Wild Deer Ruin Sunflower Festival

A story doing the rounds in the Japan at the moment is that of the wild deer causing havoc in Fukushima Prefecture. And it's not just a few wild deer, but rather a massive herd that seems to have grown exponentially in recent years. 

The reason they made the news recently is that they are responsible for eating almost 1.8 million sunflowers across nine hectares. Night vision sensor cameras captured the herd ravishing the fields. And seemingly they didn't just eat the buds, but the whole plants all the way to the ground. The result: there were practically no sunflowers left for the popular Koriyama Nunobiki Kaze no Kogen Festival and they had to completely cancel the festival.

While wild deer damage is relatively common in the area, the locals had never seen destruction on this scale.  It highlights a growing struggle between rural communities and expanding wildlife populations in Japan.