Japan: Deer in Nara roam city streets in search for food due to drop in tourist footfall

Due to the rapidly spreading coronavirus, tourism in Japan has significantly fallen. This has forced the deer in the Japanese city of Nara to venture into the city in search of food. Tourists would normally buy rice crackers from local vendors which they would use to feed the deer.

Forced to enter the city

Images of deer walking on the street and in the city centre have been widely shared on social media. Locals have claimed that they have never seen the deer act like this before. According to reports, the Shunie festival which usually takes place from March 1 and March 14, and during the span of this festival the deer would have been well fed by tourists but due to a drop of over 80 per cent in tourist footfalls they are going hungry.

Read: Bank Of Japan Holds Emergency Policy Meeting After Fed Cut

Read: Japan's Veteran Footballer Keisuke Honda Scores On Debut For Botafogo

Read: Japan Witnesses Largest Daily Spike In Coronavirus Cases, Total Tally At 805

Read: 'Tokyo Olympics To Be Held As Per Schedule, Inauguration On July 25': Japan PM Shinzo Abe

As per reports, the Nara Deer Preservation Foundation has claimed that this behaviour should not alarm the local population and that this is not the first time that the deers have been forced to roam the streets. But the foundation also added that they do not have the data about how much the deer population has grown in the last year. Japan has reported a total of 839 cases and 24 deaths due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Monkeys go hungry

In a similar occurrence, thousands of monkey's in Thailand that are usually fed by tourists have been going hungry and turning aggressive because of the drop in the number of tourists.  A video has recently surfaced that shows gangs of monkeys searching for food and as soon as the groups realize that one of them has a banana they jump over him and to get that one piece.

As per reports, even the locals were shocked by the behaviour of the monkeys. One of the witnesses was quoted in reports saying that the monkeys looked more dangerous than the dogs and that he had never seen them so ferocious before. Lopburi is home to thousands of Monkeys. In the city, there are usually two groups of monkeys, one those who inhibit ancient Buddhist temples and another who wander around on the city roads. While the two groups do not clash with each other under normal circumstance, but the lack of tourists and scarcity of food have forced them to do so.

(Image Credit: @@takamoriWebtube/Twitter)