Surveys in the late 1990s recorded the species at 25 'Important Bird Areas' distributed throughout Madagascar, but it is suspected to be undergoing rapid declines.

Nests are built on a floating structure of aquatic plants, anchored to offshore vegetation, normally waterlilies.

One of the most serious threats for the species is natural habitat loss by conversion for rice cultivation and cash crops.

The introduction of exotic herbivorous fish (Coptodon zillii) has considerably limited the development of aquatic vegetation and favoured the little grebe (T. ruficollis).

[1] The present decline in the population is expected to accelerate over the next 10 years as increasing wetland conversion and overfishing continues to restrict the species to small lakes that are inaccessible and unsuitable for human use.

The Malagasy government has recently ratified the Ramsar Convention, which is likely to improve conservation measures for wetlands and initiate dedicated studies of the decline of this species.