Lagodekhi Protected Area: Home to hundreds of deer

If you are tired of the hustle and bustle of the city, head to the Lagodekhi Protected Area in eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region, where you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a beautiful deer.

Officials have finished counting and registering the number of the Caucasian red deer and the results showed Lagodekhi Protected Area was home to 330 deer. Of these, three quarter were female and the remaining 25 percent were male.

This was a big deal for the area as during seven years from 1999 to 2006 Lagodekhi was home to only 70 deer. The increase in deer population appeared after 2007 when Georgia implemented the Protected Areas reform.

As part of the reform, protected areas across Georgia became better equipped with modern equipment, animal monitoring mechanism was improved which resulted in increasing the animal population.

The number of red deer exceeded 300 in 2015. The Lagodekhi Protected Area administration said the territory and its ecosystem could home "much more” than 330 deer.