Two hundred years after it was used as a place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte, the Italian island of Elba is dealing with another unwelcome guest.

Mouflon – wild sheep which sport magnificently curved horns – were introduced to the island for hunting in the 1970s and in the absence of predators, such as wolves, have since thrived.

There are now around 500 of them and islanders say they not only damage Elba’s native woodland, but also venture down from the hills to feed on grape vines and carefully-tended gardens.

Plans are being drawn up to cull the entire population but the eradication programme is being fiercely opposed by animal rights groups.

Volunteers have been putting up posters and have handed out 6,000 leaflets to tourists, appealing for their support in blocking the cull.

“I live here,” the leaflets read, with a photograph of a male mouflon staring at the camera. “I was born here and I don’t bother anyone. There are 500 of us, all as meek and gentle as me. But they want to kill us all.”