14 DAY TRIAL // Believe it or not, an actual real sheep is hiding under the massive ball of wool featured in the photo next to this article. Its name is Shaun, and it has recently been found in the Tasmanian wilderness by two farmers.
Shaun is expected to more or less willingly ditch its impressive coat sometime this week, when it will be established whether or not its fleece is indeed the heaviest a sheep has ever come to sport.
It is estimated that the fleece that adorns this mind-bogglingly wooly sheep's body weighs well over 40 pounds (approximately 18.15 kilograms), Daily Mail informs.
Unfortunately, it looks like, in order to be crowned the wooliest sheep ever to walk the face of the Earth, Shaun will have to do much better than this, and prove that its fleece is way heavier.
This is because the current record is currently held by a sheep named Shrek, whose fleece weighed a whopping 60 pounds (roughly 27.21 kilograms) at the time it was shorn by a professional back in 2004.
Then again, Shrek passed away in 2011, so this recently found ball of fleece in Tasmania might at least be declared the wooliest sheep alive. Granted, it will lose this title as soon as it too is shorn, but at least it will have a title to remember its coat by.
By the looks of it, Shaun is a runaway sheep. Thus, its tag indicates that it used to live at a farm on Tasmania's east coast. It is believed that, after leaving this farm, the sheep spent several years living alone in the wilderness.
When the two farmers found it this past Sunday, it was caught in some bushes. It's still unclear how it was that this sheep managed to survive in the wild. More so since these animals are known to have trouble fending for themselves when alone.
Talking to the press, farmer Peter Hazell explained that, when he and his friend found Shaun, the sheep had so much wool covering its eyes that it did not even realize that two men were approaching it. “He couldn't see very well because of the wool over his face, so I snuck up behind him and grabbed him,” he said.
Even if it fails to win the title of the world's woolies sheep ever, Shaun can at least take pride in sporting the fluffiest coast folks in Tasmania have until now had the chance to see. “It is the heaviest sheep I've ever lifted. I just couldn't believe it, I just could not believe a sheep could have so much wool,” Mr Hazell's wife, Netty, told the press.