Polar Bear

Polar Bear

• Polar Bear
• Baby

Health points	30HP × 15
Behavior	Neutral (adult) Passive (baby) Hostile (adults with cubs)
Mob type	Animal
Attack strength	Adults only: Easy: 4HP Normal: 6HP Hard: 9HP
Hitbox size	Adult: Height: 1.4 blocks Width: 1.4 blocks Baby: Height: 0.7 blocks Width: 0.7 blocks
Speed	0.25
Spawn	Snowy Plains Ice Spikes Frozen Ocean Deep Frozen Ocean Frozen River‌ Snowy Slopes ‌ Jagged Peaks ‌ Frozen peaks ‌
Usable items	Lead

{
    "title": "Polar Bear",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "30<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1  heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=&#9829)</span> × 15</span>",
            "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Neutral (adult)<br>Passive (baby)<br>Hostile (adults with cubs)",
            "label": "Behavior"
        },
        {
            "field": "(link to Animal article, displayed as Animal)",
            "label": "(link to Mob article, displayed as Mob) type"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "Attack<br/>strength"
        },
        {
            "field": "'''Adult:'''<br>Height: 1.4 blocks<br>Width: 1.4 blocks<br>\n'''Baby:'''<br>Height: 0.7 blocks<br>Width: 0.7 blocks<br>",
            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
        },
        {
            "field": "0.25",
            "label": "(link to Attribute#movementSpeed article, displayed as Speed)"
        },
        {
            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
            "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
        },
        {
            "field": "\n*   <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:ItemSprite lead.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Lead|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Lead article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Lead</span>)</span>",
            "label": "Usable items"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [
        "Polar Bear Spawn Egg"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Polar Bear.png",
        "Baby Polar Bear.png"
    ]
}

Polar bears are neutral mobs that live in icy biomes.

Spawning

Polar bears spawn in snowy plains, ice spikes, frozen and deep frozen ocean biomes, and additionally/sometimes in frozen river, legacy frozen ocean, snowy slopes, jagged peaks, and frozen peaks biomes in Bedrock Edition. They spawn at light level 9 or higher in groups of up to two, above grass block or ice. In Java Edition, polar bears don't spawn on ice in snowy plains and ice spikes biomes. If there is a group, the second polar bear is a baby.

Drops

On death

On Java Edition, one of the following is selected. On Bedrock Edition, both drops are rolled.

Item		Roll Chance	Quantity (Roll Chance)
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Raw Cod	3/4	0–2	0–3	0–4	0–5
	Raw Salmon	1/4	0–2	0–3	0–4	0–5

• 1–3XP from player or tamed wolves kills.

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 baby polar bears are passive; adults are hostile to a player when that player comes close to or attacks any baby polar bears (unless killed in one hit‌).

If a baby polar bear is attacked, unless killed in one hit‌, 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.

In Java Edition, 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.

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. Baby polar bears are more aggressive and attack foxes within 16 blocks.
• In Bedrock Edition, adult polar bears attack foxes within 16 blocks. Baby polar bears 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 baby polar bears' growth cannot be sped up.

They do not take freezing damage from powder snow.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Polar bears use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Polar Bear groans	Friendly Creatures	Randomly from an adult polar bear	entity.polar_bear.ambient	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.ambient​	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Baby Polar Bear hums	Friendly Creatures	Randomly from a baby polar bear	entity.polar_bear.ambient_baby	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.ambient_baby​	1.0	1.3-1.7	16
	​Polar Bear dies	Friendly Creatures	When a polar bear dies	entity.polar_bear.death	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.death​	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	​Polar Bear hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a polar bear is damaged	entity.polar_bear.hurt	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.hurt​	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16
	​Footsteps	Friendly Creatures	While a polar bear is walking	entity.polar_bear.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16
	​Polar Bear roars	Friendly Creatures	When a polar bear attempts to attack something	entity.polar_bear.warning	subtitles.entity.polar_bear.warning​	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly from an adult polar bear	mob.polarbear.idle	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly from a baby polar bear	mob.polarbear_baby.idle	1.0	1.3-1.7
	Hostile Creatures	When a polar bear dies	mob.polarbear.death	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Hostile Creatures	When a polar bear is damaged	mob.polarbear.hurt	0.7	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	While a polar bear is walking	mob.polarbear.step	0.7	1.0
	Hostile Creatures	When a polar bear attempts to attack something	mob.polarbear.warning	1.2	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	[hide]Translation key
Polar Bear	polar_bear	freeze_immune_entity_types	entity.minecraft.polar_bear

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	[hide]Translation key
Polar Bear	polar_bear	28	entity.polar_bear.name

Entity data

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

Java Edition:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
  • Additional fields for mobs that can become angry see Template:Nbt inherit/angerable/template[show]
  • Additional fields for mobs that can breed see Template:Nbt inherit/breedable/template[show]
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template[show]
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template[show]

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	—	10	Bronze
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	—	20	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand also counts for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill one of these 73 mobs near a sculk catalyst:[show] Mobs that drop no experience as well as the ender dragon are ignored for this advancement.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	–
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.

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.
[hide]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.
1.13			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.
1.16			20w10a				Firework damage now provokes polar bears.
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.
1.20.5			23w51a				Changed the baby polar bear ambient subtitle so that it more clearly indicates that a baby polar bear made it, as opposed to an adult.
1.21			24w21a				Adult polar bears now only panic from cactus, freezing, fire and lightning bolt damage.
1.21.2			24w33a				Due to a bug, the baby polar bear model is currently broken.
			24w34a				The baby polar bear model has now been fixed.
[hide]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.
[hide]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.
1.17.0			beta 1.16.230.54				Polar bears are now immune to freezing.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13	1.0.1	Added polar bears.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10							Added polar bears.

Data history

[hide]Java Edition
1.11			16w32a				The entity ID has now been changed from PolarBear to polar_bear.
1.13			17w47a				Numeric IDs for entities were presumably deprecated in this version.​

Issues

Issues relating to "Polar Bear" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Adding polar bears to Minecraft was a request by Jeb's wife, she was told they'd be added "if they ever had a bear of their own". Once their son was born, he was named "Björn" (Swedish for "bear"), and polar bears were added.
• Unlike most other baby mobs, baby polar bears 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.
• 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.
• In Java Edition, the polar bear is the only mob whose baby variant can grow up, but the adults cannot breed or be bred.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 

  Development teaser screenshot by Jeb.

• 

  Polar bears featured on 16w20a banner.

• 

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

• 

  Image from Rockenroll4life of a "Polar Beary Bush".

Textures

• 

  Polar bear texture file.

In other media

• 

  Image from 16w20a blog post.

• 

  Artwork

• 

  Polar Bear attacking artwork.

• 

  Artwork of a polar bear chasing a villager.

• 

  Lego Minecraft minifigure

• 

  Lego Minecraft Baby Polar Bear minifigure

• 

  An official T-shirt design featuring a polar bear and two baby polar bears.

• 

  Sunny looking at polar bears in 15 Year Journey.

• 

  A polar bear on artwork for the Season of Giving promotion.

External links

• Polar bear article on Wikipedia
• "Meet the Polar Bear" by Marsh Davies – Minecraft.net, January 10, 2017.
• "Mob Menagerie: Polar Bear" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, February 9, 2023.