Mob Totems

Mob Totems are supposed to increase spawn rates of mobs around them. I'm just wondering about its specific mechanics.

Do mob totems increase the spawn rates only of mobs that naturally spawn within its radius, or does it simply take all mobs within its radius and multiply them?

For example, could I take a lvl 5 zombie, kite it all the way to somewhere like Nessak, drop a mob totem, and have it multiply lvl 5 zombies along with the wolves that naturally spawn there? Or would it ignore the zombie and only spawn the wolves that naturally spawn in that area?


I was farming highway bandits in the savannah with mob totems and I noticed that even after I kite around a large group of mobs and spawn a mob totem, the resulting spawn rates would still be relatively low, and sometimes the bandits won't even spawn.

 

I was browsing through the questions, and i was surprised no one answered this, but It simply increases the spawn rates of that area, meaning that all the mobs that naturally spawn there, will spawn more frequently. For example, if you were to lead a zombie to the desert and place a totem near it, zombies wouldn't spawn, but desert mobs would.

Also I have noticed that when the mobs dont spawn near the totem, Sometimes just walk 20 blocks away and come back. That usually works.