Today there are about 1300 deer walking freely within Nara Park, eating grass, falling leaves, nuts, etc.
They are considered as divine animals and have been protected as messengers of the Kasuga Shrine since ancient times when the shrine was founded in the 8th century during the Nara period.
The park itself is made up of about 1650 acres and, as you might imagine well fertilized by the deer!! It has been estimated that the deer produce about 300 tons of fertilizer each year.
Woooooow!!!
How, you might ask, the city cope with the situation?
Well, it is said there are about 50 different types of beetles that feed on animal droppings, of which about 50 types have their home in Nara Park! These tiny beetles (dung beetles), with their beautiful blue-green wing, work very hard to decompose the deer fertilizer (droppings). This will become the perfect nutrition for the grass. This mutual relationship between the deer eating the grass and the beetles doing their work, Nara park is kept quite clean without any gardeners.
Thanks to this natural process, according to a newspaper article, Nara City saves about 10 billion yen a year in park maintenance costs.
In fact, the deer, the beetles and the short grass come together to form a beautiful and well-maintained environment for all to enjoy.
Well, you won't see the tiny beetles.
⭐️ I found this tiny one in the Kasuga Shrine complex in the forest.
