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ORLANDO, Fla. -- University of Central Florida students have been working against the clock to document the movements of a group of polar bears.

The students working for Jane Waterman, Ph.D. are using two cameras stationed in a remote Arctic area near Hudson Bay. The cameras operate on hydrogen fuel cells and beam pictures back using the World Wide Web.

"When you scan and you see the bear, you put that the bear is lying at 9:15 at the X, Y, Z coordinates," explained Danielle Salles.

Salles is one of many students who sit at a computer in the back of Dr. Waterman?s office using the cameras to study the polar bears.

"We've got our students in there in their flip-flops and shorts coming in and doing Arctic research," said Waterman.

So far the cameras have captured bears playing with sticks, a bear walking with a cub, bears wrestling and bears watching over the bay. The bay holds the key to their survival.

Traditionally the polar bears of Churchill range out over the frozen water in the winter. They then eat enough seals to survive the summer months which they spend on land, but because of global warming the ice sheet is disappearing faster and cutting the hunting season short.

"By the ice melting three weeks earlier, they don't have the fat because their hunting season is shortened, a lot of females are not reproducing," said Waterman.

Other bears are dying from malnutrition. It's happening so rapidly that this particular population which stands around 950 is expected to die off.

"There is maybe only a few years left for that population, maybe 10 years maybe 20, maybe," said Waterman.

All is not lost, according to Waterman. There are other polar bear populations that are healthier in other parts of the Arctic. They may survive if the world learns to cut back on carbon emissions which are widely believed to be the cause of global warming, said Waterman.

The work being done by the students can also serve as a warning. While Florida does not risk losing its own polar bear population, its coastal areas could be in harms way. Some scientists believe warmer temperatures could cause the sea levels to rise up to 5 meters in the next 100 years, said Waterman.

The cameras will officially come down this weekend and then the data will be studied and unless there is a sudden and drastic change the work done by local students will be part of the last official record of Polar Bears of Churchill.