Polar Bears on Google Maps! Street View Comes to the Arctic

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 Google Street View has taken viewers to the Amazon, the Galapagos, and now, the Canadian Arctic ? the home of polar bears. Starting today, on International Polar Bear Day (Feb. 27), people around the world will be able to see the bears in their natural habitat.

The Google Maps team brought their cameras to Churchill and the surrounding tundra in October 2013, capturing 360-degree panoramas of polar bears out on the snow. The goal is to capture the remote and starkly beautiful environment before it disappears, along with its furry inhabitants.

"The Street View project lets viewers explore the tundra and see the polar bear migration, no matter where they live," said Krista Wright, executive director of the conservation nonprofit Polar Bears International (PBI).

The Google team mounted their trekker camera on a "tundra buggy" vehicle donated by the ecotourism company Frontiers North Adventures, and set off into Manitoba's Wildlife Management Areas and Wapusk National Park to snap hundreds of shots of the bears, later stitching the photos together into panoramas.

The trekker captured images of bears sparring with each other, bears resting on the snow and sea ice in Hudson Bay, and even a few adorable cubs at play.

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