SEPTEMBER 7 (Reuters) — Around 40 kilograms (88 lb) of wool has been sheared from a sheep found near Australia’s capital, the RSPCA said on Thursday (September 3), making him unofficially the world’s woolliest.
The animal, named Chris by his rescuers, was discovered on the northern outskirts of Canberra on Wednesday (September 2) and was said to be struggling to walk under the weight of his coat.
Four-time Australian Shearing Championship winner Ian Elkins was entrusted with the task of shearing Chris and said it was far from a straightforward.
“Yeah, no, it was a bit of a challenge when we got here, Alison, but the sheep was very calm and the vets gave it a mild sedation before we started to shear it,” Elkins said.
“We started on the belly, we’ve just laid it on its back, kept it comfortable. There were parts of the sheep where we had to cut it in different layers because the problem for me was, shearing it, was the weight of the fleece was pulling on the skin and obviously we wanted to keep the skin cuts to an absolute minimum,” he added.
The 40.2 kilos of wool removed from Chris means that he was unofficially the carrier of the world’s heaviest fleece, possibly shattering the current record set by New Zealand sheep Big Ben, found to be carrying nearly 29 kilograms of wool in 2014.
“Sheep are shorn once every twelve months as you probably know and an average fleece weight would be five kilos, so for this to cut over 40 kilos and to smash the world record,” Elkins said.
“Shrek the New Zealand sheep, he cut 27 kilos, so it’s, it’s unbelievable,” he added.
Tammy Ven Dange, chief executive of RSPCA ACT, the Canberra division of the animal charity, estimated Chris had more than five years of wool on him and likely little contact with humans.
Ven Dange added the animal was in good health and appeared to have reacted well to losing his heavy load.
“Well I just went back and looked at him, he’s doing fine. In fact I think he’s a new man, not only half the size but his personality has already changed.” she said, adding that “yesterday he was hiding in the corner, he you know, he didn’t want to have any contact whatsoever, he could barely stand up and he certainly couldn’t walk very well and today when I looked at him he was coming up to you, he wanted to be pat, could be the drugs still wearing off, but certainly he was just in such a good mood and he was already eating as well,” she said.
Big Ben dethroned fellow Kiwi, Shrek, who gained national celebrity in his home nation, meeting then Prime Minister Helen Clark and becoming the subject of several children’s books before his death in 2011.