Minecraft – get a lightning with chanelling trident during a storm in a no-rain biome

I know that this question was asked a long time ago, but just thought I'd give an update and a correction for future people that read this. (please consider that things may also change in future)

Ok, so first of all, you mentioned that a Chunk is 16x16 block around the player. This is incorrect. A chunk is a section of the terrain and is nothing to do with where the player is. The chunk does not move. A chunk is a 16x16x256 (W,D,H). So for the mob spawning. The quote you gave is correct, however, does not note that it is centred around the chunk that the player is standing on. So 7 chunks in every direction from the border of the chunk you are standing in.

And now for your question :) Recently, (not sure when it started) height has become even more important for mob spawning and each chunk is split into segments. This is to reduce the amount the game has to render and does this by going up in 16 block segments starting from 1. So 17, 33, 49, etc. This is called the lc value and can be shown on the debug screen (F3). It is important for mob spawning, why? Because any segments in the chunk above the maximum segment that has anything other than air in do not get checked for spawning conditions. This therefore means that there are many less blocks to check which in theory will make your mob grinder or xp farm more efficient.

There is a fair amount more... however, I think this answers what you wanted. At least I hope it does ;) Best of luck guys.

According to the wiki:

• Sheep can spawn on Grass blocks with a 2x2x1 (minimum) space above them. As a passive mob, they also require light to spawn.
• Wolves can spawn in Grass, in Forest and Taiga biomes.

It doesn't seem like there's anything to stop wolves and sheep spawning in the same area. However, the wiki also says:

• Mobs will frequently spawn in groups with mobs of the same variety.
• Randomness for animal spawning is derived from the world seed, which means that worlds with the same seed will generate chunks with the same animals in the same places.
• Very rarely, new animals can spawn in already generated chunks, just like monsters do

So it seems unlikely that killing the wolves will have any effect on whether you get sheep. If you want to get wool you'll probably have to go exploring, but if you're lucky you might get sheep spawning in an area you've already explored.