Wildlife fans will be able to watch the antics of two of the Highlands most famous residents live each day online.
Highland Wildlife Park have launched a brand new webcam to monitor Walker and Arktos, the UK’s only polar bears, who live in the park.
Jon-Paul Orsi, digital manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “Following the popularity of our penguin and panda webcams at Edinburgh Zoo, we wanted to provide our online visitors with the opportunity to watch the UK’s only polar bears up at Highland Wildlife Park too.
“They are great candidates for a webcam as they regularly get up to mischief.
“Both Walker and Arktos are very boisterous young bears and love to wrestle or dunk each other in the pond. Their playful nature has made them a real favourite with visitors and I suspect it will be the same for the web cam viewers.”
The webcam will be run live each day between 9.30am and 2.30pm, with highlights from the bear play available at other times.
Currently, the camera focuses on the enclosure’s large pond, which means watchers will now be able to see Walker and Arktos at play.
It proved a real challenge to deliver the webcam service at all due to the enclosure’s remote location in the heart of the Cairngorm National Park.
However, the park have found an innovative solution which they say could be used in harsh environments such as Antarctica for wildlife filming.
A 12V solar panel system provides the main source of power, while a mini wind turbine acts as back-up during overcast days.
The video will then be relayed by satellite broadband, which the company who are running the camera say has never been done before.
The streaming for the camera is handled by Camvista, while the camera’s power system was designed and installed by Vuterra.
Reg Pope, managing director for Vuterra, was part of the team who set up the camera.
He said: “Being on the top of the polar bear viewing hut to install the camera, solar panels and wind turbine was an amazing experience.
“Although the polar bears were locked into a different part of their enclosure, it was incredible to be able to watch them from a bird’s eye view.”
The polar bear camera can be watched at www.highlandwildlifepark.org.uk/polar-bear-webcam.