Frogs

The Common frog is well spread all over the Netherlands. It lives in hunid places beneath hedges, in meadows next to canals and ditches. It is mainly nightly active and only in spring enters the water for mating, or on hot days in dry periods to prevent dehydrating.

Edible frogs (Rana klepton esculentus) is a fertile hybrid between Pool frog and marsh frog. It has a green to brown back (sometimes with dark spots) and often a lighter stripe on the back. The belly is white, mostly marbled grey. It can grow to 12 cm. It has relatively long hind legs. Males have grey blow cheeks.

The Poolforg (Rana lessonae) is the smalles of the three green frogs in the Netherlands. Its back is grass green (sometimes with dark spots). It has a white belly and relatively short hind legs. It's maximum size is 8 cm. In mating season, males get yellowish green with gold-coloured eyes.

The marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus) is the largest frog native to Europe and belongs to the family of true frogs. It is very similar in appearance to the closely related edible frog and pool frog. These three species, now again in the genus Pelophylax, are often referred to as "green frogs" to distinguish them from the more terrestrial European Rana species, which are known as "brown frogs" (best exemplified by the common frog Rana temporaria).

The family the moor frog belongs to, Ranidae, is a broad group containing 605 species. The family is like a “catch-all” for ranoid frogs that do not belong to any other families.[2] Since this is the case, the characteristics that define them are more general, and the frogs are found all throughout the world, on every continent but Antarctica. The moor frog’s genus, Rana, is a little more specific. Frogs of this genus are found in Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. The moor frog is not found in either of the Americas, unlike the foothill yellow-legged frog, Cascades frog, and Columbia spotted frog, which are all found in North America. The moor frog’s scientific name, Rana arvalis means "frog of the fields".[3] It is also called the Altai brown frog because frogs from the Altai Mountains in Asia have been included in the R. arvalis species. The Altai frogs have some different characteristics such as shorter shins, but currently there is no official distinction and all frogs are placed under Rana arvalis.[1] The taxonomy may be more defined in the future.

The Iberian water frog lives in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) as its name suggests but it is also known as Perez’s frog (Pelophylax perezi) and the Iberian green frog. Its scientific name used to be Rana perezi, and this is still used by many zoologists and naturalists.