Rana dalmatina, right ?!

[Vlad Cioflec]

I rescued a couple of amphibians from a well yesterday: Great Crested Newt, Marsh Frog, Pool Frog, and this very skinny Rana sp. pictured below in different postures. In that particular reserve both arvalis and dalmatina are present so i thought i`d better ask here .

There is one more photo of this individual, but since i am actually holding it, i`m not sure if posting a picture showing hands is the best idea to ask for help...

Here are some other half decent shots:

Habitat

Bufo bufo

Triturus cristatus

Long Eared Owl

Thank you!

[Tom Hoogesteger]

Yes, it's dalmatina. Arvalis has shorter legs.

[Vlad Cioflec]

I`m kinda sad it`s not the lifer Moor Frog i secretly hoped for , but also relieved to be sure about the identity of every creature we encountered. Thanks again Tom.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Arvalis has shorter legs.

I agree with Tom, but remember that animals from south and central Europe have somewhat longer legs than those further north. For that, they partially used to be the subspecies wolterstorffi.

[Tom Hoogesteger]

Hmm, You are right, Jeroen. I didn't think about that at all, I just had the short-legged Finnish arvalis in my mind.
How long legs do the southern arvalis actually have? Not this long, I suppose?
Vlad, do you have a profile shot of the animal?

[Mario Schweiger]

Here are two shots of arvalis from Seewinkel, Burgenland, Austria (ssp. "wolterstorffi").
Its even hard to distinguish by head profile or by distance/diameter of the tympanium.
A good indicator are the marbled flanks, although sometimes nearly invisible in light colored animals.

Mario

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Thanks, Mario!

A good indicator is also the size of the metatarsal tubercle, as well as size and distance to eye of the tympanum, but I'm sure we all know that.

[Vlad Cioflec]

Here is the last picture i have, excuse the hands, but as i said i was saving them from sure death:

[Tom Hoogesteger]

Thank you for the pictures, Mario. Some arvalis can have surprisingly long legs, indeed, but I would say this animal still has too long legs to be arvalis. In the last picture the very big eardrum is clearly visible, that makes it definately dalmatina.