[[alternative]]Feeding Free-Ranging Sika Deer as Tourism Attraction: Lessons of the Impacts and Management in Nara, Japan

[[abstract]] 野生動物觀光近年來越來越盛行，特別是以觀賞、攝影、觸摸、餵食等不具消耗資源的形式，廣為社會大眾接受。梅花鹿是廣受大眾喜愛的物種，台灣早期原本到處皆可看到其蹤跡，自荷蘭統治台灣之後，因外銷貿易台灣梅花鹿導致之大量人為獵捕，使得野生梅花鹿逐漸於台灣山林間消失。直至近二十年，由於保育單位的努力，使得梅花鹿復育工作相當成功，目前在台灣的山林，例如屏東墾丁、台東綠島、甚或連江馬祖，皆可看到其蹤跡，部分地區也趁勢推動以梅花鹿為吸引力之生態旅遊。台灣推動梅花鹿之生態旅遊時間尚短，而日本奈良的梅花鹿餵食觀光活動，至今已有近百年歷史。因此本研究藉由日本奈良經驗，了解此等以梅花鹿為主體之生態旅遊推動，過程中所可能面臨之問題。研究方法以質性研究方法之文獻分析法做為了解奈良梅花鹿之主要途徑，本研究並於2015年10月、12月及2016年1月先後三次到日本奈良進行利害相關者之實地訪談，並對遊客發放問卷，以了解其對此等觀光之看法。研究結果可以提供國內推動梅花鹿觀光之參考。[[abstract]] Wildlife tourism has become more and more popular in recent years, especially watching, photography, touching, feeding and so on. These activities do not consume resources so that most of people welcome them. The sika deer is among the species which enjoy great popularity and was seen far and wide in the early days of Taiwan. During the Dutch Colonial Period, however, a great quantity of sika deer was hunted by humans for export trade, leading to the gradually decreased findings of sika deer in the mountains. Thanks to the efforts of conservation organizations in successful restoration of sika deer, it was not until the recent twenty years that this species has been witnessed in the mountains of Taiwan, such as Kenting in Pingtung, Green Island in Taitung, and even Matsu in Lianjiang. Some of these areas took this opportunity to promote ecotourism of sika deer. While promoting ecotourism of sika deer was just started in Taiwan, it has been almost a century in Nara, Japan for the tourists to feed the sika deer. Hence this study is to identify the problems possibly encountered in promoting ecotourism of sika deer by studying the relevant practice in Nara, Japan. By literature review and qualitative analysis, we investigated the tourism activities, impacts amd management of sika deer in Nara, Japan. In addition, we went to Japan in October of 2015, December of 2015 and January of 2016 to conduct the on-site interviews with stakeholders, as well as questionnaires for tourists, to realize their opinions about sika deer tourism in Nara. The result of this study might be used as reference to promote ecotourism of sika deer in Taiwan