A solo shaggy sheep that regularly roamed through a WA caravan park, winning the hearts of countless visitors, has died.
The ABC reports that Shaun the sheep, also known as Rocky or Shrek, passed away from natural causes on New Year’s Eve at the Ningaloo Lighthouse Holiday Park.
The ram became synonymous with the Ningaloo lighthouse that overlooks one of the country’s most spectacular coastlines, and there is already talk of installing a memorial on the lighthouse hill where he would graze and gaze out to sea.
Ningaloo Lighthouse Holiday Park caretaker, Jana Powell, told the ABC that Shaun the sheep had been around for most of the decade she had been in the town.
Shaun was always alone like this sheep ... except he had curlier horns a and was lot, lot fluffier!
“He may have been from a station in the Exmouth gulf or further down. Some say they’ve seen him 12 to 14 years ago, others 20,” Mrs Powell said. “They don’t tend to live by themselves but he somehow managed to come to the lighthouse years ago.”
She said she hoped a memorial could be installed as a tribute to Shaun.
“It would be nice to be able to put something on that hill somewhere for people to memorialise him and show their respects to him,” Mrs Powell said. “It’s hard to explain but one single sheep can make such a difference or can just bring so much joy to so many people.”
Exmouth resident Trevor Kenyon told the ABC he first encountered Shaun the sheep eight years ago walking back to the caravan park from Jansz Beach.
“Every year he got closer until he was virtually living in the caravan park,” he said. “He lived his life and he didn’t worry about the traffic, he’d be grazing along the road, didn’t worry about nothing … nothing fazed him, he was just there doing his own thing.”
The ABC reports that, over the years, Shaun survived a cyclone, dingoes, and sweltering days over 40 degrees … as his unshorn coat that got thicker and thicker.
There was a general thought all that wool kept him safe from the dingoes.
One former worker at the caravan park, Joanne Cooper, told the ABC that staff would always be on the hunt for Shaun after a rare bit of rainfall.
“When it did it poured with rain, and everyone was worried because of all the wool he had that if he got too wet he’d topple over one of the hills and wouldn’t be able to get back up again,” she said. “He was no-one’s pet but everyone was looking out for him.”
Sheep typically live 10 to 12 years but the oldest one in world lived to 28.
Shaun is not the first wild animal to be mourned by campers after his passing. Back in 2013, ‘Swino’ the partying pig who used to regularly maraud through the DeGrey Rest Area met an untimely end, and his absence was keenly felt.
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Havent seen him but suggest chicken wire replica by lovett like donald campbell bust at dumbleyung as memorial