Sources & photo credits

About this guide

A growing, species-first field guide to the wildlife of Japan: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This edition lists about 850 species, about 750 of them with photographs.

How the species list was built

Species come from open reference lists whose ranges include Japan (the Mammal Diversity Database, the IOC World Bird List and the Reptile Database), plus species with at least 50 GBIF occurrence records in Japan (retrieved September 2026). Species with only 5 to 49 records, which can be vagrants, escapes or misidentifications, are held back until they have been checked by hand. Domestic animals, fossils and species extinct in Japan are left out, and duplicate entries under old and new scientific names have been merged. Common names follow the same lists, then the other Wildlife of Everywhere guides, then Wikipedia. Japanese names (wamei) are shown where the Red List gives one.

Birds that turn up only occasionally, such as scarce migrants and vagrants, carry a Rare visitor label. The label is based on how often the species appears in GBIF records for the country (in how many years, and in which months), so treat it as a guide: a rare visitor can still be regular at the right place and season.

Conservation status

Status labels are Japan's own national categories from the Ministry of the Environment Red List: the Red List 2020 for mammals and the 5th Red List for birds, reptiles and amphibians. They describe how threatened a species is within Japan, which can differ from its status worldwide. LP marks a threatened local population. Where the Red List assesses only one Japanese subspecies (often an island form), the label says "subspecies" and names it on the species page; the species as a whole may be common. Global IUCN categories are never used.

Reference sources

• Ministry of the Environment, Japan: Red List 2020 (mammals) and 5th Red List (birds, reptiles, amphibians): conservation status labels and Japanese names
• Mammal Diversity Database: mammal names and ranges (CC BY 4.0)
• IOC World Bird List: bird names and taxonomy
• The Reptile Database: reptile taxonomy and distribution (via Catalogue of Life, CC BY 4.0)
• GBIF · Japan: occurrence records used to check the lists
• Ministry of the Environment · National Parks of Japan: park and visitor information

Planning a visit

Mountain roads and trails close from late autumn to spring, island ferries run to fixed and weather-dependent timetables, and some sites limit numbers or close to protect wildlife. Check with the park, the local tourist office or your operator before you travel rather than relying on the details here.

Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. The species listed for each place are what is realistically possible there, not what you should expect on a given day.

Your plans and sightings

Your trip plan and sightings are saved in this browser, on this device only. We never see them. Clearing your browser data will clear them too, so download the PDF if you want a copy to keep. Email buttons open a draft in your mail app; nothing is sent until you send it.

Photo credits

Photographs come from iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences, or were taken by the Wildlife of Everywhere team. Each one keeps its photographer's name, licence and a link to the original.

Photographs are chosen to show the species clearly, so many were taken elsewhere in its range rather than in Japan. Tap the i on any photograph to see who took it. The full list is below.

View all photo credits