The global plastic waste crisis has also managed to invade a sacred sanctuary located in Nara, Japan. This year alone, nine sika deer have been found dead at a popular city wildlife park in Nara that are frequented by tourists. The cause of their death was from consuming massive amounts of plastic trash.
The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation stated recently that the nine out of 14 deer they discovered dead was because of the plastic bags of food that were left behind by the tourists whose number has increased over the years in this picturesque city where Sika deers are treated as a national treasure.
According to Newsweek, researchers from the foundation discovered 9.5 pounds of plastic present in the digestive system of one deer alone. The group had also posted a photo last March of seven pounds of plastic they had taken out of another deer’s stomach.
Located east of Osaka, Nara Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where approximately 1,200 Sika deer live, and as they are the city’s national treasure, they are protected by law to roam freely while the visitors are allowed to feed them digestive and sugar-free deer crackers called shika sembei. Guests who want to feed them can by them in nearby shops and these crackers are not wrapped in plastic.
The problem is that there have been some visitors that feed the deer other treats that they should not be eating which already prompted the local authorities to remind people not to feed them unauthorized snacks, reported Newsweek.
Rie Maruko, a veterinarian working with the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation said that the deer roam through the trash bins and eat all the plastic thrown there from when the tourists unwrap the packaging and wrappers of the food they take into the sanctuary. He also added that the deer are attracted to the smell of the discarded food packaging.
“The deer that died were very skinny and I was able to feel their bones. Please do not feed them anything other that the designated shika sembei.” Maruko told Japan Today.
The foundation has doubled their efforts in warning tourists about the danger in bringing in plastic bags and wrappers into the park. They have also put up signs written in several languages in spring of this year in order to educate people the proper ways of feeding the deer, although this new development has not helped in reducing plastic waste.
As the foundation is taking additional steps on protecting the deer, they have also recently launched a clean-up campaign wherein more than 100 volunteers attended and collected over 116 pounds of rubbish within the park grounds, with 60% of the collections were plastic waste.
Yoshitaka Ashimura, secretary general of the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation told CNN that:
“The amount of plastic garbage we collected was over our expectation. We are concerned that a mere clean up won’t solve the issue. It’s important that the visitors won’t throw them away to begin with to protect deer.”
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