The rhino lay frozen in the sand, its grey legs stiff, glassy eyes open, horn crudely sawed off.

A dead giraffe slumped nearby and a lion's twisted body to the right — a tableau of devastation.

Three figures in white hazmat suits tip-toed through the dust, marking every footprint. They were not first responders to another poaching tragedy, but students at South Africa's Wildlife Forensic Academy, a training center aiming to fight poaching by teaching investigation skills to rangers, conservation officers and law enforcement.