Inside the forensic academy where future guardians battle poaching

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

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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 centre that aims to fight poaching by teaching investigation skills to rangers, conservation officers and law enforcement.

Set inside a warehouse in a private game reserve an hour north of Cape Town, the simulated carnage is staged with taxidermied animals, including rhino “Frikkie” who was poached a few years ago.

“The first people who arrive at the crime scene are absolutely crucial,” said Phil Snijman, a former prosecutor and trainer at the academy.

“They are the ones who will secure the crime scene. In the absence of the necessary training... that might lead to losing a lot of your available evidence,” he said, putting the last touches to an elaborate scene leading the students to a poacher's house in a corner of the warehouse.