The deer of Nara

photo by Andrew Currie · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by Choco2807 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The deer bow less for crackers: from 10.2 to 6.4 times during the pandemic.

The park's deer bow to ask for the crackers sold at the kiosks: a gesture of request, not a courtesy greeting, measured by a study by Nara Women's University and Hokkaido University published in the journal PLOS ONE. During the collapse in tourist numbers in the pandemic, the average number of bows per deer fell from 10.2 (recorded between September 2016 and January 2017) to 6.4 (between June 2020 and June 2021), along with the number of deer observed per survey, from 167 in 2019 to 65 in 2020.

Nara Park is home to a population of sika deer that roam free and have become the symbol of the city. Their behaviour towards tourists has been the subject of a scientific study published in the journal PLOS ONE by Nara Women's University and Hokkaido University.

ℹ️ Crackers for the deer are sold at the kiosks in the park, which is free to enter and always open.

🚉 Daibutsuden Kasugataisha-mae · 26 min walk

Sources: newswitch.jp

All series · Open the map