Wheels Down Japan
LANGUAGE English
English日本語简体中文

Nara's Deer Are Wild, and There Is a Number to Call

Last verified: 2026-08-06 5 min read By Wheels Down Japan editorial Reviewed: Wheels Down Japan editorial

English writing about Nara tends to arrive at the same place: the deer bow, they are polite, buy a packet of crackers and enjoy yourself.

Nara Prefecture’s own pages read differently. They are worth reading before you go, because they are written by the people who deal with what happens afterwards.

What the prefecture actually says the deer do

They are wild animals, so they sometimes attack. You may be injured by being charged at, gored with antlers, bitten or kicked.

That is the official wording, not a dramatisation. The same page asks visitors not to touch the deer carelessly, and not to let children approach them alone.

These are wild animals with a legal status, not livestock. The deer of Nara Park are designated a National Natural Monument. In law they belong to nobody — but capturing or injuring one is a criminal matter, not a misunderstanding.

There were 1,325 deer at the last count published by the prefecture: 313 stags, 798 does and 214 young, from the survey of July 2024.

Two seasons are worse than the rest

This is the part that changes when you should go, and it is almost never stated in English:

  • Spring — does that have just given birth become aggressive defending their fawns.
  • Autumn — stags enter the rut and become short-tempered.

In both seasons the prefecture says the deer become rough and may attack people, and that particular care is needed. If you are travelling with small children and have flexibility on dates, that is a real reason to prefer early summer or winter.

Feeding is prohibited — with one exception, and there is a reason for it

Nara Park bans feeding the deer. The official shika-senbei crackers are the only exception, and the prefecture explains why rather than just permitting it:

  • The crackers are made to be safe for deer — rice bran and wheat flour, with no sugar and no salt.
  • Feeding them is a practice dating to the Edo period, treated as part of the cultural relationship between the town and the animals.
  • Part of the proceeds funds deer protection. That is the stated reason the exception exists at all.

Everything else — sweets, bread, vegetables, your leftovers — can make the deer ill or cause an accident. The prefecture is blunt: the deer live on grass, leaves and acorns and feed themselves; anything else risks tooth decay, poisoning and death.

Two practical rules on the crackers themselves. Hand them over immediately. Teasing a deer with food it can see makes it angry, and the animal deciding you are being unfair is how people get knocked over. And once the crackers are gone, show your empty hands — the deer read the gesture faster than they read you.

The three things visitors get wrong that are not about feeding

Your hands are the problem. Deer will eat the plastic bag, the map or the leaflet you are holding, and bags get caught on antlers and pulled off you. Hold your things properly before you approach.

There are no bins in Nara Park. None. The prefecture states plainly that deer have died from eating dropped rubbish, and asks every visitor to carry their litter out. If you buy something to eat, you are carrying the wrapper for the rest of the day.

Dogs are a serious problem here. Deer are timid animals and a dog is a natural predator to them. A startled herd bolting causes injuries to people and traffic accidents; a cornered deer may also attack the dog. If you walk a dog in the park it must be leashed and kept away from the deer.

If a deer injures you

Nara Prefecture runs a dedicated line for this, which tells you how routine it is:

Nara Park Deer Consultation Room — 0742-26-7755, for injuries and other trouble caused by the deer of Nara Park.

The prefecture also publishes an accident-warning leaflet in English, Japanese, both Chinese scripts and Korean, plus separate sheets on how to give the crackers and on why not to feed anything else. If you are bringing children, the English leaflet is a better five minutes than any article.

How to decide

  1. Treat them as wild animals, because legally and biologically that is what they are.
  2. Avoid spring and autumn with small children if your dates are flexible. Those are the aggressive seasons, per the prefecture.
  3. Buy only the official crackers, and hand them over at once. Do not tease.
  4. Put maps, leaflets and plastic bags away before you get close.
  5. Carry your rubbish out. There is nowhere to put it, and dropped litter kills deer.
  6. Save 0742-26-7755 before you go. It costs nothing and it is the number you will not be able to find while bleeding.

Official sources

Every rule, figure and phone number above was read from Nara Prefecture’s own Nara Park pages on 6 August 2026; those pages carry a last-updated date of 27 February 2026, and the population figures are from the prefecture’s survey of July 2024. Deer behaviour is seasonal and the guidance is revised; check the prefecture’s pages before travelling with children.

Spotted an error? Email [email protected].

← All articles