TOKYO • Japan’s ancient city of Nara is famous not just for its Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, but also its ever-present deer..
TOKYO • Japan’s ancient city of Nara is famous not just for its Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, but also its ever-present deer.
Every year, tourists flock to Nara, south of Kyoto, to experience the peace of the historic sites and the rambunctiousness of the 1,200 or so deer roaming freely in Nara Park.
However, the number of deer in Nara is about to get significantly smaller. Nara’s prefectural government is embarking on its first cull of the deer, which were designated a natural treasure by the Japanese government in 1957.
The deer are said to be the divine messengers of the Kasuga Grand Shrine, a Unesco World Heritage site and one of Nara’s main attractions. The deer are regulated under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, but Nara authorities applied to the Cultural Affairs Agency in Tokyo for permission to cull the deer because of the agricultural damage they have caused.
The deer are blamed for eating rice, bamboo and vegetable crops.
Permission was granted and the authorities have this week started setting out box traps to try to capture 120 of the deer on the eastern fringes of the park.
