Gazelles spotted clashing horns in eastern Georgia's protected area [VIDEO]

Two young gazelles were captured on camera traps clashing their horns on Samukhi Plain, a location in eastern Georgia's Vashlovani Protected Areas where the animals have been reintroduced recently.

Recorded on the camera in their competition, the gazelles crossed their horns in the wide-open natural spot in the extreme east of the country, with the short video released on social media by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.

The sight is another positive sign for environmentalists involved in a programme of reintroducing the gazelle population in the protected location.

Launched in 2014 involving the Georgian ministry and the World Wildlife Fund, around 70 gazelles have been reintroduced to the Vashlovani park area since.

Although a major population of gazelles was found in Georgia in the 19th century, it was decimated throughout decades of unlimited hunting in the 20th, with last members disappearing in the 1990s.

Earlier this year the ministry outlawed bird-hunting on Samukhi Plain, citing changes in gazelle behaviour in reaction to gunfire.

Hunters firing on birds caused startled animals to migrate from open space to forested locations, where they became prey to wolves.

Confirming positive trends for the newly reinvigorated gazelle population in Georgia, the ministry announced a "third generation" of gazelles being born in 2018, since their reintroduction to the Samukhi area.