CALLING all big cat hunters - we want you to come up with a photograph of the mystery beast wandering the Gwent countryside.

Another panther-like creature has been spotted in Gwent, and now the Argus is offering a reward for the first photograph that proves conclusively such a cat exists.

The latest sighting came just before 7pm on Wednesday, when Ann Reese was walking her dog in a cornfield near Rogiet with friend Judith Snell. Mrs Reese, 64, noticed something in the undergrowth.

"It appeared to be a large cat the size of a labrador," she said.

"I didn't think much of it at first until Judith told me she had seen exactly the same thing."

The creature walked through undergrowth before disappearing into nearby woods.

"I wasn't scared," said Mrs Reese. "How far away it was I couldn't say, but I wish I had a pair of binoculars with me to get a closer look."

Now the Argus is offering £200 to the first person who catches the beast on camera.

This sighting is the latest of about 40 in Gwent since 11-year-old Josh Hopkins was allegedly attacked by a big cat near his home in Trellech, near Monmouth, last year.

Police say a creature has been spotted in Chepstow, Caldicot, Monmouth, Trellech, Llandogo, Catbrook, Caerwent, Magor, Shirenewton and Devauden.

And a big cat was apparently spotted yards from the cornfield up a tree in Rogiet on Bank Holiday Monday.

But big cat expert Brian Bertrum, of Bristol Zoo, said: "It is always possible that it actually was a big cat but realistically it's unlikely. Perhaps the size of the animal was misjudged."

He said panthers and pumas in the wild would not be any threat to humans unless cornered.

Lydney-based big cat investigator Danny Nineham, chairman of the British Big Cat Society, is warning there may be six such animals wandering wild in Gwent.

On New Year's Day, a wild panther-like cat was blamed for killing a lamb and injuring five others on Nine Wells Farm, Catbrook.

* If you snap the beast, call our newsdesk on 01633 777219.

* Big cats were status symbols of wealth with rock stars and playboys during the 1960s and 1970s. But the Dangerous Animals Act 1981 made it more difficult and expensive to keep pumas, panthers and jaguars.

It said you needed a licence and adequate provision to keep them privately. And as many zoos were full of big cats, many people released their creatures into the wild - and that's where the boom in big cat sightings is believed to have started.

But there have been reported sightings of big cats as far back as 1455, according to the British Big Cat Society.

In the picture: Ann Reese, who was walking her dog when she says she saw the big cat cross the road.