Tokyo - A deer from Japan's Nara Park died after being shot with a crossbow bolt, news reports said Monday.
The sika deer, one of the 1&nsbp;000 who roam the 500-hectare park in the town of Nara, 300 kilometres west of Tokyo, was found on Saturday with a 52-centimetre steel bolt protruding from its abdomen.
The hind was anaesthetized and operated, but succumbed to its injury, news agency Kyodo reported.
Nara's deer, once associated with the earthly visitations of the gods, were officially sacred until 1945, when their status was changed to national treasures.
The local police are treating the crime as an offence against the country's cultural heritage.
In 2003, a Nara deer was hit with an arrow, and another with a harpoon five years later.
During the time they were designated as sacred, a conviction of killing one of the Nara deer carried the death sentence, last enforced in the mid-17th century according to records. -
Sapa-dpa