Nara Deer Park - What's It Really Like?

Okay, anyone researching a trip to Japan will, at some point, inevitably come across photos like the one above: inquisitive deer, apparently as tame as puppies, staring into the camera with their wide eyes and their twitchy ears akimbo. The photos will have been taken at Nara Deer park, an extremely popular day trip or overnight stop a short train ride from Kyoto. In Nara, the deer don't run away like the skittish ones you find everywhere else in the world: instead, they seem happy to greet you.

It was definitely a special experience getting to interact with animals that are usually so wild - and even dangerous. But it was also just a little bit strange...

Feeding the deer

Within minutes of arriving, it was abundantly clear why the deer in Nara are so tame. Over the years they've come to learn that humans equal food. As long as you have food, the deer will come. And they won't leave you alone until they've taken every last crumb from you!

Officially, the only food you're allowed to give to the deer are special crackers made for animals. You can buy these by the entrance to the park, at a strangely unofficial looking stall! They're cheap enough - probably cheaper than food made for humans - so there's really no reason not to buy them! I'd buy a few packs, as we ran out within about ten minutes and had to exit the park to buy more: there are no stalls within the park itself.

Given the cheapness of the crackers, we were really disappointed to see at least one group of women plying deer with human snacks while they snapped away with their cameras. They may just have run out of deer crackers, but one thing that always rubs me the wrong way when travelling is seeing tourists feeding wild animals irresponsibly. I had flashbacks to the time I visited Zion National Park in Utah, and watched a family feeding an opportunistic squirrel most of a bag of M&Ms, right next to a sign that reminded visitors not to do this!

So, I repeat: buy enough deer crackers to last you! We went through about three or four packs each during our visit.

Deer crackers - the only snack permitted to feed to the deer

Exploring the park

Before we visited the park, we'd received some helpful advice: don't just stop at the first deer you see! We were so excited by the sheer number of deer when we arrived at the park, it took us a while to notice that we weren't really in the park itself, but just in a vast parking lot area, along with hundreds of other tourists. All of the most pushy and persistent deer were here, naturally, so instead we crossed the road and headed into the park proper. Here, not only was the scenery more beautiful, but the deer we met were a lot less pushy than their more adventurous friends. So head deep into the forested park before cracking open your deer snacks.

Near the parking lot - so many deer, so many people!

Below, you can see some of the more aggressive deer near the parking lot. They came at me like a many-hoofed tornado, stamping all over me and even biting at my general pocket area...front and back. You can imagine the awkwardness of this. So I can't emphasise enough: hide your crackers until you're away from the parking lot!

We honestly weren't expecting the deer to be as pushy and persistent as they were: we got chased through the park on a few occasions, and literally had to jump across a stream to escape at one point! We were definitely being taken advantage of, and it was clear that the deer's interest in us humans was 100% about the food and nothing else.

I might be smiling but inside I was wincing in pain

Interacting with the deer

And with that in mind, trying to interact with the deer in any other way beyond feeding them is a lost cause. There are signs throughout the park warning visitors that the deer are still wild animals, and that you should not attempt to touch the deer at all. We saw a few visitors trying to pat the deer, with pretty negative results!

One thing that is incredibly entertaining is the fact that many of the deer have been taught how to bow, in true Japanese style. They won't do it unless you have food, of course - but if you hold a cracker in your hand and bow, chances are the deer will bow back! It's the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it's like to meet a Hippogriff, probably.

Cherry blossom season at Nara Park

"I would do anything for food"

One other thing that we enjoyed doing was a little light herding! As I might have mentioned before (!!), food will get you far with the Nara deer: so when I spotted the pretty patch of cherry blossoms above, I sent Patrick off with a handful of crackers to coerce some deer into my shot!

On the rare occasion that you do get a deer to linger beside you without any crackers in sight, you feel like you've bonded on a spiritual level.....until they give up on you and move on to the next sucker!

Bonding on a spiritual level...?

The one thing I found a little sad - apart from their blind reliance on food - was the fact that the male deer had their antlers sawn off and filed down. This is understandable, of course - a head butt from an antlered deer isn't exactly the souvenir you want - but it still reinforces the sense that these deer aren't really doing what deer should be doing in the wild. Catching glimpses of male deer with their majestic antlers in the UK is truly awe-inspiring, whereas the deer at Nara are just plain cute. Not that there's anything wrong with cute...!

Bonus blossoms: along the river in Nara