Polar Bear Cam

This live camera streams from Churchill, Manitoba, on the western shore of Hudson Bay — the self-proclaimed "Polar Bear Capital of the World." Each autumn, polar bears gather along the coast here waiting for the bay to freeze so they can head out onto the sea ice to hunt seals. The camera, often mounted on or near a Tundra Buggy, captures these bears against the subarctic tundra in one of the most reliable wild-polar-bear viewing spots on the planet. The signature season is mid-October to mid-November, when hundreds of bears congregate near Churchill during freeze-up — the densest gathering of polar bears anywhere. Outside that window you may see Arctic fox, ptarmigan, and the stark beauty of the tundra; summer brings beluga whales to the Churchill River. Churchill is on Central Time, six hours ahead of Hawaii. Churchill is also a premier spot for the northern lights, sitting directly under the auroral oval. The polar bears here have become a global symbol of the Arctic and of climate change, as a warming Hudson Bay shortens the sea-ice season they depend on to hunt.