8 Deer in Japan's Nara Park 'lepak' together-gether, but still practice social distancing at parking lot

Japan – A parking lot at Nara Park had unusual tenants recently. Instead of vehicles, around eight deer were spotted chilling in the area.

One Steve Eto took to Twitter on Sept 6 to share the photo, which has gone viral.

[caption id="attachment_379475" align="aligncenter" width="680"] Photo: Twitter screengrab/Steve Eto[/caption]

Nara Park is a popular tourist spot filled with friendly deer that are accustomed to being fed by visitors.

[caption id="attachment_379471" align="aligncenter" width="3024"] Photo: Taken on Dec 2019[/caption]

However, the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of tourists have forced the deer to venture out of the park searching for food.

It has then become a community affair to keep the deer fed and ensure they stay healthy.

According to the original poster, seeing deer around the area was a common sight; however, their choice of resting place was worth a photo.

It should be noted that the deer are quite large, a couple taking up more than half the width of a parking slot.

The tweet, which has over 195,000 likes and 37,000 retweets, has garnered witty responses from the online community.

"Don't go to and leave school on a deer – a school rule at some schools in Nara," said a netizen, jokingly.

An earlier post by Nara Park on Instagram highlighted the deer practising social responsibility and kept a safe distance from one another.

[caption id="attachment_379478" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Photo: Instagram screengrab/naratourism_official[/caption]

Watch the deer bow their head in thanks when given food. /TISG

[video width="720" height="1280" mp4="https://media.theindependent.sg/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/video-1631260356.mp4"][/video]

Read related: Otter family spotted ‘praying for rain to stop’ at Lengkok Bahru

https://theindependent.sg/otter-family-spotted-praying-for-rain-to-stop-at-lengkok-bahru/