The carcass of a rhino has been found at the Shamwari Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth.
This marks the first rhino poaching in the Eastern Cape for 2019 and the third killed on the reserve since mid-2018.
The discovery was made late on Tuesday but officials returned to the scene on Wednesday to gather evidence.
In 2018, a total of 19 rhinos were killed in the Eastern Cape.
Police spokesperson Colonel Sibongile Soci said investigators were waiting for a postmortem to be conducted.
During poachings, most rhinos are either darted or shot.
Soci said both horns had been removed.
In December, a white rhino cow was killed and her horns removed at the Lombardini Game Farm near Jeffreys Bay.
Shamwari security head Rodney Visser said the latest killing took place 300m off one of the main roads.
“We are obviously shocked. “We couldn’t see where they came in. We [took] our dogs and searched the whole area.”
Visser said security was increased significantly during a full moon.