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SCIENCE

Deer fight goes viral after images of stags locked in battle emerge

By Fox News
Published | Updated
deer fight 1

Deer butting heads in Sauerland forest, in Germany. Wildlife photographer Ingo Gerlach, 65, was able to capture the moment as their antlers intertwined. (©Ingo Gerlach/SWNS.com)

Talk about a headache.

Images of a fight between two male deers went viral after the stags locked horns and wouldn't unlock them for about two hours.

Approximately 200 images were captured by wildlife photographer Ingo Gerlach, who watched the action unfold in the Sauerland forest, Germany, SWNS reports.

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The photographer thought this would be a brief skirmish between deer. (©Ingo Gerlach / SWNS.com)

"At first I thought this would only be a short skirmish of the deer,"  said Gerlach, who is German.

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Instead, the battle between two evenly matched stags went on for more than 20 minutes before the photographer ventured closer. (©Ingo Gerlach / SWNS.com)

But after the clash went on for more than 20 minutes, Gerlach ventured closer, noting it "was an extremely hard fight." The two stags were evenly matched, with no clear-cut winner.

"Each of the stags tried to force the opponent with their head turns into the knees, but obviously both stags were nearly equally as strong," Gerlach said. "So the fighters more or less lifted up their backsides to achieve an even better leverage. After about two hours of fighting the deer preferred to disperse."

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"Each of the stags tried to force the opponent with their head turns into the knees," Gerlach said, "but obviously both stags were nearly equally as strong, So the fighters more or less lifted up their backsides to achieve an even better leverage. After about two hours of fighting the deer preferred to disperse." (©Ingo Gerlach / SWNS.com)

He added that both stags were "totally exhausted" and had their tongues hanging out with sweaty fur.

Stags will fight each other for a variety of reasons, including an increase in testosterone, increased aggression and during breeding season.