Seventy percent of Koh Phangan's area is mountainous tropical forest. Eventhough it's just a small island, Koh Phangan still has some wild animals. The most welknown wild animal of Koh Phangan is deer. But most people from outside of the island never knew that there was not any deer on Koh Phangan until the year 1909. That was the year King Chulalongkorn Rama V (1868-1910) came for his last visit to Koh Phangan.

Knowing that the King was coming, Phangan's governor sent his men out to the mainland to look for a very nice gift for the king. Finally, he got 4 beautiful deer--2 male and 2 female--to present to the king. But when the king saw the deer, he said to the governor that he would not take them away nd asked that they would be free and let not nobody harm them.

After the king had gone, the governor announced to the villagers that they had to respect the deer as sacred for they were set free by the king and nobody should harm them. All villagers with love for their king, took the governor's word as order. From then on, no matter how much the deer disturbed the villagers crops, nobody harmed them. In stead, the villagers gave food to the animals and helped take care of them.

From 4 deer, there are about 200 deer on Koh Phangan nowadays and the people still keep the king's word in their mind. Nobody ever dare to harm these animals. Now they live peacefully on the mountain and they know they will be protected for the rest of their life.