Thirty percent of the total extant species are considered to be threatened species by the IUCN. The handful of critically endangered and extinct species of grebe are lake endemics and nearly all of them are or were flightless. Extinct species consists of the Alaotra grebe (T. rufolavatus), the Atitlán grebe, and the Colombian grebe (P. andinus). These species went extinct due to anthropogenic changes, such as habitat loss, the introduction of invasive predatory fishes, and the use of fishing nets that tangled birds in the lakes they once existed in. Similar issues are befalling the Colombian grebe's closest relatives, the Junin grebe and hooded grebe (P. gallardoi), along with climate change.
