Protected wild animals in Tokyo munching through saplings of low-pollen cedars

Wild animals have taken a bite out of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government plan to alleviate hay fever via trees that produce less pollen as they munch on the saplings.

While most of the damage is believed to have been caused by deer, Japanese serows protected under the natural conservation laws have also been eating the young trees, causing headaches for those involved in the plan.

This spring, this Mainichi Shimbun reporter spotted Japanese serows in the Fukasawa district of the suburban Tokyo city of Akiruno while researching an area where hay fever countermeasures were being implemented. What looked like a serow and its offspring were roaming around calmly and appeared to be eating leaves off tree saplings.

As hay fever countermeasure, the Tokyo government felled cedars and other types of trees in an artificial forest in the area, and in 2018 it planted some 20,000 cedars and cypress trees that produce less pollen. It also planted about 4,000 broad-leaf trees. But according to a group outsourced by the metropolitan government to handle the initiative, though it has been over five years since those trees were planted, the saplings have not been growing well. The cause: damage by wild animals.

While the wildlife protection and control law permits hunters to target Japanese deer, Japanese serows are designated as special natural monuments, meaning that in principle they cannot be captured. A source close to the matter told the Mainichi Shimbun, “I see serows often, but all I can do is watch them eat the saplings.”

Since 1984, when the mountains in the Kanto region, including the capital and greater Tokyo area, were designated as a protected area for Japanese serows, the animals have been subject for conservation. According to the Tokyo red data book, 207 serows are estimated to live in Tokyo with the figure remaining around that level over the past few years.

Japanese serows were known to live deep in the mountains, but recently the number of serow sightings in forests near inner-city areas has been increasing. It is not known why the animals’ habitats are expanding to areas near human dwellings.

An official from the group handling the Tokyo government’s initiative said, “We’ll have to build protective fences and replant the trees.”

(Japanese original by Takeshi Terada, Mito Bureau)