Conservation researchers have captured snow leopards mating on camera for the first time ever.

Infrared cameras were installed in a leopard habitat located in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Qinghai province, covering 300 square kilometres, according to Xinhua.

The cameras captured 126 images of 13 leopards over five months as part of a leopard conservation project led by Sanshui Conservation Centre, aided by local volunteers who were trained to manage the cameras.

Among the images, which were retrieved this month, the snow leopard mating ritual can be observed for the first time in history.

A snow leopard can be seen on one of the videos digging a pit, which Lü Zhi, Professor of Conservation and Biology at Peking University, says leopards use to “recognise and locate” each other.

A potential mate can tell a lot from another leopard’s pit: “Especially during mating season chemical information such as urine and smell shows a snow leopard’s physical conditions and suggests sexual maturity,” said Professor Zhi.

There are only around 5,000 snow leopards left on earth, and it is important to conservationists that the remaining animals have healthy mating patterns.