Today we learned that domestic sheep, unlike their wild cousins, don’t shed their wool each year. It turns out that over 10,000 years of breeding them for their wool has produced sheep whose wool grows all year round. So what happens when a domestic sheep isn’t shorn?
Meet Shrek, a wily Merino sheep in New Zealand who managed to avoid being shorn for 6 years in a row by hiding in a cave each time shearing season arrived. The two photos at the top of this post show you what Shrek looked like when he was finally caught back in 2004. Farmers weren’t even sure he was a sheep when they found him. Shrek was covered in an awesome, if a bit dirty, layer of fleece that weighed a whopping 60 pounds. That’s enough wool to produce 20 men’s suits.
In 2011 Shrek passed away at the impressive old age of 16, leaving the world a more awesome place for having been here.
[via TYWKIWDBI, Modern Farmer and Deadspin]