【お願い】子鹿に触らないでください

【Attention plaese】
<Don’t touch fawn please>
dear foreign tourists coming to Miyajima

Many new born fawn can be seen in Miyajima.
Hiroshima around this time of year.

New born fawn still don’t know how to suckle from their mother.

The mothers still haven’t remembered the smell of their own babies.

Please do not try to chase them or pat them.

Mother deer recognise their offspring by smell.
A human smell on a baby fawn interferes with the mother’s ability to recognise her own young.
As a result she may stop offering milk and the young will starve to death.

Just recently,a half-day-old fawn was separated from its mother after being chased and patted by humans.
It finally returned to its mother but was rejected when it tried to feed.
Many baby fawn die for the same reason.

A lot of fawn to be born from now on in Japan.
So please,if you find a fawn,just leave it alone and don’t chase it.