This is the rare moment when elusive snow leopards can be seen and heard making loud mating calls.

Footage shows what appear to be several different snow leopards emitting loud meows that almost sound like growling as they search for a mate in the Sayano-Shushenski Nature Reserve of the West Sayan Mountains in south Siberia, Russia, on December 26.

Officials from the Sayano-Shushenski Nature Reserve said: 'Photo traps installed at marking points help to hear the snow leopards in the reserve.

'They communicate by rumbling, hissing, meowing and snorting sounds. The mating song of the snow leopard resembles a rough and at the same time gentle meow.'

The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia.

The species is listed as 'Vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is primarily threatened by poaching and habitat destruction due to infrastructure development.

Estimates suggest that fewer than 10,000 mature individuals remain in the wild, with numbers expected to decline by about 10 per cent by 2040.