It's official - an Australian sheep has set the world record for the heaviest fleece.
Chris the sheep took the record for the most wool sheared from a sheep in a single shearing at 41.10kg, the Guinness World Records announced.
Spotted by a bushwalker in the Mulligans Flats area near the NSW-ACT border, Chris was carrying such a heavy load that animal welfare experts had feared he would not survive.
He was brought into the RSPCA's Canberra facility and trimmed earlier this month by champion shearer Ian Elkins, who answered the organisation's call for help.
Elkins had to do the shearing in two layers and needed four helpers to do the job. He began shearing about 9am and took about 45 minutes to finish the first pass.
Elkins believes he cut seven years' worth of growth - double the sheep's body weight.
'I wouldn't say it is high quality, but you wouldn't expect it to be after so long in the bush,' Elkins said of the fleece.
'It's amazing it's survived all these years out in the wild,' he said.
Chris's fleece pipped Shaun from Tasmania (23.5kg) and New Zealander Shrek(27kg) - fellow rogue sheep who evaded the shearing shed for years.
'It's unlike anything I've ever seen,' Elkins said.
Chris was feeling fine after his makeover earlier this month.
'He's gone from a very shy sheep to one that wants cuddles now,' RSPCA ACT boss Tammy Ven Dange said. 'He's looking really good right now.'
The sheep could barely walk with the weight of the wool, Ven Dange said, and it had been feared its life could have been in danger.
'He's a new man in many ways, he's actually moving really well, he's already eating, he actually came up to us for a cuddle,' Ms Van Dange told the ABC.
'He's a Merino sheep, and he needs to be sheared all the time, they're bred for that specifically, so if you don't do it this is what happens,' she added.
The average fleece weighs 5kg and takes just three minutes to shear.
Despite initial fears he would not survive, Chris has settled into his new home and is living happily in a farm in NSW.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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