Animals

Sheep commonly appear in groups of two to five, while ducks occasionally appear in groups of two to four. Sheep can also appear in places you have already explored, provided there is enough space and suitable habitat. Not every area has animals. Look for sheep on grassy ground in plains, meadows, and clearings in some forests. Ducks appear along natural shores with unfrozen water. Both species walk on land.

While wandering, ducks prefer dry ground near the shore and their group. They can keep wandering without water nearby, and may move farther away when frightened.

Each species has three natural color variants. Animals walk, rest, and make grazing or pecking motions without removing blocks. They rest more at night. When you approach and they can see you, they look at you; walls and closed doors block their view. If you get too close, they try to move away along a clear path. They calm down about three seconds after you stop approaching. Contact wakes them even at night.

You can gently push animals by walking into them, and you can stand on their backs. Animals do not stack on one another. Walls and closed doors let you keep them in a pen. You cannot place a block or close a door through an animal.

Animals are saved with the world and stop moving when nobody is nearby. After six hours of game time without a player within 64 horizontal blocks or protection from a land claim, they may disappear within the next 32 seconds. A pen alone does not prevent this.

Land claims that are activating, active, or in their grace period keep animals from disappearing. Draft and released claims do not protect them. If the server is still checking a claim's status, its animals are kept in the meantime. Restarting the server gives animals a full six-hour window again; time while the server is offline does not count. Suitable habitat may be populated again later.

Animals are ambient wildlife. They make no sounds and cannot be attacked, fed, bred, or tamed. They do not give items and have no owner.