In Minecraft Java Edition every cow carries a ranked list of eight goals: float, panic, breed, tempt (follow the wheat in your hand), follow parent, stroll, look at player, look around. Ten times a second it reads the list from the top, and the first goal that can start takes the legs from anything ranked lower.

Hold wheat and tempt runs: every cow within ten blocks walks over. Hit one and panic, second on the list, takes over: it runs to a random spot nearby, not away from you. Tempt gets pushed out, and a stopped tempt waits five seconds before it can start again, so the cow ignores the wheat under its nose and then walks back as if nothing happened. Feed two cows and breed, third, beats your wheat too. And a calf trails the nearest grown cow, not its mother.

Mojang built this in early 2012. Jens Bergensten wrote that January that Jon was improving the AI for mobs "to make it easier for us to add new behaviors"; by Minecraft 1.2 that March every animal ran on it. A cow's eight are the same, in the same order, in 1.2 and in today's 26.3, and a sheep's list is the cow's with one more line: eat grass.

The numbers are Java Edition 26.3's. The meadow, the animals and their timings are our own simplified version, drawn in code; the list and its rules are the game's, run on our scenes.

Which mob should we open next?

Sources: Minecraft Java Edition, the game's code (Mojang's releases 1.2.1, 2012, and 26.3, 2026): AbstractCow, Sheep, GoalSelector, WrappedGoal, PanicGoal, TemptGoal, BreedGoal, FollowParentGoal. Jens Bergensten, Minecraft Snapshot 12w01a and 12w07a, mojang.com (January and February 2012). Mojang, Minecraft 1.2 is Out!, mojang.com (1 March 2012).
Not an official Minecraft video. Not approved by or associated with Mojang or Microsoft.
Sounds and music: our own, made in code.