{"id":39089,"date":"2026-03-25T09:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=39089"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:38:35","slug":"oh-deer-famous-hoofed-residents-of-japans-nara-wander-as-far-as-osaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=39089","title":{"rendered":"Oh deer: famous hoofed residents of Japan\u2019s Nara wander as far as Osaka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">sacred deer<\/span> that have been a fixture of the ancient Japanese capital of Nara for centuries are beginning to wander far from the city\u2019s famous park, where they have been fed and adored by millions of tourists and locals over the years.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A male deer was recently spotted in the Zengenji district of Osaka, around 40km (25 miles) from its normal habitat and 3km from the city\u2019s bustling main station.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The appearance of wild deer in one of the most urban areas in <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Japan<\/span> has attracted crowds of curious locals, but city authorities have cautioned the public to keep a distance as the hoofed mammals could become \u201cagitated\u201d.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Kevin Short, a naturalist and former professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University of Information Sciences, believes several factors may have caused the deer to abandon their traditional habitat in the spacious grounds of Nara Park.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cJapan\u2019s big cities have in recent years introduced extensive urban greening programmes, which have opened up opportunities for wildlife to find their way to places that they would never have reached in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cDeer are very adaptable, they eat a wide range of plant material, and new parks, green spaces and roads lined with trees could have encouraged them to expand their range. Officials have inadvertently created \u2018green corridors\u2019 that are bringing more wildlife into city centres.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A visitor interacts with deer at Nara Park. Local authorities have warned against agitating the animals. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/03\/24\/6d9f66a2-ec14-4aeb-9877-99f64c65ee85_5d38dfdf.jpg\" title=\"A visitor interacts with deer at Nara Park. Local authorities have warned against agitating the animals. Photo: AFP\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">A visitor interacts with deer at Nara Park. Local authorities have warned against agitating the animals. Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/lifestyle-culture\/article\/3347736\/oh-deer-famous-hoofed-residents-japans-nara-wander-far-osaka?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sacred deer that have been a fixture of the ancient Japanese capital of Nara for centuries are beginning to wander far from the city\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[13096,4675,18936,5422,14054,4806,718,18937],"class_list":["post-39089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-deer","tag-famous","tag-hoofed","tag-japans","tag-nara","tag-osaka","tag-residents","tag-wander","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}