Based on the accounts written by Webb and Delacour's in the 1920s and 1930s it seemed that the bird was still relatively common at Lake Alaotra.

Breeding males have dark chestnut heads, chins, throats, breasts, and necks, with blackish brown on the top side of the body.

[5] Vocalizations may include "[when] in display [...] the male utters a cat-like wee-oow and a rolling rrr, while the female gives a harsh squak.

[8][6] Its previous habitat in the Lake Alaotra basin was disturbed by rice cultivation and invasive introduced fishes.

Stable isotope analysis and the faecal studies have shown that their diet includes very little plant material, which is unusual when compared to their relatives in the genus Aythya.

Nests are found 20–40 cm above water, in the plants along the lake or marsh edges (noted in Cyperaceae), with 6 to 10 eggs per clutch.

The cause of decline was the introduction of numerous fish species in the lake that killed most of the pochard chicks and damaged nesting sites.

Despite the rarity of the species in 1960, a male was shot, and the specimen was held by the Zoological Museum Amsterdam, and later the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

However, a flock of nine adults and four recently hatched ducklings were discovered at Lake Matsaborimena, in a remote area of northern Madagascar, in November 2006.

[7] The species was placed in the new "Possibly Extinct" category in the 2006 IUCN Red List; following the rediscovery, its old status of Critically Endangered was restored in the 2007 issue.

[14] By the end of 2009, the organizations, including The Peregrine Fund, collected three clutches for 24 eggs to hatch 23 ducklings in total.