Polar Bear GIF

Confirmed 119,796

About

The Polar Bear GIF is an animated image of a polar bear walking, which has been used on Discord and in YouTube remix videos.

Origin

The oldest confirmed appearance of the GIF is on Animation Factory, where archives of its page date back to August 17th, 2000.^[11] It was later found on the animal track website Bear-tracker.com,^[1] a website about North American animals and their tracks with tips and links on tracking and hiking areas. The polar bear gif (shown below) can be found at the bottom of the webpage. The gif was present on the site at least as far back as 2002.^[2]

Spread

The polar bear, aside from being used in group chat rooms, has been used in several YouTube videos with the polar bear being in the center of attention. On August 13th, 2016, YouTuber GraysonM2001 published a video of the bear set to music. The post (shown below, left) received more than 2,000 views in less than two years.

On October 10th, 2016, YouTuber^[5] Jackson Gentges posted a video of the bear walking as someone screamed over the soundtrack. The post (shown below, right) received more than 9,800 views in less than two years.

On September 23rd, 2017, YouTuber^[3] Jimmy Diofan posted a video of the gif set to an audio loop of the first part of the Seatbelts song "Cats on Mars" from the Cowboy Bepop soundtrack. The post (shown below, left) received more than 14,000 views in less than one year.

Six months later, YouTuber^[4] AutisticYui posted a video entitled "🐻." The post (shown below, right) received more than 490,000 views in less than one month.

AutisticYui published numerous videos featuring the character. These video are produced in the style of YouTuber^[5] MowTenDoo, commonly played Super Nintendo music from the game Turtles In Time (examples below).

On Apr 4, 2018, AutisticYui collaborated with Jimmy Here on a video^[7] starring the gif. Jimmy Here is known for his usage of the popular "It Is Wednesday My Dudes"^[6] Meme.

On September 22, 2018, AutisticYui upload a collaboration video^[10] with multiple known meme makers and content creators including DitzyFlama (creator of BongoCat^[8] & Kirb^[9]), PatPat.mp4, StickFab, Parkas, and KobayashisEgo.

Me_IRL Fugitive Bear Roleplay

On November 14th, 2018, Redditor HMeindert posted two pictures of the Walking Polar Bear, one in which the bear said it was running from the police, and another with the bear wearing a police cap saying it was looking for the first bear. The posts gained over 37,000 and 30,000 points respectively (shown below).

This led to the creation of many more posts contributing to a story about the bear running from prison. For example, Redditor TheMewZe made a post that gained over 10,000 points (shown below, left). Redditor Kowaidesu's post also gained over 11,000 points (shown below, right).