"LeRoux carved Pete’s Pond into the landscape as his answer to the rampant poaching and senseless killing of Africa’s wildlife, acts that bothered him from the moment he arrived in 1985 to conduct a leopard research project as a graduate student from South Africa’s University of Pretoria. Back then a consortium of conservation-minded landowners had established the 183,178-acre (74,131-hectare) range as the Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Game, however, was scarce.
"Le Roux believed wildlife could repopulate the reserve if they avoided the Limpopo River, where poachers lurked. Using the remnants of an old irrigation system from the area’s failed attempts to grow cotton, he built a pond as an alternative watering source.
"The idea worked. Almost too well. Today some researchers are concerned that the thriving elephant and impala populations have outgrown the land. Plans are now being made to include the reserve as part of the proposed Limpopo/Shashe Transfrontier Conservation Area. This transfrontier park would expand the animals’ territory into a protected reserve in neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe.
" 'We have effectively taken an area that was unsuccessful agricultural land and turned it into a viable wildlife preserve,' says Le Roux as he gazes out on the pond. 'That is the most rewarding thing we’ve done here, to see the game come back.' ”
Source: http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica
/why_petes_pond.html