[1] From danger, they also escape preferentially by diving; hence, the namesake white back is hardly visible in life.

The latter lives entirely on Madagascar and is considered endangered as a result of hunting, habitat loss and the introduction of competing exotic species.

The white-backed duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

They found a total of 37, indicating the significance of this single site for the conservation of this insular subspecies.

[2] Young, et al. (2006) suggested that an earlier population estimate of 2,500–5,000 total birds in Madagascar by Delany and Scott[3] may be too optimistic.