Endangered
Madagascar Grebe
Tachybaptus pelzelnii
The Madagascar grebe is a grebe found only in western and central Madagascar.
Appearance
It can be identified in its breeding plumage, consisting of a blackish cap and line down the neck, often reddish rear ear-coverts and sides of the neck, pale grey cheeks, throat and foreneck.
The Madagascar grebe is around 25 cm long.
Published measurements include mass about 177.
Range and habitat
Pairs can commonly be found near lakes. 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. Numbers on Lake Alaotra have plummeted: in 1985 several hundred individuals were recorded, only 10–20 in 1993, and none in 1999.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The breeding season may span the months of August to March. Although breeding pairs are typically territorial, communally nesting groups of 150 individuals have been recorded.
Nests are built on a floating structure of aquatic plants, anchored to offshore vegetation, normally waterlilies.
In crisis
It is classified as endangered by the IUCN, with a population of less than 5,000. It is threatened by habitat loss, predation by carnivorous fish, and competition with introduced species. The Madagascar grebe is currently classified as endangered by the IUCN.
One of the most serious threats for the species is natural habitat loss by conversion for rice cultivation and cash crops. It is also being threatened by the introduction of exotic fish and fishery practice.
Madagascar Grebe is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Madagascar Grebe, Wikidata item Q656986. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
