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Biodiversity Surveys of Poorly Known Coastal Forests of ...

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4.3. Limitations <strong>of</strong> the study<br />

A major limitation <strong>of</strong> the study was the season; the weather was dry and therefore many species<br />

were innactive and not able to be detected by trapping or other means; this was especially true<br />

for amphibians. Also due to dieback <strong>of</strong> most plant species during the season in which sampling<br />

was done, the identification was a problem making the checklist less exhaustive.<br />

Other limitations included transport, difficulties <strong>of</strong> logistics and local bureaucracy that <strong>of</strong>ten took<br />

hours and days to complete. Thus, in some cases days budgeted for field sampling were instead<br />

spent in lengthy discussions with local <strong>of</strong>ficials. We also realised that due to the size <strong>of</strong> the team<br />

and the amount <strong>of</strong> equipment required, the use <strong>of</strong> two large capacity, strong, four-wheel drive<br />

vehicles were needed. We were fortunate to be able to arrange this as well as for a 2 nd armed<br />

guard; it was only because <strong>of</strong> these arrangements that we were able to work efficiently and to<br />

sample vegetation and wildlife separately.<br />

Early during the fieldwork, it was recognised that it would not be possible to visit all <strong>of</strong> the sites<br />

noted in the TOR. We therefore focussed on those with the least data associated with them; in<br />

some cases the botanical team was able to visit sites not seen by the zoological team, but still<br />

made observations on wildlife.<br />

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