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Google Street View has taken viewers to the Amazon , the Galapagos , and now , the Canadian Arctic — the rest home of diametric bear . Starting today , on International Polar Bear Day ( Feb. 27 ) , people around the world will be able-bodied to see the bears in their natural home ground .
The Google Maps team brought their cameras to Churchill and the surrounding tundra in October 2013 , charm 360 - degree aspect ofpolar bearsout on the C. P. Snow . The end is to capture the distant and starkly beautiful surround before it disappears , along with its furred denizen .
“Buggy love”: A polar bear checks out the Google Street View tundra buggy.
" The Street View project lets viewer research the tundra and see the diametric bear migration , no matter where they live , " say Krista Wright , executive managing director of the preservation non-profit-making Polar Bears International ( PBI ) . [ See Photos of Polar Bears on Google Street ViewandVideo ]
put bears on the map
Google has forge with other nonprofits in the past to convey Street View to some of the world ’s most remote and vibrant places , including theAmazon , coral reefsand Alaska’sDenali National Park . Last year , PBI invited the Street View squad to Churchill , Canada , for 10 days to photograph the bears .
For all their cuteness, polar bears face serious threats.
The trekker captured images of bears sparring with each other , bear resting on the snow and sea ice in Hudson Bay , and even a few endearing cubs at playing period . [ 5 Weird fact About Polar Bears ]
Although they mostly keep to themselves , " the bear tend to be curious — there are some time when they come up to the truck , " Wright told Live Science . One bear come up up to the vehicle and stood up on its hind ramification , paw at the equipment . " We call it ' buggy love , ' " Wright said .
Karin Tuxen - Bettman , Google ’s project drawing card in the Arctic , enounce the experience of being out there was amazing . " When you ’re outdoors depend at a polar bear , for me , personally , I felt so much excitement , but I also feel a footling frightened , " Tuxen - Bettman told Live Science . " They ’re immense , but also very fragile . I kind of need to embrace them . "
Bear necessities
For all their cuteness , polar bears face serious menace . The bears swear on sea ice to hunting , but the amount ofsea ice is shrinkingdue to climate modification . The Street View imagination create a baseline record of current conditions , which can be used to track and commune the essence of climate change .
PBI plans to use the Google images for educational outreach , to teach Kyd about the bears and to give them a hazard to nigh explore the animals in their born surroundings . For example , the non-profit-making is developing a map scavenger hunt using the Street View maps .
PBI is also interested in using Street View ’s images for scientific research . Google trained PBI to use the trekker photographic camera , and the non-profit-making took a second round of images after the Hudson Bay freeze out over . They trust to apply the cameras again to tape change in the bear ' home ground over time .
The leadership of the polar bear mathematical function project hope that making the Google images usable to anyone with an cyberspace connectedness will give the populace a chance to see these charismatic animate being in the wild , and convey the environmental threat the bear face .
As Tuxen - Bettman put it , " To economise the glacial bear , you ’ve get to lay aside the sea ice . To save the ocean methamphetamine hydrochloride , you ’ve got to save the environment . "
