Folklore suggests that a large, black, panther-type animal is roaming Mid- Canterbury.
Now, a huge ginger feline has been claimed to be in hill country further north, in the Waimakariri Gorge.
Four hunters said they saw the cat gracefully padding along the hills above the gorge as they jet-boated upriver during the Christmas- New Year break. They could not believe their eyes, so they used the telescopic sights on their rifles to get a better view.
They described it as a huge ginger cat slipping easily among the rocks and tussock. "It was its tail and the way it moved that gave it away," one of the hunters said.
They said the cat was about a metre long and above knee-high to a man. Its tail was about 8cm in diameter and long. They were stunned at its size.
One man said the sighting was a "once-in-a- lifetime" thing.
He had been back a couple of times, but there was no trace of the animal.
They were reluctant to reveal the exact location.
Conservation Department biodiversity programme manager Mike Ambrose said he would be surprised if there was an "African plains-type" animal roaming the hills above the gorge.
It was not unusual, however, to come across some large feral cats, particularly if there was a habitat nearby that treated them well.
"Feral cats, depending on their home range, can grow large. It would be no surprise to find a few in the Waimakariri Gorge.
"There has probably been a feral population of cats there for years," he said.
The claimed sighting of the big cat follows periodic sightings of a large, black, cat-like creature ranging from the Mid-Canterbury foothills to the Lindis Pass far to the south.
Dunedin-based Mark Orton and film partner Pip Walls are trying to catch the beast on camera.
They are making a 24-minute documentary on sightings of the mystery black cat to screen in Dunedin in May, and they plan to return to Panther's Rock, the new name for what was once the Mayfield Tavern.
The tavern has become a popular place to swap big-cat yarns, and it keeps a file on sightings.
(Original headline: Second big cat 'sighted' in Canterbury )
