Is the demise of the polar bear a shoe-in? If the arctic totally melts, will these fearsome beasts be only clocked in Zoos? What is this to do with network technology? Why all the rhetorical questions?

Well, it seems that SeeMore Wildlife Systems has a tie-up with RealVNC to use their software to monitor the bears in the Hudson Bay area of Canada. The cameras used to track the bears are attached to a Tundra Buggy and backhauled via microwave links to the town of Churchill and then via the internet to the control centre in Alaska. Sounds like a neat use of technology, but if the arctic does melt, it may be that the bear’s main food - seals, which they catch when the seals pop up for a breather through holes in the ice, might be less bothered.

I’ll be reviewing the latest version of RealVNC later this month, but I wonder if the bears are intelligent enough to realise that a much more abundant food source is available further west – checking on their movements over the web.

03 Jan 2008