A bizarre series of apparent deer sightings in central Tokyo has left many wondering what the animal could be and how it infiltrated one of the world’s largest urban areas.

Reports of the deer poured in to the Metropolitan Police Department from a waterfront area in Tokyo’s Koto Ward.

The MPD said it received an emergency 110 call at around 4:40 a.m. on May 23 from a man who “came across a deer about 1 meter in length at an intersection in front of the Tokyo-run Tobu Medical Center” in the Koto Ward’s Shinsuna 3-chome district.

The witness said he spotted the animal around 3 a.m. He decided to contact the police after learning that multiple people around him had also seen it.

At around 10:40 a.m. on the same day, a deer popped up on the nearby grounds of the Sunamachi Water Reclamation Center of the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Sewerage.

An employee of an adjacent delivery agency saw what appeared to be a deer enter the site.

The MPD and Koto Ward officials tried to track the animal, but it seemingly vanished into thin air. No further sightings have been reported since.

At the scenes of the sighting, the intersection where the deer was discovered faces the grounds of the Tobu Medical Center.

A hospital and a large shopping mall are located nearby, and the area is packed with pedestrians and automobiles.

However, the grounds of the water reclamation center are lush with trees. Plants line the border between the facility and the roads and there is a park nearby as well.

Despite the abundant greenery, a Koto Ward representative said the reported deer sighting was unexpected.

“Deer have never been seen here before as far as I know,” the official said.

Koto Ward occupies the eastern part of Tokyo’s 23-ward region. The Arakawa river runs just to the east of the area where the deer was spotted. The sea lies to the south.

MIGHT BE A MUNTJAC

In response to news of the deer sighting, many expressed astonishment on social media, calling it “stunning for a deer to turn out in the middle of an urban area.”

Some posts have speculated that the animal “may be a muntjac.”

Muntjacs are a deer species of the Cervidae family that inhabit southern China and Taiwan.

At 70 to 100 centimeters in length, muntjacs are slightly smaller than typical Japanese deer, but can reproduce quickly.

A muntjac outbreak spread on the Boso Peninsula in neighboring Chiba Prefecture, with the animals designated an invasive non-native species.

Muntjacs have recently expanded their habitat to Ibaraki Prefecture, which is close to Tokyo. They have also bred rapidly on Izu-Oshima island in the capital’s Oshima town and there were estimated to be 17,000 muntjacs on the island by the end of 2022.

A Tokyo official stated that Izu-Oshima is currently the only place in Tokyo where the muntjacs have been confirmed.

“We believe it (the animal spotted in the Koto Ward) was a deer,” said the metropolitan government official.

“But the possibility (that it was a muntjac) is still more than zero. If so, it may have arrived from Chiba,” the representative said.

WAYWARD DEER

Could the elusive animal be a deer? Is it even possible for one to reach Tokyo?

Shinsuke Koike, an ecological professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, who is knowledgeable about deer, proposed that a deer “might have come all the way from Saitama Prefecture along the Arakawa riverside.”

Koike explained that does tend to stay in herds but bucks often leave their birthplaces to live on their own after turning 1 or 2 years old.

According to his accounts, the banks of the Arakawa river are covered with vegetation, creating a favorable environment for deer.

In 2020, a deer was spotted and caught in an area along the Arakawa river in the Adachi Ward in the northern corner of Tokyo’s 23 wards. A herd of deer was also found in Saitama Prefecture near the Arakawa river in March this year.

In light of these incidents, Koike speculated that a deer may have traveled further southward along the river into Koto Ward.

“If the deer was a young male, it is possible for him to have traveled through a string of green zones by the Arakawa river from his original habitat in Chichibu” of Saitama Prefecture, he said.

While no deer sightings have been reported in the capital since May 23, a metropolitan government official shared tips on how citizens should behave if they encounter one.

“Do not provoke them,” said the official. “You should keep your distance and just observe them.”

(This article was written by Arata Mitsui and Minami Endo.)