Wild deer at Nara Park, a popular tourist attraction in western Japan, have a unique genotype different from those of other herds on the Kii Peninsula, demonstrating more than a thousand years of being protected as messengers of gods for a shrine boasting World Heritage status, a Japanese research group has said.
Man arrested for killing protected wild deer in Nara, western Japan
A man was arrested Tuesday for killing a wild deer last month in Nara Prefecture in western Japan, in violation of the law that protects cultural properties, police said.
Hayato Yoshii, a 23-year-old construction worker from Mie Prefecture, central Japan, has admitted to killing the deer, which are protected under the cultural properties protection law, with an ax.
Investigators quoted him as saying, While I was playing with some deer, I got angry because one of them suddenly rammed my car. I was determined to kill it.
File photo taken in May 2020 shows deer in Nara. (Kyodo)