Polar Bear

Polar Bear

Health points	30 × 15
Behavior	Neutral (adult) Hostile (adult, when the player is near a cub, or when a cub is attacked) Passive (baby, or in Peaceful difficulty)
Attack strength	Adults only: Peaceful: 0 (but still performs attack animation) Easy: 3 Normal: 5 Hard: 8
Hitbox size	In Java Edition: Adult: Height: 1.4 Blocks Width: 1.4 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.7 Blocks Width: 0.7 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Adult: Height: 1.4 Blocks Width: 1.3 Blocks Baby: Height: 0.7 Blocks Width: 0.65 Blocks
Spawn	Snowy Tundra and variants Frozen Ocean and variants Frozen River‌[BE only]
Items usable on	Lead

Polar bears are neutral mobs that live in icy biomes.

Spawning

Polar bears spawn above grass or ice in snowy tundra, snowy mountains, ice spikes, regular and deep frozen ocean biomes in groups of up to two at light level 7 or higher. If there is a group, the second polar bear is a cub.

They can also spawn in frozen rivers and legacy frozen oceans in Bedrock Edition.

Drops

An adult polar bear drops one of the following when killed:

• 1–3 from player or tamed wolves kills.
• There is a ³⁄₄ chance of dropping 0 to 2 raw cod. The maximum amount can be increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0 to 5 with Looting III.
• There is a ¹⁄₄ chance of dropping 0 to 2 raw salmon. The maximum amount can be increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0 to 5 with Looting III.

Dropped fish is always raw, even if the polar bear is on fire when killed.

Killing a baby polar bear yields no items or experience.

Behavior

A polar bear attacking.

Polar bears can exist in a passive or hostile state. The cubs are passive; adults are hostile when with cubs or provoked.

If a cub is attacked, all adults within a 41×21×41 area become hostile toward the player or mob, regardless of difficulty, although in Peaceful difficulty their attacks do zero damage to players.

Attacking an adult who is within a 16×8×16 area of a cub also provokes other adults within a 21×21×21 area of the attacked adult.‌^{[JE only]}

Polar bears also attack foxes.

• In Java Edition, adult polar bears attack any fox that stays near it for a while, hitting it once every few seconds. Cubs are more aggressive and attack foxes within 16 blocks.
• In Bedrock Edition, adult polar bears attack foxes within 16 blocks. Cubs do not attack foxes.

Polar bears attack by rearing on their back legs and mauling down with their front paws. Their swimming speed is equal to the player's, making them difficult to get away from if they are attacking in water.

Polar bears cannot breed and cubs' growth cannot be sped up.

They do not take freezing damage from powder snow.

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Polar Bear groans	?	Randomly when adult	entity.polar_bear.ambient	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.ambient	?	?	16
	Polar Bear hums	?	Randomly when baby	entity.polar_bear.ambient_baby	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.ambient_baby	?	?	16
	Polar Bear dies	?	Polar bear is dying	entity.polar_bear.death	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.death	?	?	16
	Polar Bear hurts	?	Polar bear is hurt	entity.polar_bear.hurt	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.hurt	?	?	16
	Footsteps	?	Polar bear is walking	entity.polar_bear.step	?	?	?	16
	Polar Bear attacks	?	Polar bear is attacking	entity.polar_bear.warning	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.warning	?	3 = 0.9; 1, 2, 3 = ?	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Polar Bear	polar_bear	entity.minecraft.polar_bear

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Polar Bear	polar_bear	28	entity.polar_bear.name

Entity data

See also: Chunk format

Polar bears have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

• Entity data
  • Additional fields for mobs that can become angry
  • Additional fields for mobs that can breed
  • Tags common to all entities
  • Tags common to all mobs

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	adventure/root

History

March 7, 2016					Jeb hints at a neutral mob with a light gray "base texture" color.
April 8, 2016					Jeb tweets a picture of the polar bears.
Java Edition
1.10		16w20a			Added polar bears.
		pre1			Adult polar bears now jump in water, if on fire.
		pre2			Polar bears now have sounds: entity.polar_bear.baby_ambient, entity.polar_bear.ambient, entity.polar_bear.death, entity.polar_bear.hurt, entity.polar_bear.step, and entity.polar_bear.warning.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has now been changed from PolarBear to polar_bear.
1.13		18w19a			Polar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of polar bears and baby polar bears have now been changed.
		19w07a			Polar bears now attack foxes.
		19w14a			Polar bears are no longer a valid mob for earning the Monster Hunter advancement and are no longer required to complete the Monsters Hunted advancement.
1.15		19w39a			Due to a bug, the baby polar bear model is currently broken.
		19w40a			The baby polar bear model has now been fixed.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.17		21w13a			Polar bears are now immune to freezing.
					Now drop cooked cod or salmon instead of raw cod or salmon if on fire when killed or killed by a fire source.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added polar bears.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID has now been changed from polarbear to polar_bear.
					Polar bears no longer hurt players in Peaceful difficulty.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.14.2			Polar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of polar bears and baby polar bears have now been changed.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.1			Adult polar bears now attack foxes.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.16.230		beta 1.16.230.54			Polar bears are now immune to freezing.
Legacy Console Edition
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13	1.0.1	Added polar bears.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10					Added polar bears.

Issues

Issues relating to "Polar Bear" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• According to Jeb, polar bears were added after his son Björn was born. Coincidentally, "björn" is Swedish for "bear".
• Unlike most other baby mobs, polar bear cubs have a unique sound effect that is not just a sped-up version of the regular polar bear sound effects; this is also reflected in subtitles.
• Polar bears are the first bears added into the game, later followed by pandas.
• During the development of the frozen ocean biome, polar bears were removed from spawning, due to being deemed too "sad". They were added back in because it is more accurate to the polar bear's real life status.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  Development teaser screenshot by Jeb.

• 

  Image from 16w20a blog post.

• 

  A polar bear on its hind legs, attacking the player.

In Other Media

• 

  Lego Minecraft Polar Bear.

References

Entities

View at: Template:Entities/content [edit]