Let sleeping bears lie? Not in Poland this New Year's Eve, where a row is brewing over the decision to relocate an annual televised event with fireworks and partying to the slopes of the country's main ski resort.

By Tuesday more than 27,000 people had signed a petition organized by a local newspaper, which broke the story after discovering the plan at a council meeting in late October.

Hundreds of protesters walked across the city of Zakopane with a fake bear on a stretcher on Saturday, days after the mayor confirmed the relocation, calling on him to stop the process.

TVP public television station, which organizes the show, criticized what it called "pseudo-ecologists" and argued that sports events had been held in the area in the past without any problems.

An expert from the park confirmed to AFP that there were Carpathian brown bears in the area, though he said precise numbers were not known.