Sheep

Sheep are passive mobs that first appeared in Survival Test mode. The main purpose of sheep is to supply wool; a building material. Sheep are 1.25 blocks tall, 0.625 blocks wide and 1.4375 blocks long.

Behavior
Sheep wander around aimlessly. When they come to an obstacle they will often try to breach it by jumping, which makes for some odd behavior when at obstacles they cannot overcome. They will make no attempt to stay out of water, and a common sight is several sheep bouncing up and down in the water. Sheep often spawn in groups of 2-8. Like all other passive mobs, they move entirely randomly, and although it can appear that they are attracted to light, this is not the case. It is a common sight to see passive mobs clustered in lit areas at night, but this is only because that is the only place they can spawn, and they will ofter wander out into the dark. Differently colored sheep act exactly the same as their white counterparts. Its seems as though when you hit a sheep with a block in your hand, they "eat" the block.

Information & History

 * In Survival Test sheep would "eat" grass, or rather, turn it into a dirt block. After "eating" three grass blocks, sheep would regrow their wool. They do not regrow wool in Beta.

Appearance
Sheep are the only mob to spawn with both a separate body and armor file.

As of the Beta 1.2 update, sheep can now have black, gray, and light gray wool along with the traditional white. However, the majority of sheep still spawn with white wool, and darker colors tend to be rarer. Dyes can also be applied directly to sheep and shearing colored sheep produces dyed wool blocks of the corresponding color.

Drops
Survival Test Indev and Infdev Alpha Beta
 * 0-2 Brown Mushrooms (on death)
 * 2 White Wool (on hit)
 * 1-3 White Wool (on hit)
 * 1-3 Wool the same color as the sheep (on hit)

Sheep do not drop wool if they are damaged by cacti, lava, drowning or falling; only by being hit, with the exception of the being hit with a non-damaging snowball, egg or a fishing rod's hook. This means that it is not possible to collect wool blocks using a mob grinder trap. (However, wool can be crafted from string dropped by spiders.)

Trivia

 * The only naturally spawning sheep, in order of rarity, are light gray, black, gray, and white.
 * No matter what color sheep it is, it has the same white wool color on its head and shaved body.
 * Applying dye to sheep and then hitting them gives a high chance of yielding more dyed wool than just manufacturing the blocks, making a more resourceful but harder way to make color blocks.
 * Sheep with their wool sheared off have a slenderer head and their ears show.
 * Sheep can climb ladders.
 * When a sheep is dyed by the player, a creeper explosion can shear off its fur without killing it. This is unconfirmed for non-dyed sheep (As of Beta 1.2_02).