Monday, September 08, 2025

The Healthy Trade Institute and the University of Tennessee partner to launch Nationwide Reptile, Amphibian (Herp) Adoption Program

A win-win for the pet trade and educating veterinary students

University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture

Eragon the Bearded Dragon — image:
In a unique partnership with the UT College of Veterinary Medicine, the Healthy Trade Institute offers a safe new beginning for pet reptiles and amphibians in need and also provides invaluable hands-on training for future veterinarians. HTI accepts pet amphibians, ball pythons, and bearded dragons, like Eragon pictured above, into the program. Other snake species will be accepted later this fall.
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Credit: Photo submitted by M. Gray, courtesy HTI.

The Healthy Trade Institute (HTI) announced the official launch of its nationwide Herp Adoption Program, a first-of-its-kind initiative that provides a health-verified, science-backed solution for surrendered reptiles and amphibians. Developed in a unique partnership with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, the program offers a safe new beginning for pet reptiles and amphibians in need and also provides invaluable hands-on training for future veterinarians.

The HTI Herp Adoption Program addresses a critical need in the pet trade for reputable and humane surrender options. Each animal entering the program receives a veterinary health assessment and is tested for common pathogens such as chytrid, ranavirus, adenovirus, and Cryptosporidium. This ensures that every animal rehomed through HTI is healthy, providing peace of mind to new owners and promoting a healthier pet trade.

“We are incredibly proud to partner with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine to bring this much-needed program to life,” said Matt Gray, president of The Healthy Trade Institute. “This is a win-win for the pet trade. We are not only giving surrendered herps the care and attention they deserve, but we are also providing crucial training opportunities that will help shape the next generation of exotic pet veterinarians.”

"This program also protects wild amphibians and reptiles by reducing the likelihood that unwanted pets are released into the wild,” said Emi Knafo, a zoological medicine specialist at the veterinary college. “When owners have responsible alternatives, ecosystems stay healthier and responsible pet ownership is strengthened."

To sustain and expand this vital program, HTI is actively seeking donations from the public. Every contribution directly funds the veterinary care, pathogen testing, housing, and food for the surrendered animals, ensuring they receive the best possible care.

The program is currently accepting pet amphibians, bearded dragons and ball pythons. The HTI will expand to all snake species (excluding Burmese and reticulated pythons) in October 2025, with more reptile species added in 2026. The public is encouraged to stay tuned for future updates.

USF study: Reptile tongue movements could inspire biomedical and space tools

How the high-speed tongues of salamanders and chameleons could unlock engineering breakthroughs

University of South Florida

Key takeaways:

Salamanders and chameleons, despite evolving in different habitats, use the same “slingshot” tongue mechanism powered by ordinary tissues, tendons and bone.
This biological design could be scaled for human applications, from biomedical devices that clear blood clots to large-scale tools for disaster recovery or space exploration.
The findings underscore how nature’s solutions can guide technological innovation.

TAMPA, Fla. (Sept. 8, 2025) – The tongues of chameleons and salamanders might not seem like the inspiration for tomorrow’s engineering innovations, but inside the University of South Florida’s Deban Laboratory, biology and engineering are colliding to reveal how nature’s designs could help solve real-world challenges on Earth and beyond.

A new study from USF postdoctoral researcher Yu Zeng and integrative biology Professor Stephen Deban shows for the first time that salamanders and chameleons – though worlds apart in evolution – use the same biological mechanism to fire their tongues at extreme speeds. The discovery, published on the cover of the Sept. 8 edition of Current Biology, not only deepens understanding of animal movement but also opens the door to engineering applications inspired by nature.

Chameleons and salamanders thrive in very different habitats – with chameleons inhabiting warm, arboreal environments and salamanders favoring moist habitats such as rivers, ponds, leaf litter and caves.

“They have actually never met each other in the wild,” Zeng said.

And yet, the USF team found both groups developed a remarkably similar “ballistic” tongue-firing system.

“They evolved the same architecture in their bodies to fire their tongues at high speed,” Zeng explained. “What’s surprising is that they achieve this using the same ordinary tissues, tendons and bone that other vertebrates have.”

Deban, who has studied animal movements for more than three decades, said Zeng brought a new lens to the research. A specialist in insect flight, Zeng expanded the scope of the lab’s work by connecting biomechanics with engineering possibilities.

Video analysis collected over more than a decade in Deban’s lab shows that both salamanders and chameleons can project their tongues at speeds of up to 16 feet per second. The study is the first to place these species side by side and reveal a unifying mechanical model.

The mechanism works much like a slingshot, and that’s what excites Zeng and Deban about its potential beyond the animal world.

“This mechanism can be scaled up or down, using soft or flexible materials,” Zeng said. “We’re already talking with engineers about possible biomedical applications, like devices that could clear blood clots. On a larger scale, it could inspire tools to retrieve objects in hard-to-reach places like a collapsed building or even grabbing debris in outer space.”

The researchers plan to expand their studies to examine how animal tongues retract with such speed and precision. Their work reflects the growing scientific movement of “bioinspiration,” in which researchers develop new technologies by adapting solutions already perfected in nature.

“It is gratifying to have a unifying story about these amazing tongues, as well as potential engineering applications after so many years of focusing on the biology of these animals,” Deban said. “Nature has already solved these problems, now we’re learning how to adapt those solutions for us.”

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