Minecraft: Mobestiary

"With insider gaming info and tips, this is the official, definitive, fully illustrated guide to mobs—and how to outsmart them—in Minecraft. Minecraft: Mobestiary reveals the secrets of every mob in the game. You’ll find little-known facts about passive, neutral, hostile, utility, and boss mobs, as well as more general information about their locations, behaviors, threat levels, and drops. Written by Alex Wiltshire, who has made it his life’s work to study Minecraft’s mobs. Illustrated with field sketches throughout by Anton Stenvall."

- Product details

The Minecraft: Mobestiary is a Minecraft book authored by Alex Wiltshire and illustrated by Anton Stenvall.

Synopsis
"This book contains the life's work of a devoted naturalist and Minecraft mob expert. The Naturalist has collected informationon the habits, habitats, and hallmarks of every creature descovered thus far, from the humble chicken to the terrifying ender dragon. These findings are illustrated with full-color sketches to ensure that you are fully prepared for what awaits."

- Backcover description

A character known only as the Naturalist explains how each mob works in detail according to his perspective in the Minecraft world. Most of the writing focuses on the in-game mechanics of each mob, but it occasionally describes or shows information from outside of the game, such as the origins of the killer bunny, TNT shown inside a creeper, and the superstition of the chicken being a spy. There are also dissections of some of the mobs showing organs, bones, gas, magma, gears, and/or redstone depending on the mob.

Naturalist
"As I sit here in my warm study, surrounded by my treasured books, my mind turns to the worlds beyond my windows. Out there, countless adventurers are courageously exploring the Overworld and beyond... ...The time has come for me to retire from my role as explorer, and so I leave you with my life's work — a thorough account of every mob discovered so far in this strange and perilous world."

- The Naturalist speaking in the preface from the Minecraft: Mobestiary.

The Naturalist is a human scholar in the world of Minecraft and the in-universe writer of the Minecraft: Mobestiary. They have supposedly made it their life’s work to study Minecraft’s mobs and write their findings into an encyclopedia about all the creatures that have been discovered.

Credibility
According to Alex Wiltshire, the Naturalist is somewhat conjectured:

"Hello! If you read the Mobestiary carefully, you'll notice that it's written from the point of view of one particular naturalist who tends to put their own theories and ideas among the facts, and maybe doesn't even have personal experience of the creatures they're writing about. So you should decide for yourself if you agree with them :)"

- Alex Wiltshire on the credibility of the Naturalist.

Trivia

 * The sketch showing the anatomy of the creeper was likely based on official Minecraft merchandise created by JINX.
 * In Minecraft Dungeons, there is an anatomical model showing the same anatomy.
 * The spy-chicken superstition mentioned by the Naturalist originated from a Minecraft Alpha tutorial video made by Paul Soares Jr.
 * In the beginning of the video, Paul was in a cave along with a chicken that seemed to watch him. Though he never mentioned it being a spy in the video itself, he jokingly stated in several comments on the video that the chicken was a spy sent by Sarumon and that it had to be executed.