'World's woolliest' sheep Shaun found in Australia after six years on the run from shearers

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Two farmers in Tasmania believe they have found the world’s woolliest sheep.

The animal, named Shaun after the Wallace and Gromit character, has never had his coat cut and appears to have travelled more than 25 miles from the Australian island’s east coast on the run from shearers at his former farm.

Peter Hazel told Australia’s ABC News he found the sheep wandering in scrubland on Sunday.

The ram was easy to catch as his 20kg of extra fleece is weighing him down and the wool has fallen over his eyes.

“It is the heaviest sheep I've ever lifted,” his wife Netty Hazell said.

The couple said it was lucky the six-year-old Merino ram survived in the wild without getting heat stroke or myiasis from fly larvae.

Shaun is carrying a coat roughly half-a-metre thick and is being clipped this week to see if he can break the world record for fleece yield.

“There's three or four good jumpers in there,” Mrs Hazell told ABC.

The record is currently held by a New Zealand sheep called “Shrek”, who produced 27kg of wool when clipped in 2004 and set off on a nationwide tour that included meeting the Prime Minister.

Merino wool is prized for being among the finest and softest of any sheep and is widely used in clothing.