A shaggy ball of dirty - clean wool was seen wandering the scrubland of Australia on Wednesday . The sheep ’s sheepskin   was so overgrown , it was just able to see or walk .

A hiker directly alerted authorities from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals   ( RSPCA ) , who subsequentlytweeted : “ Help ! @rspcaact necessitate help from a sheerer immediately to hopefully save this sheep we just rescued ! ”

The call for help was   not unwarranted : while humourous to see , the post was   actually very unsafe for Chris the sheep , as he has been dubbed . If he took a tumble , he would have been unable to get back up , admit cutis parasites to become an ever - present worry , and the upcoming summertime rays could roast him inside his own wool .   That ’s why merino sheep are unremarkably shorn every 12 months .

In fact , he was already suffer pelt Nathan Birnbaum from pee trap inside his sheepskin , accordingto Tammy   Ven Dange , chief administrator of the Canberra RSPCA .

Clearly , Chris needed a trim . And not just any trim , but one so labor - intensive   he would need to be sedated . gratefully , someone volunteered to take on the chore : friend Moira Shearer Ian Elkins . It take 45 bit for him to sheer the sheep   –   most take two minutes and result in a 4.5 - kilo   ( 10 - pound ) sheepskin .

In sum , Elkins shear 40 kilograms ( 88 pounds ) worth of wool from Chris . That surpasses the previous disc - bearer by quite a with child margin .   In 2004 , a sheep namedShrekwas come up carrying almost 27 kilograms ( 60 pounds ) of fleece around , while last class   a sheep dubbedBig Benhauled a massive 28.9 kilogram ( 64 pound ) .

While not an official record yet , “ It ’s emphatically one of the biggest sheep we ’ve ever seen , ” Ven Dange toldAFP .

“ It ’s astonishing it ’s survived all these age out in the wild,”addedElkins .

ICYMI:#Canberra ’s very woolly#sheepgets a world book short baaack and sideshttp://t.co/vGeOfo7PJ3pic.twitter.com/khErN16bJo

— ABC News Canberra ( @abcnewsCanberra)September 3 , 2015

Elkins conceive the fleece had been growing for seven years . “ There were parts of the sheep where we had to cut it in dissimilar layers because the job for me shear it was the weight unit of the fleece was perpetrate on the hide and we wanted to keep the skin cuts to a lower limit , ” Elkins toldABC News .

The RSPCA say they will spend a week trying to find its effectual possessor before finding Chris a raw home . Ven Dangeadded : " He ’s a new man in many ways . "

To check out Chris in all his   woolly   glorification , watch theWashington Postvideo   below .