The vineyard manager, who did want to be identified, spotted the big black cat running across the property at high speed.

Shocked, he yelled out to a worker but by the time the worker looked up the cat had gone.

Scouring the area turned up no footprints or other evidence, but the man is convinced it was the Karridale cougar on the property.

“There’s no way it was a feral cat,” he said.

“It was like a big jungle cat.”

The man estimated the cat to be about 70 metres from where he was standing.

“At that distance you could see it was a big animal,” he said.

Stretched out at full gait he guessed it measured 2m from tip to bushy tail.

“I saw it side on and that’s why I knew it was so huge,” he said.

“It stood out amazingly.”

The man has only lived in the area for six months and had heard about various big cat sightings in Australia, but not the Karridale cougar.

“I used to think it was people just drumming up tourism, but now I’ve seen one,” he said.

“I don’t know how it got here, but it’s definitely here.”

Recent sightings of the coupan include some in 2004, when people saw such an animal at Ellensbrook Road and Carters Road.