Bear

Bear
Health points	25 ( × 12.5) to 50 ( × 25)
Attack strength	2 () to 12 ()
Spawn	Solid surfaced blocks with a minimum of two block spaces above them.
Drops	Hide (0-2)
Experience	1-3
Sounds	Idle Hurt & Death
Entity ID	blackbear, grizzlybear, pandabear, wildpolarbear

Bears are tamable mobs that come with several variants.

Spawning

Natural generation

Grizzly bears, black bears and pandas spawn on grass blocks at light levels of 9 or more with at least 2 block space above them. They often spawn in groups of 4 of their own species during world generation. Bear cubs may also spawn with adults.

Polar bears spawn in ice plains, ice mountains, and ice spikes biomes.

Drops

All types of bears will drop 0–2 hide upon death. This can be increased with the Looting enchantment. They drop 1–3 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

If a tamed bear was equipped with a saddle or chest, those will also be dropped, as well as any contents of its inventory.

Behavior

Bears wander around aimlessly, avoiding cliffs high enough to cause fall damage, and usually stay out of water. Black bears and grizzly bears have similar behavior to rats in the way they attack; at day, or in high light levels, grizzly bears and black bears are neutral, but once they get into light levels of 7 or less, or if provoked, they will become hostile towards the player. Polar bears are always aggressive, and will attack the player on sight, regardless of light level.

Pandas are the only passive type of bear, and will only react when hit. Black bears, grizzly bears and polar bears will stand up on their hind legs occasionally, especially when a player is near. Pandas will sit occasionally instead of standing upright.

Bears, except for pandas, will attack other mobs (with the exception of big cats and other bears); most of which include cows, sheep, rabbits, foxes and turkeys. Bear cubs are passive, and will not attack if provoked. Like other baby mobs, cubs will follow adult bears, even tamed ones.

Taming

A tamed grizzly bear equipped with a saddle and chest.

A bear can be tamed by giving a cub any type of meat, both cooked or raw, and do not get food poisoning from consumption of raw meat. Pandas can be tamed by feeding them sugar canes. When the naming screen appears, the bear has been tamed.

Tamed bears can be healed with any meat, and can be renamed with a medallion, book, or name tag. Tamed bears can be made to sit with a whip, and will not move until the whip is used again.

Breeding

Feeding tamed bears any meat together in an enclosed space will make them breed. The offspring will grow progressively larger with time until they reach their full size. The naming screen will also appear as soon as the offspring is produced, and, once named, will be tamed to the player.

The breeding pair needs to be kept away from other bears, and also need to be kept close in order to breed, therefore it is recommended to place them in a fenced area.

Variants

The four natural types of bears.

There are four types of bears; black bears, polar bears, pandas, and grizzly bears. Polar bears are the largest bear, followed by grizzlies and black bears, with pandas being the smallest.

Usage

Riding

A tamed bear can be equipped with a saddle or crafted saddle. Once a bear is saddled, the player can control it with standard directional controls, spacebar, and the mouse. You can dismount a bear by using the 'shift' key.

A player can use any item while riding a bear, this also includes opening or closing doors, using swords or bows, etc.

A ridden bear will automatically run up any one block high slope. They are however, much slower in comparison with ridden big cats and manticores, but they can be combined with speed potions.

Storage

If a bear has been given a chest, it will acquire 18 inventory slots. The chest can be accessed with shift and right-click.

Chests can be given to a bear with a right-click, and afterwards the chest cannot be removed except by killing the carrier, placing the bear in a pet amulet, or by using shears.

History

Version
v10.0.1 - Bears can now be tamed by giving meats to cubs. - Bears can now be ridden and given chests. - Split bears into separate entities.
v8.0.0 DEVa - Added bear attack animation.
v5.2.2 - Fixed bounding box of bears.
v5.2.0 DEV - Bears will check spawning surroundings, if within 12 blocks of sugar canes, it will become a panda. If the biome where the bear is spawning has the word bamboo in its name, it will also be a panda.
v4.2.0 - Bears no longer remain sitting for so long.
v4.0.1 - Changed bears models.
v3.2.0 - Bears no longer spawn within 8 blocks of torches.
v2.13.1 - Fixed bug with bears' snouts.
v2.10 - Fixed bug with snouts being off 1 pixel when rotating head in bears.
v2.5.3 - Fixed bug with bears not attacking livestock.
v2.5.2 - Reduced spawn rate of bears.
v1.6.2 Major changes to A.I: - Bears won't attack lions, but they will attack any other mobs. - Reduced bear spawn rate to 1/3.

Trivia

• Approaching a grizzly bear or black bear with cubs will not attack you, though real life female bears will attack people if they approach or try to harm their cubs.
• A panda's diet in real life consists of just bamboo, and don't really eat meat. In Minecraft, they can be tamed with any meat.

Gallery

Old polar bear model.

Old grizzly bear model.

A cub that was produced by breeding two grizzly bears.

A black bear that recently killed a cow.

Two black bears in a forest.

A tamed panda.

Polar bears in an ice plains biome.

Polar bears in an enclosure.

A player riding on a polar bear.

A panda in a jungle biome.

A grizzly bear attacking a fox. Note the attack animation.

A grizzly bear about to attack.