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MANITOBA, Canada – Google traded its iconic car for a Tundra Buggy to explore the habitat of polar bears.
The footage released Thursday was created in a partnership with Polar Bear International for International Polar Bear Day. Google captured the bears’ waiting period before the sea ice freezes over in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, prior to the bears hunting for seals.
The footage and geospatial data will help PBI monitor the threats to polar bears in the area.
“Bringing Street View to Canada's tundra establishes a baseline record of imagery associated with specific geospatial data — information that’s critical if we’re to understand and communicate the impact of climate change on their sensitive ecosystem,” PBI wrote on its website.
Currently, Google Maps API supports PBI’s bear tracker and is monitoring the polar bears' migration. Google also used the trip to build on its mapping of the Arctic communities.
The polar bears’ camouflage does its job in the mappings by hiding the bears in the tundra landscape. Google has put together highlights of the Google Earth imagery.
This project is one more peek into hard-to-reach or interesting places Google Earth has catalogued.
Last year, Google climbed Mount Everest; scaled the world’s tallest building; recorded 75 miles of the Grand Canyon; went inside historic buildings in Salt Lake City; and mapped Utah’s ski resort runs and lifts.
