A HUNTER of 35 years has reported a sighting of a large black cat while hunting at night in Langshaw.

Yesterday, a professional hunter with decades of experience hunting in Australia and New Zealand reported to The Gympie Times he had definitively seen the large cat five months ago.

The man, who has chosen not to be named, carries out professional animal control.

He said he spotted a large black cat while hunting at night.

"I was out between Langshaw and Amamoor Creek," he said.

"I thought it was a pig at first so I shined my light on it and it was a cat.

"I thought 'jeez, that cat is up close' because it looked so big."

The cat ran off into the darkness, so the hunter returned to the area the next day with a laser sight rangefinder and realised the distance was longer than he thought.

"I took the laser rangefinder and I realised that cat would have been at least a metre and a half long from the distance I was away.

"I hunt a lot of deer and I've seen deer carcasses dragged 150, 200m. Dogs don't do that."

Reports of glimpses of big cats have been mounting.

Curra resident Milan Katic reported a large cat on his property last week.

The cat stalked onto his property before leaping over a fence and disappearing into the bush.

Vaughan King, founder of the Australian Big Cat Research Group website pantherpeople.com, said while Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia were hives of reported big cat activity, "Gympie is up there Queensland-wide".