Deer of Nara

The sika deer is Japan's best-known deer, living in forests and grasslands nationwide and showing white spots in its summer coat. Males use their antlers in autumn contests. The deer around Nara Park, long treasured as messengers of the Kasuga Taisha shrine deities, are a national Natural Monument as "the deer of Nara," and the deer of Kashima in Matsuyama, Ehime, and of Hirado, Nagasaki, are prefectural Natural Monuments.