The fauna and flora of Madagascar, Africa's Great Red Island, can be described as fitting what botanist Quentin C. B. Cronk recently called the “diversity and stability paradox” of island biogeography. The diversity paradox is that, despite the existence of numerous unique island taxa (whose loss would drastically impact the taxonomic diversity of represented groups), the actual species diversity (or richness) of island biota is typically low in comparison with that of like-sized continental landmasses. The stability paradox is that, although island flora and fauna may appear to be stable (as many of the taxa are ancient in origin), they are highly susceptible to rapid change and decimation, particularly when subjected to human colonization.