Five people have stood trial in a northern China court for the illegal poaching, killing and sale of rare snow leopards.
A zoo in Qinghai province offered 30,000 yuan ($A5855) for three cubs allegedly captured by the suspects in neighbouring Gansu province in July 2014, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The cubs died of suffocation en route to the zoo in December, Xinhua said.
The court would announce its ruling at a later date, the state-run agency reported.
The Qinghai zoo was not named in the report and there was no indication if the buyer was also being prosecuted.
The alleged poachers face fines and a maximum sentence of 10 years under 2014 legislation that criminalised the buying or selling of wild animal parts if either party "knows or should know" the animal was illegally hunted.
China has about 2000 of the world's estimated 4080 to 6590 snow leopards and numbers are declining, according to international wildlife protection groups.
