European regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)

The Agile Frog (Rana dalmatina) is near-endemic to Europe. It is assessed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a threatened category.

This species is widely distributed throughout central, and Western Europe, the Apennine Peninsula, southeastern Europe, the entire Balkan Peninsula, including European Türkiye (Thrace), a number of isolated populations in southern Scandinavia, the Channel island of Jersey (GB), a small part of Poland and southernmost parts of Ukraine (Heatwole and Wilkinson 2015). It is absent from the Iberian Peninsula, except Álava, Burgos and Navarra Provinces in northern Spain (Gosá and Bergerandi 1994). It has been introduced to Drenthe, the Netherlands (not mapped; Speybroeck et al. 2016). It occurs from sea level to elevations approaching 1,700 m asl. The area of occupancy (AOO) has not been estimated but is presumed to be large, and the extent of occurrence (EEO) are also large, at both EU 27 and pan Europe scales.

Out of the Europe region, the species extends to northern parts of Anatolia in Türkiye (Baran et al. 2021).

It is a relatively abundant species, however, the population trend is suspected to be declining. The species is common in much of central, eastern and southeastern Europe (e.g. Hungary, Romania, the former Yugoslavian countries). It is scarce to uncommon in northern Europe (e.g. Sweden, Denmark). In Spain, it is extremely rare within its small area of occurrence.

It inhabits the zone of European deciduous forests, either within the forests or in the adjacent meadows (Speybroeck et al. 2016). It generally it does not occur in pasture, arable areas or coniferous forests. In Spain the species is restricted to Quercus pedunculata oak forest, and is associated with wet meadows. It spawns in small wetlands (pools, fens and marshes, ditches) within forests and at their edges. High levels of larval mortality have been recorded.

It is generally but locally threatened by the drainage and eutrophication of breeding sites, development (and logging) of suitable habitat, and replacement of deciduous forest habitat with unsuitable coniferous species. It is locally threatened by road mortality during breeding migrations. It is experiencing localised declines in southwestern Europe. In the Balkan peninsula, it is one of the amphibian species jeopardised by uncontrolled establishment of run-of-river small hydropower plants (Crnobrnja-Isailović et al. 2021).

This species has been utilised for local subsistence in parts of its range (e.g., Szilárd and Csengele 2001), which is thought to be causing local declines, however, the current occurrence and extent of harvest is not known.

Conservation in Place
It is listed on Appendix II the Bern Convention and on Appendix IV of the EU Habitats Directive.

The species is protected by national legislation in many countries and is recorded in several national and sub-national Red Data books and lists. It is considered Endangered in Switzerland (Schmidt et al. 2023), Vulnerable in Slovenia (Anonymous 2010) and Romania (Botnariuc and Tatole 2005), Near Threatened in Czechia (Chobot and Něměc 2017), Austria (Gollmann 2007) and Sweden (ArtDatabanken 2020). In some other national Red Lists, such as Denmark (Aarhus Universitet 2019).

The Agile Frog is present in many protected areas. Conservation initiatives involving head-starting have been undertaken for the small Jersey population which have been remarkably successful. In parts of its range, mitigation measures to reduce road kill have been established. In Spain, it is an endangered species (Pleguezuelos et al. 2002) and there are habitat restoration and population monitoring efforts ongoing. In some parts of its range, there have been successful efforts to restore pond habitats.

There were eight EC-funded LIFE-projects targeting the species or its habitats: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/life/publicWebsite/search/get?basicSearchText=rana+dalmatina

Conservation Needed
Water management should target the restoration of water bodies, serving as breeding habitat for the species throughout its range, but especially within EU Natura 2000 network.

Research Needed
Monitoring of populations for the presence and effects of Bd infection or other emerging pathogens need to be organised throughout its range (Kostanjšek et al. 2021).