The best way to monitor progress is to keep track of the new records. If we stop getting new records of species then surely we have covered the entire area adequately and there is not point in continuing. Fortunately, we had a computer programme that checked the data as it came in, and it also kept records of our new species per each batch run.

We did this at two scales - the 1:50 000 maps or QDS (quarter degree sqaures) and at a quarter of a 1:50 000 map (or eighth degree square or EDS). We also had to choose a cut-off point, becuase new data would always come in. We chose 1 new record per 500 Sight Record Sheets (or 0.2 records per SRS) as being close enough to nothing. What were the results?

For the QDS we reached stopped getting in new data at around 40 000 SRS. We thus adequately atlassed the Cape at this scale.

However, at the EDS we were still getting an average of 1 new record for every 12 SRS sent in. We were obviously not yet approaching zero when the project stopped at 60 000 SRS.