Pig

Pigs are passive mobs that provide the quintessential porkchops that sustain many a player and are a renewable source of food in the Overworld. They stand 0.875 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide and 1.25 blocks long.

Uses
Each pig will drop 0 - 2 raw porkchops upon death. As of Beta 1.5, Pigs that die while on fire will drop 0 - 2 cooked ones instead.

Behavior
Pigs roam the Overworld in groups of 3 - 4. When they encounter obstacles, they will often try to surmount them by hopping up and down. They make no attempt to stay out of water, bobbing up and down to stay afloat.

By right-clicking on a pig while holding a saddle, a player can ride it. However, the movement of the rider and pig cannot be controlled by the player. Riding a pig off a cliff is one of the more unusual and challenging achievements in Minecraft.

Pigs tend to move more often, but in smaller strides, towards the North-East, without any other variables coming into play.

History
Pigs were introduced in Survival Test, dropping 0 - 2 brown mushrooms and awarding a player 10 points each when killed. When they were first added, pigs looked "cross-eyed" and both eyes were closer to each other, but this was changed shortly after. After Alpha, each pig would provide the player with 0 - 2 raw porkchops.

With the Beta 1.5 update, an achievement was added for riding a pig off a cliff. Pigs struck by lightning would be turned into zombie pigmen., and pigs that died from being set on fire would drop ready-cooked porkchops.

As of 1.8 pigs have their snout protrude out from their head and will run away upon attack.

Bugs

 * If you save and quit while riding a pig the "Saving Chunks" bar will not fill up properly and can stop filling up and appear to be frozen before it suddenly opens the main menu (without the bar filling up any more).
 * In single player, monster spawners contain a spinning miniature mob of the type that will be spawned. On SMP, on the other hand, monster spawners always contain a miniaturized pig, no matter what mob they spawn.
 * When a pig that is being ridden is killed, it will not drop the saddle

Trivia

 * For some reason, all Mob Spawners found in SMP have pigs inside them instead of whatever creature they actually spawn, with the singular exception of the Blue Spider.
 * In addition, any Spawner placed by a Player will be a Pig Spawner on default. It may be altered via Mods later on.
 * Pigs have a separate "armor" file (the saddle), but do not spawn with it.
 * If you manage to get a pig with a saddle into a minecart, the pig will boost the minecart. This still works in Beta 1.7
 * By putting a pig with saddle in a minecart, and getting it off the tracks, it acts like a car. But with opposite controls.
 * If a ridden pig is hit by lightning, it still turns into a Zombie Pigman. The Player will receive 2 and a half hearts damage and be knocked off the mob.
 * Creepers were originally a failed attempt to make a quadrupedal model for pigs, which Notch found amusing enough to make into a unique mob.
 * It takes one full Minecraft day or 20 minutes for baby piglets to become fully mature pigs.