Polar bear researchers working on innovative ways to gather data

This storyis part of CBC Newsspecial coverageof climate change issues in connection with the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) being heldin Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.

As a biting wind whips off Hudson Bay, BJ Kirschhofferis outside, in freezing temperatures,fiddling withthe electronics inside an oddly shapedgreen orb.

"All we have to dois mount itandflip a switch," he says.

The orb isa Google Trekker camera. It'smounted to the roof a tundra buggy, agiant bus on permanent loan from one the local tour companies thatbrings tourists up close to the bears around Churchill, Man.

The Trekker is the same backpack-mounted camera Google puts on hikers and explorers to get a 360-degree view in remote locations for its Street View maps. Here it's being used to virtually capture images of bears in their habitat.

"We drive around and look for polar bears."

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Along thewestern shore of Hudson Bay just eastof Churchillthere are plenty of bears, all waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze so they can get out onto the ice and hunt.

Kirschhofferis part of a team of scientists with Polar Bears International using the Trekker and its imagery to draw attention to the issue of climate change in the region.

"A lot of people can't come hereit's expensive, it's remote,"Kirschhoffersays.

Using the familiar platform of GoogleStreet View, people can visit virtually.

"There is a series of cameras all the way around that orbthat snappictures every so often,"explainsKirschhofferas he hits 'start'on an app on his phone.

Those pictures get stitched together into interactivemaps online, allowing people to get an appreciation for the landscape and its four-legged inhabitants.

ButKirschhoffer is hoping to do more than simply offer people a view of the tundra.Over time, he hopes the Trekker will be able to document changes in thelandscape. His goal is not only to draw awareness to climate change, but also to providescientists with a visual tool to go along with decades of climate data thatshowthis region iswarming.

"People need to be able to understand something to be able to care for it or take action on it," Kirschhoffer says.

Non-invasive technologies

On the sub-arctic plains around Churchill scientists have long been looking into the effects of climate change.

Studies have shown thesurface temperature of Hudson Bay isrising.In some parts of the bay the ice is coming later and receding earlier,shortening the season where polar bears can go out and hunt on winter sea ice.

Scientists generally point to climate change, but there is debate aboutwhat exactly that warming is doing to polar bear movements and numbers.

For decades the primary way to track bears has been with radio collars that are bothexpensive and invasive.Apicture of a bear injured by a collar appeared recently online, highlighting problems the trackingcollars can pose.

The Trekker is one of severaltechnologies scientists are experimentingwith to tryto get more information, more easily.

Researcher RandyCreaser is on a tundra buggy adjusting a stereo-vision 3D camera, which looks like tworegular 35mm cameras banded together.Right now his research isfocussing onthe one thing seen in Churchill more often than bears:Tourists.

"Every single year there's a lot of people that come north to take pictures of bears," he says.

Creaser, based at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.,is working on a project that aims to make use of the photos all those tourists take. The idea, like the Trekker project, could help track changes in the environment over time, and possibly in individual bears themselves.

"We have a good database of photographs that we can go back in time and look at changes in body condition, body size of the bear over time," Creaser says.

There are also projects in the works that could track bears from spacewithout a collar, using thermal imaging. In theory it would allow researchers to followa bear year-round,tracking it through its body heat.

None of these ideas areintended to replace existing information-gatheringmethods, but theycould help fill in some of the holes in the research data available to scientistswithout endangering bears or people.

"We don'talways have to capture animals to get information on them, we don't always have to put devices on them," saysGeoffYork, director of Conservation for Polar Bears International.

"It's making things less expensive, andultimately it's better for the bears and a bit safer for people."

Working out the bugs

Promising as these ideas are,there are issues to be worked out.

Back on the Trekker buggy, for example, this is the second time Krischhoffer has tried to make this idea work.Last year he managed to get a pretty good map of the region, but did not get many images of bears.

TheTrekkerwas programmedto discard pictures taken while it wasn't in motionprecisely when the scientists stopped the buggy to look at a bear.

At one point on this year's trip there are 10 bearswithin site of the buggy. In fact, one crawlsunder the buggybefore coming around the back and putting its paws up on the back bumper.

Inside, Krischhoffer'scolleagues are doingalive webcasttalking to students about what they are seeing,evenmore people will be able to see the same scene through Street View.

"To be able to share this experience all over the world is a big part of what we do."