Two Indonesian tourists have apologised after a deer at Nara Park took a piece of plastic from them, triggering criticism online after video of the incident went viral.

The footage, posted on Threads, shows a man and a woman wearing a hijab standing near one of the deer that roam freely through the park.

A Japanese man filming the encounter confronted the pair after apparently believing they had given plastic to the animal.

The tourists appeared surprised by the confrontation and apologised at the scene.

The video later spread widely on social media, accompanied by claims that the tourists had deliberately fed plastic waste to the deer.

However, an account believed to belong to the woman seen in the footage later issued a clarification.

She said the man in the video was her father and denied that either of them had intended to feed plastic to the deer.

According to her account, her father allowed the deer to take the plastic wrapping and they were too slow to pull it away.

She apologised for their actions while rejecting suggestions that they had deliberately tried to make the deer eat plastic.

She also said they had not previously known that visitors should only feed Nara’s deer special crackers sold in the park.

The official Nara tourism guide says visitors should feed the deer only shika senbei, specially made crackers sold around Nara Park.

Visitors are specifically warned not to give the animals paper, plastic or other rubbish because ingesting such material can seriously harm or kill them. Nara tourism authorities have previously documented cases of deer dying after consuming plastic bags and other waste.

The deer at Nara Park are wild animals and are protected as Natural Monuments in Japan.

Around 1,000 to 1,400 deer live in and around the park, where close encounters between visitors and the animals are one of Nara’s best-known tourist experiences.

The incident has renewed reminders for visitors to keep plastic bags, maps, food packaging and other loose items away from the deer and to follow local feeding guidelines.

The tourists’ clarification said there had been no malicious intent behind the incident, while acknowledging that allowing the deer to take the plastic had been wrong.

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