Locals and tourists have long fawned over Catalina Island’s mule deer population. For nearly a century, the ungulates have roamed the land’s waterfronts and woodlands, so comfortable around humans that it is not uncommon to spot deer roaming downtown Avalon.

But that sight will soon disappear, after a judge this week paved the way for the island’s conservancy to kill nearly all the island’s 2,000 deer.

A non-profit controlling 88% of the island off the southern California coast has been trying for years to eliminate a non-native deer population. Experts statewide have expressed support for the Catalina Island Conservancy proposal, saying the deer’s consumption of a native shrub plant has led to a growth of an invasive grass species that ignites faster and spreads fire more easily.

The prospect of killing so many deer has sparked fierce – and emotional – opposition from the public, creating an unlikely coalition of animal activists and hunters that has tried to prevent the culling in court. An online petition against the move has garnered more than 32,000 signatures.

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