forest, and other remote crater lakes may have been inhabitable due to the birds' requirements for shallower water. Its previous habitat in the Lake Alaotra basin was disturbed by rice cultivation and invasive introduced fishes. Behaviour Madagascar pochards do not migrate, do not usually form flocks, and are usually found in pairs or as single ducks. Diet and feeding The Madagascar pochard spends 38% of its day feeding. The diet is dominated by aquatic insects; a study examining their faeces found that caddisflies were the most commonly found insect, followed by dragonfly larvae, bugs (Hemiptera) and flies from the family Chironomidae. 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. The bird dives for much of its food, with a mean diving time of around 24 seconds. Ducklings feed on the surface until they are old enough to dive, at around 14 days, and make shorter dives once they do dive (around 10 seconds). Breeding Observers have noted nesting behavior from July to February, sometimes with multiple attempts at nesting. 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. Relationship with humans Decline The duck probably started to decline dramatically sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. 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. Adult birds are also likely to have become victims of introduced fishes. Rice cultivation, cattle grazing on the shores, burning of shore vegetation, introduced mammals (rats), gill-net fishing and hunting are all factors that led to the duck's disappearance from the lake. The last record of multiple birds at Lake Alaotra is from 9 June 1960 when a small flock of about 20 birds was spotted on the lake. Despite the rarity of the species in 1960, a male was shot, and the specimen is now held by the Zoological Museum Amsterdam. There is a very dubious report of a sighting made outside Antananarivo in 1970. Rediscovery and reintroduction Before it was rediscovered in 2006, the last confirmed sighting of the species was at Lake Alaotra on the Central Plateau of Madagascar in 1991. The single male then encountered was