Frogs, like toads, were once thought to have peculiar properties, and were frequently used in healing charms, and in others of a slightly less innocent nature.
A well known country cure for thrush was to hold a live frog with its head in the patient's mouth. As it breathed, so it drew the disease away and into itself. Warts could also be cured by rubbing a frog across them.

The dried body of a frog worn in a silk bag around the neck averted epilepsy and other fits. Frogs were also used in love-magic. In one tale, a girl, whose lover was untrue stuck pins all over a living frog and then buried it. The young man suffered extreme pains and eventually returned to her. She dug up the frog and removed the pins, after which the pains ceased. The man, perhaps rather unwisely, married her.

A frog brings good luck to the house it enters.

Poison Dart frogs (also called poison arrow frogs) come in a variety of brilliant and striking colors and patterns. But it's not just a pretty name to go with a pretty frog -- tribes native to the rainforests where the frogs live use the poisonous secretions from their skin to tip their arrows and darts. Some species are so toxic that they can kill within seconds after their poison enters the bloodstream.

Of the 23 crocodilian species, 12 are vulnerable or endangered! Humans hunt crocs for their skins (to make shoes and luggage) and some have suffered from habitat loss.
The American Alligator was once considered endangered, but, through captive breeding programs and environmental protection plans, it has made a comeback. Crocodile conservation groups are now turning their attention to other crocodilians in need.

The Gharial is among the largest of all the crocodilian species—males can grow 23 feet in length! It is also one of the most endangered crocs on the planet, with only 1,000 individuals remaining. Adults mainly eat fish, and their snouts’ thin shape enables them to cut through water like a knife, with little water resistance. In a snap, they catch fish in their mouths and their 110 sharp teeth ensure that the Gharials have a firm grip on their struggling, slippery bodies

Most memorable animal stories of 2011

Heidi the exceptionally cross-eyed opossum became an Internet star. Knut the polar bear, missing cobra...

http://shine.yahoo.com/pets/top-11-animal-stories-2011-213200672.html

Research published in the latest issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology illustrates a complex series of changes that occur in grizzly bears' hearts as they hibernate. The changes guard against complications that could arise from greatly reduced activity.

A grizzly hibernates five to six months of the year. During that time, its heart rate slows drastically from around 84 beats per minute when active to around 19. "If a human heart were to slow down like this, you'd see very detrimental things happening," said Bryan Rourke, a professor at Cal State Long Beach who worked on the research with his graduate student, Nathan Barrows.

Such a slow beat causes blood to pool in the heart's four chambers. In a human, the increased pressure would cause the chambers to stretch out. The dilated muscle would be weaker and less efficient, leading ultimately to congestive heart failure.

"Bears are able to avoid this," Rourke said, "and we're interested in how they do it."

Barrows and Rourke worked with Lynne Nelson and Charles Robbins, researchers at Washington State University who have been studying bears for years. They operate a facility at Washington State where grizzlies have been raised since birth and acclimated to echocardiogram testing. Research at the facility is providing crucial insight into the mysteries of the hibernating heart.

Nelson and Robbins had previously shown that, during hibernation, the muscle of a bear's left ventricle stiffens to prevent it from stretching as blood accumulates. But the stiffening of the ventricle presents another problem. The left atrium, which pushes blood into the left ventricle, must then work against greater resistance.

"The atrium is pushing against a brick wall," Rourke said. "We thought there must be some kind of mechanism to keep the atrial muscle from wearing itself out."

Using echocardiogram data from the captive bears at Washington State and tissue samples from wild bears, the researchers found that the atrium protects itself by weakening its beat.

Muscle contractions in the heart are controlled by a protein called myosin heavy chain. The protein comes in two varieties, alpha and beta. The alpha version produces a quicker but slightly weaker contraction compared to the beta. "We found that the muscle in the left atrium produces more alpha protein during hibernation, which results in a slightly weaker beat," Rourke said. "The lower force keeps the atrium from being damaged as it pushes against the stiffer ventricle."

When the bears emerge from hibernation, the protein ratio switches back and the atrial contraction returns to its original strength.

The researchers believe this is the first study to show a shift in myosin ratio in bears, and they hope the information might someday have an application for humans.

"Bears aren't a perfect model for humans, but the way in which a bear's heart can change could be helpful in understanding human disease," Rourke said. "It's a really interesting physiology."