It’s difficult to notice by looking at them because of their fur, but if you actually touch them, some of them are so thin that they’re just skin and bones. In one case, a deer lost more than 10 kilograms of weight.

Maybe running a virtual petting zoo in a city of 360,000 people with more than 15 million annual visitors isn't a good idea.

On my first visit to Nara over 20+ years ago - well before the hordes descended - I thought the practice of so many freely roaming deer being hand fed daily by 1,000s was questionable in the least.

Especially so, because this was an urban environment not a wildlife park let alone a purely natural environmment.

It was inevitable that problems would increase. I don't have any concrete answers, but I wonder if Nara officials have thought about this seriously in the long term.

The number of deers & visitors, the dangers, the abuse concerns etc, always had an air of unsustainability about it.

@ Zichi

I agree with you 100%. When my wife, kids, and me lived in Nara this was suggested (2005). The mayor threw a fit. "A big part of our tourism is linked to these deer. We can never allow that money to be lost over concerns from animal lovers who put animals above our community."

There is the sad answer.

Japan loves animals hey

zichiJune 25  11:35 am JST Restrict the numbers and put them in a deer park and stop the tourists from feeding them and dropping the plastic on the ground which the deer are also eating. Take better care of them and return them to natural grass eating.

What are you saying? Don't you know that the Japanese have a special sense regarding nature?

These are no longer feral animals and, because of shika-senbei, have become welfare cases. They need either to cull them and/or feed them properly. Set up a few feeding stations around the city, off limits to humans, and they will find them.

I've yet to hear of the same problem on Itsukushi-jima.