Recent years, amphibians have been declining worldwide. One of the major causes is habitat modification such as habitat loss and fragmentation. Urbanization is a typical habitat modification for amphibians in a lowland plain. However, biodiversity in urban areas is important to well-being of people, and it is socially important to conserve amphibians in urban areas. We aimed to understand factors determining amphibian distribution in urban areas.

We studied three amphibian species, Ezo salamander Hynobius retardatus, Ezo brown frog Rana pirica, Japanese tree frog Hyla japonica. 　We conducted egg mass surveys and chorus surveys in 29 parks which include ponds in Sapporo city. We measured park area and distance to large forest from parks, artificial shore protection and pond area as landscape and local habitat variables.

The area of parks and pond area had positive effect on amphibian distribution. The distance to large forest from parks had negative effect on amphibian distribution, implying that amphibians may disperse from large forest to parks in urban areas. Artificial shore protection had negative effect on Ezo salamander and Ezo brown frog, implying that local habitat conservation is important in conserving amphibians in urban areas.