. The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia and the Pacific. Australia. The spotted tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), a marsupial carnivore of the Australian ram forest, has suffered from forest fragmentation and from the skin toxins of the introduced cane toad. WWF/G. D. Baker lemuroides. Amongst plants, however, it is not at all clear what exact effect forest clearance and fragmentation has had on species loss over the years. Individuals are scattered, most species are uncommon or rare, and no information for documenting changes has been recorded. The exotic cane toad Bufo mannus has
. The Conservation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia and the Pacific. Australia. The spotted tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), a marsupial carnivore of the Australian ram forest, has suffered from forest fragmentation and from the skin toxins of the introduced cane toad. WWF/G. D. Baker lemuroides. Amongst plants, however, it is not at all clear what exact effect forest clearance and fragmentation has had on species loss over the years. Individuals are scattered, most species are uncommon or rare, and no information for documenting changes has been recorded. The exotic cane toad Bufo mannus has spread into many deforested areas and its lethal skin toxin has had a devastating effect on many animals. Carnivores such as quolls seem to be sensitive to the toad's poison and the spotted-tailed quoll is now thought to have suffered a major population reduction as a result. Its conservation prognosis is poor (Winter, 1985). Feral pigs also cause severe wildlife manage- ment problems by upsetting the balance of indigenous species. Conservation Areas Most of the rain forest in the Townsville to Cooktown region was included in the World Heritage list in 1988(IUCN, 1988; Government of Australia, 1988). Figure shows the boundary of the World Heritage site. Under Australian commonwealth government legisla- tion linked to the World Heritage Convention, all further disturbance of rain forests has been prohibited. World Heritage listing supersedes earlier conservation measures, summarised in Table This decision was challenged by the Queensland Government in 1989, but the elections later that year brought in a new government and the challenge to World Heritage status has been dropped. Not all forest types or areas of particular biological interest were included in the original reserves. Webb (1966) identified a number of areas having high conservation interest and Queensland Department of Forestry (1983) has provided an analysis of subsequent changes. Webb (1987) noted othe
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