Bigger than Shrek: woolly mammoth contests title

"Samson is as mad as a cut snake," according to the man who discovered him, a local farmer who chose to remain unnamed to avoid a media melee.

"As you soon as you go near him, he tries to charge over the fence."

Samson, the wild Monaro Plains sheep with a fleece of mythical proportions, stepped out from the bush of the backblocks and onto the world stage on Fathers Day.

Samson barely squeezes his bulk through a 1.5-metre wide gap, pictured above.

Samson had been roaming the forests of the mountainous Monaro region for nearly a decade, according to his guardian. Judging by his teeth, he is more than eight years old.

The local Anglican minister has been conscripted to verify the weight of the fleece, which will be shorn under strict supervision early next week.

The fleece will need to tip the scales above 27 kilograms to beat the whopping benchmark set by New Zealand's Shrek in 2004.

“I reckon he is a lot heavier than Shrek,” said the man behind the discovery.

“When I saw pictures of Shrek with just one bloke carrying him out of the bush, I thought: “nah, no way, this fella Samson’s way heavier.’”

Samson’s fleece is so heavy, and his muscle so strong - presumably from carrying around that mammoth weight of wool - that two farmers couldn't wrangle him into a box trailer.

Samson first poked his head out of the rugged bushland where he had evaded the shears for so long last February, but the first attempt the bring him in was futile.

“He had two blokes just hanging off him, and he was still dancing around the bush,” Samson’s mystery guardian said.

Eventually, Samson waddled from the fenceline backing onto the bush and went through a gap into a paddock.

He was corralled, under the strength of three men, onto a goods trailer - and potentially into the annals of history. It remains to be seen if the latest woolly wonder will lose his powers along with his extraordinary locks next week.

While a West Australian woolgrower claimed this week that one of his sheep produced a 30kg fleece in 2011, Samson is still tipped to take the title.

"I am confident we'll give that a nudge," his custodian said.