Farmers are being terrorised by mystery creatures ripping open cages, killing animals and bellowing chilling howls in the night.

Some blamed a pack of wild dogs, but others insisted mythical creatures called Yowies were the culprit and were determined to find proof.

Dave Taylor, from Sunshine Coast Yowie Research, is hunting the Australian bigfoot after numerous reports from worried local residents.

‘We have over the last few weeks had countless reports of howls, smells and other evidence… it can be a very aggressive area,’ he said.

Mr Taylor and several others hunted the yowie on Saturday night between Wamuran and Woodford, west of Caboolture, and found fresh prints.

‘It came from the bush, which was really thick at that point, and walked around for a few steps and disappeared,’ he said.

‘The initial footprint was deep in the ground like it jumped from the bush onto the track and then disappeared with no other prints anywhere.’

Mr Taylor said the prints could have come from a juvenile yowie and were too broad and arched too differently to be from a human.

‘We found a lot of fresh breaks in trees and a possible print as we headed back out of the track we found a branch laid across our track that wasn’t there on the way in,’ he said.

The group’s hunt followed three guinea fowls being torn to pieces when their cage was ripped open on a strawberry farm in the area.

Neighbours reported the birds being thrown around by ‘something invisible’, leaving only blood and feathers behind along with a ‘huge paw print’.

Another supposed sighting of a yowie from earlier this year on the Sunshine Coast

Neighbours reported the birds being thrown around by ‘something invisible’, leaving only blood and feathers behind along with a ‘huge paw print’

Mr Taylor said two months ago several sheep were also taken and another local claimed to have seen a yowie walking around in the nearby Glasshouse Mountains.

Then two weeks ago a couple staying at the Beerburrum Motel, next to the mountains, said they heard strange howls.

‘The howls were too high pitched and went on for too long to be a dog, which is what you usually hear for a yowie,’ Mr Taylor said.

‘You can tell the difference because the dogs sound scared when we heard them last night instead of aggressive when they bark back at them.’

Mr Taylor said the Sunshine Coast was a yowie hotspot and they would move slowly around the bush along the coast and do a whole loop of more than 80km in about two years.

‘When they come back to a location and new estates have been built it causes a lot of conflict,’ he said.

The group planned new hunts soon after what they saw on Saturday night and called on residents to contact them with any sightings.

‘Keep a eye on your livestock and make sure you lock your animals up including your dogs if you see something outside and not sure what it is please do not investigate,’ he said.