or chasing the animals.
One international visitor said, "When I have food, I try to be careful so I don't get bitten." Another said, "You shouldn't give them anything other than deer crackers. We have to show respect for the deer."
The deer enter their mating season as autumn approaches, with male deer becoming more aggressive during this period.
The Nara Prefectural Government plans to continue providing multilingual information to encourage visitors to interact with the deer appropriately.
Source: YOMIURI
