| “ |
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„ | |
| — Marsh Davies[1] |
Polar bears (Ursus Maritimus) also known as White bears are neutral mobs that live in icy biomes.
Spawning
Polar bears are found in Snowy Tundra, Snowy Mountains and Ice Spikes biomes, in groups of up to four (up to two[Bedrock Edition only]). If there is a group of two or more there is always only one parent, and the other one is a cub. They can also be found in deep and regular frozen oceans.
Polar bears can spawn on top of regular ice, but not packed ice or blue ice.
Drops
When killed, a polar bear has a 3⁄4 chance to drop 0–2 raw cod, and a 1⁄4 chance to drop 0–2 raw salmon. The fish will be raw, even if the polar bear is on fire when it is killed.
Like other baby animals, killing a baby polar bear yields no items or experience.
Behavior
Polar bears can exist in a passive, neutral, or hostile state. The cubs are passive; adults are neutral. They will become hostile towards the player if they get too close to their cubs (this does not seem to happen as fast on easy difficulty). If a cub is attacked, all adults within a 41×21×41 cuboid will become hostile towards the attacker, regardless of difficulty (although in peaceful difficulty, their attacks will do zero damage to players). Attacking an adult who is within a 16×8×16 cuboid of a cub will also provoke other adults within a 21×21×21 cuboid of the attacked adult.[Java Edition only] Polar bears can be accidentally provoked by other mobs.
Polar bears attack by rearing on their back legs and then mauling down on the attacker 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 bear cubs' growth cannot be sped up.
Data values
Polar bears have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is polar_bear.
- 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) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Adventure | Adventure, exploration and combat | — | Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity. | adventure/root
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
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 will now jump in water, if on fire. | ||||
| pre2 | 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 is changed from PolarBear to polar_bear. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w19a | Polar bears can now spawn on top of ice. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0 | alpha 0.17.0 | Added polar bears. | |||
| 1.1 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The entity ID is changed from polarbear to polar_bear.
| |||
| Polar bears will now no longer hurt players in Peaceful difficulty. | |||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4 | beta 1.2.14.2 | Polar bears can now spawn on top of ice. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU43 | CU33 | 1.36 | Patch 13 | 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".[1]
- 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 aren't monsters, yet are required for Monsters Hunted, and grant Monster Hunter.
Gallery
Development teaser screenshot by Jeb.




