From Lostpedia

Polar bears in the Swan Orientation film

Polar bears were brought to the Island by the DHARMA Initiative, who held them in cages at the Hydra station. (The World of the Others) Text on the blast door map suggests that DHARMA Initiative researchers were attempting to genetically modify the polar bears to allow them to survive warmer climates. At least some of the polar bears survived the Purge, after which they were freed from their cages and swam to the main Island. (Access Granted) After the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 in 2004, survivors of the crash occasionally encountered and were threatened by the bears, and Charlotte Lewis discovered the skeleton of a DHARMA Initiative polar bear in Tunisia that same year.

Appearances

On the Island

Polar bear in Hurley's comic book ("Special")

The polar bear in Locke's dream ("Further Instructions")

The polar bear skeleton found in Tunisia ("Confirmed Dead")

Stuffed polar bear given to Walt ("Adrift")

The polar bear painting in Charles Widmore's office ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")

The polar bear's Hydra collar

• Sawyer, Kate, Boone, Shannon, Charlie and Sayid were attacked by a polar bear in the jungle, which Sawyer shot and killed. ("Pilot, Part 2")
• While looking for Vincent, Michael was chased by what was presumed to be a polar bear, since the roar heard was distinctly different than that of the Monster. ("Tabula Rasa")
• Walt was shown reading Hurley's comic book that featured a polar bear. ("Special")
• After being captured by Danielle Rousseau, Sayid hears a roar unlike that of the monster outside in the jungle. When he asks what it is Rousseau replies "if we are lucky, it's one of the bears."
• Walt was later attacked by a polar bear in the jungle. He hid inside a banyan tree while the polar bear rammed at him. During this encounter, one can allegedly hear the polar bear say "Walter" as it swipes at the tree. ("Special")
• Two polar bears appeared fighting on an ice floe in the Swan Orientation film. ("Orientation")
• The Latin name for "polar bear", Ursus maritimus, is mentioned on the blast door map, implying that the bears were used during experiments on the Island. ("Lockdown")

• While chasing Dave, Hurley ran into Charlie and Mr. Eko and asks, "Did either of you see a guy run through here -- in a bathrobe, with a coconut?", to which Charlie replied, "No, but I did see a polar bear on roller blades with a mango." ("Dave")
• Tom says one of the cages at the Hydra was formerly used to house bears. ("A Tale of Two Cities")
• An attacking polar bear briefly appeared as a flash between the end of Locke's dream and him running out of the sweat lodge. Later, as a result of what he learned in the dream, Locke saved Mr. Eko from a polar bear in its cave. ("Further Instructions")
• A tuft of polar bear fur was discovered by Locke and Charlie. ("Further Instructions")
• Charlie told Locke that he used to get high and watch nature programs on the "Beeb" (BBC), where he learned that polar bears are very clever and "are like the Einsteins of the bear community." ("Further Instructions")
• When Phil catches Jerry and Rosie dancing and flirting in the Dharma security room, and Phil says that Rosie shouldn't be there, because it's their watch, Jerry jokes about that the worst thing that can happen is the polar bears are going to figure a way out of their cages. " ("LaFleur")
• When Pierre Chang finds out Hurley knows about the dead body in the back of the Dharma Bus, he threatens to assign Hurley to a job "shoveling polar bear feces" if he told anyone. ("Some Like It Hoth")

Off the Island

• Michael gave Walt a stuffed polar bear in a flashback. ("Adrift")
• Hurley read a comic book featuring a polar bear on the cover while on-board Flight 815. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• A stuffed polar bear toy appeared in the gigantic crib in which Drive Shaft filmed their commercial, "You All Every Butties". ("Fire + Water")
• One of the patients in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute was seen holding a stuffed bear during a basketball game. ("Dave")
• A polar bear appeared in a painting in Charles Widmore's office. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Charlotte Lewis unearthed a polar bear skeleton wearing a leather collar bearing the Hydra logo in the Tunisian desert in 2004. ("Confirmed Dead") It is highly likely the bear arrived here per DHARMA experiments being carried out at the Orchid ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3")

Trivia

Production notes

Kevin Blank running in bear chaps (Welcome to Oahu)

• According to the Season 1 DVD featurette, "Welcome to Oahu", FX supervisor Kevin Blank wore "polar bear chaps" and ran through heavy brush in order to simulate the legs of the polar bear seen in "Pilot, Part 2".
• Originally, director J.J. Abrams had been vehemently opposed to using a CGI polar bear on the show. The first version had a stuffed prop bear shot out of an air cannon towards Sawyer as he pretended to shoot at it. This version that was shown on the pre-broadcast commercial before the pilot aired. Someone posted a freeze-frame capture of this online, which according to J.J., looked "laughable and ridiculous". He conceded to trying the CGI version, which he and the production team liked much better. This was the version that ended up in the broadcast airing of "Pilot, Part 1". J.J. remarked that he was surprised people would analyze the show in such detail. The two versions can be seen below for comparison.

Original stuffed bear

Final CGI polar bear

• Issue 11, "The Lost Shephard", of Lost: The Official Magazine had an article on polar bear production for "Further Instructions", showing images of Jonathan Arthur in his polar bear costume for the episode. It shows how the polar bear scenes were made.
• Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse suggest that fans curious about Charlotte's discovery of a polar bear skeleton in Tunisia watch the Orchid video and further draw a link between the bear and the bunny in the video. (Official Lost Podcast/February 19, 2008)

Miscellaneous

• The knowledge of the presence of polar bears on the Island has been used as a method to illustrate that the survivors did not always share knowledge.
  • Charlie was surprised that Michael hadn't heard about them. ("Solitary")
  • Hurley told Jack that Steve didn't know about the bears either and laments, "Well, how am I supposed to keep straight who knows what around here?" ("Born to Run")
• A band called You All, Everybody (a Lost tribute band) wrote and released a song about the polar bears in September 2006.
• The book Laughter in the Dark makes reference to polar bears in Hawaii.

• Polar bears are excellent swimmers that have been known to swim up to 200 miles [1]
• The polar bear may be a reference to ironic process theory. From wikipedia, a classic example is Fyodor Dostoevsky's quote from Winter notes on summer impressions: “Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.” [2]

Unanswered questions

For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: Polar bears/Theories

• How were the bears originally transported to the Island?
• Why was the DHARMA Initiative conducting experiments on polar bears?
• How did the polar bears escape their cages?
• How many polar bears are remaining on the Island?
• How did a DHARMA polar bear end up in the Tunisian desert?