Two male deers battled each other with their antlers during mating season.

Footage shows the stags locking horns as they duelled for territory and dominance in Bucharest, Romania, on October 30.

The Romsilva National Directorate of Forests, which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: 'It may look staged, but we assure you it is not. The ‘actors' in the image are genuinely fighting.

'Two fallow deer are fighting for supremacy and for females during the rutting season, their mating period, and their movements are so well synchronised that the first two rounds feel like a rehearsal for the final.

'Occasionally, they pause as if to see whether female spectators are admiring them.

'Fallow deer mating occurs in the second half of October and even into the first days of November.

'The males fight, more frequently and intensely than red deer, to dominate groups of females.

'During this time, herds of females and breeding males gather on the same rutting ground, not just a single male and his harem.

'The fallow deer male also vocalises during the mating season, but his sound resembles more of a muffled grunt rather than a full-throated bellow, like that of the Carpathian red deer.

'It's worth mentioning that the fallow deer belongs to the Dama genus, in contrast to the Cervus genus, which includes species such as the red deer.

'The main differences between these genera lie in the shape of the antlers, the absence of long hair on the neck during the rut, and the lack of upper canine teeth.'