The professor has been monitoring a wolf pack in the region -- midway between Warsaw and Krakow -- for years.

"Wolves have recolonised Polish forests," he declared proudly to people gathered in a community hall.

Having almost gone extinct in the 1950s because of hunting and war, the country is now home to some 3,600 wolves -- one of Europe's largest populations after the species made a remarkable comeback.

Yet Gula and scientists across Europe worry that years of progress could be undone.

EU lawmakers last month approved downgrading wolves from the status of "strictly protected to protected" -- allowing hunting to resume under strict regulations.

The European Commission called for the changes, arguing that the population growth of wolves threatens people and livestock.

Its head Ursula von der Leyen had herself campaigned for downgrading the status after her pony was killed by a wolf.

Gula said the move is not based on science and is the culmination of a Europe-wide anti-wolf campaign.

"Wolves have been demonised since the times of the Old Testament," he told AFP.

"It is a political decision, part of a right-wing push to try to control nature."

He said that wolves are "terrified" of humans, avoiding them at all cost, and that there are ways to protect livestock.

He is not alone in being angry at the move.

"Europe turns its back on wolves and science," said a statement from leading conservation groups last week, accusing lawmakers of waging "wars against our fragile species and ecosystems".

- 'Weakly enforced' -

Experts said wolves, which are notoriously difficult to track, have become more visible thanks to footage of them being shared with smartphones. Climate change is also forcing the animal to move out of dried up forests to fields to find food.

Poland has tried to reassure conservationists, saying it will not change current rules, under which it gives out rare shooting permits.

But Gula said protection laws are "weakly enforced". Three wolf watchers in different parts of Poland told AFP that wolves they had GPS collars on were shot by hunters who went unpunished.

Along with researcher Joanna Toczydlowska, Gula has made it his mission to inform people about wolves in areas where they have spread to.

It is no easy task as hunters are influential in small-town communities.

In Konskie, a town of 33,000 people, emotions run high.

Some men at the talk accused Gula of being a foreign-backed stooge, arguing wolves should be hunted.

Others were proud the animal had returned to their native lands.

Fitness instructor Monika Cholewinska came to the event because "people talk about wolves more and more" and she wanted to know how to behave if she saw one.

Teacher Malgorzata Switagorska admitted that "we live among forests and there is some fear".

- 'Wolves can help farmers' -

As he walked through dry high grass in a forest a 40-minute drive from Konskie, Gula said a warming climate is changing the way wolves hunt.

"I know this terrain, it used to be swamps, now it's a total drought," he said.

Sabina Pieruzek-Nowak, who spent decades studying wolves in Poland, argued changes in hunting behaviour could bring some positives.

"Wolves give concrete benefits to the human economy," she said.

As forests dry up and farming becomes ever more large-scale, wild animals like deer and boars increasingly move to fields to find food. These animals, she said, cause thousands of euros in damages on fields.

"Wolves kill them in the fields. This is good news for farmers," she said.

Politicians campaigning against wolves have had a devastating effect on the animal's reputation in Europe, Pieruzek-Nowak said.

She now spends much of her time debunking a barrage of false claims about wolves on social media and the local Polish press.

She hoped Poland will keep protecting its wolves -- a rare nature success story in Europe.

Back in the forest, Gula lifted up a heavy antenna, walked around in a circle a few times and waited.

Finally, his radar beeped, detecting a nearby wolf that he had a collar on.

He smiled triumphantly: "He's somewhere here."