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Marsh Davies Mojang avatar

Bears: adorable at a distance. This is true in Minecraft, just as it is in real life. They may look huggable and furry, but they are full of teeth, and not too fussy about what, or who, constitutes a meal.

Marsh Davies[1]

Polar bears (French name: Ours polaire or Ours blanc) 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 34 chance to drop 0–2 raw cod, and a 14 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

See also: Chunk format

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
Advancement-plain-rawAdventure
Adventure, exploration and combat Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.adventure/root
Advancement-plain-rawMonster Hunter
Kill any hostile monster AdventureKill one of these 34 mobs: Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.adventure/kill_a_mob
Advancement-fancy-rawMonsters Hunted
Kill one of every hostile monster Monster HunterKill each of these 34 mobs: Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.adventure/kill_all_mobs

History

March 7, 2016Jeb hints at a neutral mob with a light gray "base texture" color.
April 8, 2016Jeb tweets a picture of the polar bears.
Java Edition
1.1016w20aAdded polar bears.
pre1Adult polar bears will now jump in water, if on fire.
pre2Now 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.
1.1116w32aThe entity ID is changed from PolarBear to polar_bear.
1.1318w19aPolar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
Pocket Edition
1.0alpha 0.17.0Added polar bears.
1.1alpha 1.1.0.0The entity ID is changed from polarbear to polar_bear.
Polar bears will now no longer hurt players in Peaceful difficulty.
Bedrock Edition
1.4beta 1.2.14.2Polar bears can now spawn on top of ice.
Legacy Console Edition
TU43CU33 1.36 Patch 13Added polar bears.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10Added 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

References

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