Mr Illingworth now believes it may have been a jaguar he saw, and Ms Coffey says he may be right.

The black panther is the common name for a black colour variant of any of several species of cat.

“Black panthers are black leopards or black jaguars,” she said.

“The jaguar is a bigger and stockier animal than a leopard. Both put kills in trees. We’ve had sheep in a tree at Grose Vale, and goats in a tree at Colo Heights.”

Now a Kenthurst truck driver has reported sighting a large cat before Christmas while another was reported at Mudgee on New Year’s Eve. A third call came from Maraylya pensioner Kerry Russell.

“I sighted it at 7am on November 18,” Mr Russell said. “It was daylight, there was no rain, it was a clear day, and the location was Scheyville Road, Maraylya near the chicken quarantine station.

“I was driving round a bend and this thing was about 40 yards in front of me, stationary in the middle of the road.”

Mr Russell stopped his car, opened the driver's door and stood there looking at it.

He didn’t believe what he was seeing.

“The outstanding feature was definitely its tail. It was very long, like a greyhound’s tail, pointed at the end but thick and black and round as it got to the body.

“Another gentleman driving towards me pulled over and we both looked at each other and looked at this thing. It would have been about the size of a large dog and black from head to foot.

“It stood there for a good minute. It just looked at us and then did a slow proud walk into Scheyville National Park.”

Mr Russell had not reported his sighting earlier for fear of ridicule.

“But when I saw this story, I thought ‘I’m not alone in seeing this thing’.”

Report sightings to Chris Coffey: 4572 1291.