Nara’s famed deer could face food crisis in winter as acorn trees cut down

A reduction in acorn trees, which provide food and shelter for the deer, could result in more aggressive food-seeking behaviour, researchers warn

A move to cut down acorn-bearing trees in Japan’s Nara Park has sparked concern among researchers about the survival of the attraction’s free-roaming deer during the harsh winter.

Acorns serve as a vital food source for deer, while the trees also provide critical shelter, with the animals often gathering beneath dense canopies for warmth and protection in the colder months.

“The base of these trees becomes a critical place that determines whether the deer can survive winter,” said Shiro Tatsuzawa, a deer-population expert at Hokkaido University, according to Japanese television news station MBS.

Tatsuzawa voiced his concern for the animals after discovering an increasing number of fresh stumps in the park.

“Nobody seems to be considering things from the deer’s perspective,” he said.

The tree removal is part of Nara Park’s broader 2012 Landscape Plan, implemented since 2019, which seeks to restore the park’s Meiji-era scenery in 1880 – a landscape designated as a national cultural property in 1922. The scheme involves replacing large trees with traditional species like pine and cherry.

Local authorities have so far cut down about 280 trees, 40 of which are acorn, according to MBS.

Officials argued that the trees removed represented only 10 per cent of the park’s acorn tree population, and that the deer faced no urgent food scarcity and food supply remained stable, MBS reported.

The deer population had not decreased since 2019, when the tree removal plan began, authorities added.

“Cutting 58 trees out of 6 million should have almost no impact,” Makoto Yamashita, governor of Nara prefecture, said at a press briefing in May.

“Even if there is a small effect, the deer can simply go to the mountains outside the park to eat acorns.”

Tatsuzawa disagreed, saying that he believed even a 10 per cent reduction in acorn trees would affect the deer.

“We’re already seeing some becoming more reliant on human feeding,” he said, pointing out that the animals now often rushed towards people carrying “deer crackers”.

“We’ve successfully protected them until now, but since it was humans who increased their numbers, we also have a responsibility to find the right balance going forward.”

In addition to fewer trees, the deer are also facing a decline in summer grass, their primary warm-season food.

The reduction in summer grasslands stems primarily from increased tourist activity, as visitors trample on the grass and damage roots.

Tatsuzawa warned that declining natural food sources could force the deer to rely more on humans, potentially leading to more aggressive food-seeking behaviour. He also cautioned that hungry deer might venture beyond park boundaries in search of food, risking agricultural damage to nearby crops.

Opposition among Nara’s residents has also surged, with a local advocacy group collecting 25,000 signatures in under a month demanding grassland restoration and a stop to acorn tree logging. The petition was delivered to Yamashita in May.

“[The local government’s] push to replace trees with cherry blossoms and pines clearly reveals their tourist-driven agenda. They’re so obsessed with attracting visitors that they’ll tolerate the park becoming a barren, grassless wasteland. This governor continues to make terrible decisions,” said a comment on the MBS News YouTube channel.

An estimated 1,400 deer live within the 502 hectares (1,240 acres) of Nara Park and are protected as national monuments. The park includes many of the city’s most popular sights, such as Todaiji Temple, and regularly attracts streams of visitors.

In April, local police began patrolling the park to safeguard its deer population after a video of a tourist kicking and slapping one of the animals went viral, sparking outrage in Japan and drawing renewed scrutiny of visitor behaviour.