Jacob's Zoo by timeisrelative

MIB impersonates people. We know that. I think Jacob impersonates animals. I know it sounds silly, but I think it explains a lot and fits nicely into the narrative. Consider the polar bear that cornered Walt, the boar that tormented Sawyer, the horse that mystified Kate, the bird that squawked Hurley's name, and most importantly, Vincent. If you think about it, Vincent has been the catalyst for a lot of significant events usually brought upon by him running off into the jungle. Vincent prompts people to follow him and the unsuspecting Lostie ends up having some sort of interesting encounter. He even brought Hurley a severed arm holding a set of car keys. Plus, Vincent is the perfect spy for Jacob to observe his precious candidates. He can come and go as he pleases with no one being the wiser. He even woke up Jack to kick things off.

Polar bear: Posing as a bear and terrorizing a young Walt in season 1 may not seem like Jacob's MO. But we saw in Ab Aeterno that Jacob can hand out an impressive ass kicking when it's needed. Then again, how hard is it to beat up a malnourished, emotionally broken Spaniard who believes he's shipwrecked in Hell? (No offense, Ricardo.) But if you recall, the traumatic encounter with the polar bear was a significant moment in bringing Walt and his father together.

Birds: I think this is how Jacob is able to spy on the whole island. It would also explain why the Others were so anxious to get Walt off the island. Walt has the ability to disrupt birds' navigation. Walt was a threat to birds and therefore a threat to Jacob. And specifically, there's the Hurley bird which twice spoke Hurley's name. We all know there is some connection between Jacob and Hurley. I don't know where it originated or if it even has an origin. Maybe Jacob just thinks Hurley is the right personality type for being a mediator, dude. (How funny was it when Hurley substituted the word 'beautiful' with 'awesome' when translating for Richard and Isabella?) No one else seemed to believe that bird called Hurley's name. So it would make sense that since it was Jacob, no one else heard it.

I could continue speculating about the significance of the boar and the horse and all the other animals. But without a real sense of endgame, it's nearly impossible to determine anything with certainty. I'm sure one could theorize an equally valid argument that MIB is posing as all of these animals. But I think Jacob posing as the animals is an idea worth consideration. We know Jacob is not omnipotent on the island. He was genuinely surprised to find out Richard was sent to kill him. So unless Jacob has the whole island bugged, he needs to gather information somehow. I think he does it by spying.