on frogs is rare in those locations. Threats The main threat for survival of this species is the continual loss of habitat due to the clearing, drainage, and conversion of their wetland environments to rice fields. Moreover, the exploitation of eggs and young is prevalent at many of the breeding sites poses generational problems. As a result, their population has declined dramatically over the last 50 years. However, a recently established resource management process labelled GELOSE has helped significantly decrease activity in this species habitat. An equally dangerous threat to their survival is competition with the squacco heron, which is spreading vigorously and seems to be more adaptable to man-made structures and icons that encroach on their habitat. This form of heron greatly outnumbers the Malagasy pond heron in Madagascar and appears to have increased while endemic species has declined. Although they are vastly outnumbered, the Malagasy pond heron is presumed to dominate in the interspecific interactions. Breeding The breeding of the Malagasy pond heron is colonial, meaning that a large congregation occurs at a particular location for mating. However, both colony size and location numbers have dwindled over the past thirty years. Colony size has dropped from 700 individuals to around 50 whilst breeding locations are limited to only a few colony sites. In Madagascar, colonies are located in phragmite reedbeds, typha, papyrus and Cyprus stands with coastal islands also being of extreme importance. Moreover, breeding in Madagascar has resulted in a mixed colony of heron species that include the black-crowned night heron, little egret, cattle egret, great egret, and the squacco heron. The largest colony of the Malagasy pond heron on record was around 500 pairs in Imerimanjaka Cyperus marsh, near Antananarivo. These 500 pairs were also mixed with 1,500 pairs of squacco herons, resulting in the largest breeding colony of African herons in 1940. Unfortunately, current day pairs usually never exceed 10. Like many other bird species, the Malagasy pond heron faces an abundance of predators and as such must nest in trees and bushes in hard-to-access ponds and marshes. The main predator of this heron include the various species of crocodile that inhabit the range and also snakes, should they grow large enough. To ward off ground threats, the breeding nests are built 1 to 4 metres above the ground. Should the population colony be mixed with other avian species, they will always occupy the higher