Nara park is home to more than 1,000 free-roaming sika deer which have been designated a national treasure and are even considered sacred by some.
Visitors often feed the deer but now authorities are urging people to stop giving them unauthorized snacks after several of the animals were found dead with significant quantities of plastic waste in their stomachs, Kyodo News agency reported.
Rie Maruko, a veterinarian who works for the conservation group, says the deer may be accidentally eating the plastic bags or packaging discarded by visitors because they contain food or smell like food. Deer have complex digestive systems including a stomach with four chambers. While this organ useful for digesting the grass that they normally feed on, it poses a problem when the animal swallows non-digestible objects. If the first chamber becomes full with these objects, the deer cannot remove them from their bodies. This can lead to malnutrition and other problems because they cannot take in enough real food.
In the wake of the recent deaths, the local government has said it will take measures to help protect the deer. These will include the installation of more signs, for example, warning visitors not to feed the deer any unauthorized food.
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