Visiting Nara deer? Look for vendors with deer-friendly digestible bags!

The ancient capital of Nara has long been adored for its temples and shrines, but perhaps even more so for the wild deer that roam free throughout the city. After it was discovered last year that deer were dying from having eaten tourists’ plastic shopping bags, local companies banded together to create bags that are safe for them to eat.

 

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A post shared by 宮園 かをり (@kaori_cherryblossoms_1218) on Oct 24, 2020 at 4:41pm PDT

The new paper bags are made from rice bran and pulp recycled from milk cartons and can be digested by deer.

More than 1,200 deer live in and around the city’s Nara Park. Tourists buy specially made deer crackers to feed to them, which are also made from rice bran and are not covered in plastic. But the deer have gotten a taste for human food and will even take a bite of plastic bags that smell like food.

In March last year, an autopsy of a deer discovered 3.2 kilograms of plastic bags in its stomach. Authorities also found 4.3 kilograms of plastic in another’s belly.

突然ですが、これは何だと思いますか？これは死亡したシカの胃(第一胃)からでてきたビニール袋の塊です。重さは3.2キロもありました。
続きはスタッフブログ「奈良公園にゴミを捨てないで！」をご覧ください>>　https://t.co/MlRLWbuiN5　#奈良の鹿愛護会　#donotlitter #naradeer pic.twitter.com/ExWekNyCE4

— 一般財団法人奈良の鹿愛護会　公式アカウント (@nara_aigokai) March 28, 2019

Joining forces to protect the deer

In response, the heads of three local companies came together to create the deer-friendly bags: cosmetics company Naraism, paper products manufacturer Nakamura and printing design firm Bunyoudou.

“We wondered whether we could make something that would protect the deer,” Naraism’s Hidetoshi Matsukawa told the Mainichi newspaper. It took them a year to develop the product.

Printed on the bags in soy ink is a picture of a deer, and in three different languages, the message, ‘Please don’t feed them human snacks,’ the newspaper reports. Six local companies have bought around 3,500 bags, including the city’s tourism bureau, a local bank and a pharmacy.

Protecting the Nara brand

At 100 yen a bag, they cost much more than regular plastic ones, which cost only about one yen each. But the businessmen know the calculation they are making here is not a simple mathematical one.

“Tourism in Nara is supported by deer, and we will protect them. The bags can also act as a brand to promote Nara as an economy,” Matsukawa told Kyodo news.

When you know what you’ve got cannot be replaced, your actions to protect them are priceless.