New Zealand's record-winning Shrek the sheep could be out fleeced with the discovery of another woolly sheep across the ditch.
Despite never having been shorn, the six-year-old merino ram in Australia was immediately named Shaun, after a children's television programme.
Shaun's ear tag indicates he came from a farm on Tasmania's east coast, meaning he has spent the past six years wandering across the state - and possibly in search of a haircut.
The farmer who found him, Peter Hazell, told the ABC he had no trouble capturing the animal, which was wandering on his property in Tasmania's Midlands.
"Usually they get cast and can't get up, or they get fly-strike, or the hot weather gets to them ... and he couldn't see very well because of the wool over his face, so I just snuck up behind him and put him in the back of the ute."
Mr Hazell and his wife Netty plan to take the clippers to Shaun in the next few days and see if he can take the title off New Zealand's Shrek, who made headlines in 2004 when found carrying 27kg of fleece. He was euthanised in 2011.
