万花筒 2010-03-18&03-19 剪羊毛比赛（在线收听）

A new kind of entertainment was making its debut high in the French Alps Monday that left some of its participants out in the cold.

Sheepshearing competitions are typically found in Australia and New Zealand, but farmers in the alpine region adopted this sport to promote the local economy and tourism.

The competition, in which competitors relieve a sheep of all its wool as fast as possible, amazed spectators. Belgian tourist Franck Bavier was impressed with the speed.

"With my father, shearing sheep. It took us two hours to shear one - and here one minute 40(seconds)"

The participants could use some practice if they hope to compete at the international level.

The fastest barber in the alps cleared his sheep in one minute and 11 seconds. The record in New Zealand is only 25 seconds.

Shannon Knapton, Reuters