Pelophylax porosus
Silhouette: Beth Reinke · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The Daruma pond frog (Pelophylax porosus) is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It has two subspecies, P. porosus porosus (the Tokyo Daruma pond frog) and P. porosus brevipodus (the Nagoya Daruma pond frog). It is endemic to Japan. The average size of males is 3.5 to 6.2 cm, while females are from 3.7 to 7.3 cm.
Its natural habitats are temperate grassland, rivers, freshwater marshes, ponds, irrigated land, and canals and ditches. Their primary habitat is rice fields, as it is important for breeding and producing new frogs. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
The Daruma pond frog's diet consists primarily of insects and spiders. However, they also will consume ants, beetles, dipterans, bugs, pond snails and orthopterans. They hunt by utilizing their hind-legs to jump at prey that come within their feeding range.
Daruma pond frogs' breeding occurs during April to July, and their lifespans within 3 to 4 years. Wikipedia →
Recording0:13
Japan · 2025
© taiwan_habu · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:15
Japan · 2023
© mami_t_t · iNaturalist · CC BY 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toba Aquarium | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Tennōji Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 3 | Inokashira Park Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 4 | Ueno Zoological Gardens (West Garden) | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 5 | Lake Biwa Museum | 🇯🇵 Japan |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Daruma Pond Frog sighting in Tokyo on a given day, based on 56 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 3rd most-seen of the 11 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–June and August–September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Daruma Pond Frog in Tokyo on a given day, against under 5% in July and October–March, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Daruma Pond Frog sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Tokyo, in our data
Tokyo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Daruma Pond Frog sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Daruma Pond Frog is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Tokyo (56 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
