Habitat loss through deforestation is threatening the Madagascar owl.
Tyto soumagnei is known with certainty only from a circumscribed region of humid forest (elevations of recorded sites being 900 to 1,200m in eastern-central Madagascar. With habitat loss continuing, it has been seen only once (in 1973) in the wild since 1934, although a captive live specimen was discovered in August 1993 at Ahndapa, in Anjanaharibe Sud Special Reserve, some 300 km to the north of its known range.
Tyto soumagnei is listed by the IUCN Red List as "Endangered".