Happy feet make for a happy penguin

October 29, 2012

Pip the penguin gets a massage Alison Edmunds, an exhibit manager at Melbourne Aquarium, shares her unique technique for bringing injured penguins back to health.

ALISON Edmunds isn't your average masseuse. Instead of applying her fingers to tense human necks, her massage therapy is geared to penguins.

''When I tell people that I massage penguins, the response is shock,'' she says.
But, according to Ms Edmunds, the positive effect that massage can have on an animal, just like on a person, is often immediate.

 

Ready for therapy: Sarina Walsh ensures Pip the king penguin is comfortable as masseuse Alison Edmunds works on his leg. Photo: Joe Armao

''They may not be able to say 'Ahh that feels better!' and go back to their office job, but they'll walk off and join the flock, and have a swim, and do their normal thing.''

Massaging penguins is a virtually unheard-of practice, but Ms Edmunds - an animal husbandrist at Melbourne Aquarium and qualified remedial masseuse - says physical therapy takes a ''holistic approach'' to healing and is a genuine treatment option.

''These days, we often pop a pill, and we've put that onto our animals,'' she says. ''Massage therapy will care for not only the injured leg, but also the leg that's taking more of the load while the injury is healing,'' she says.

And massages aren't strictly reserved for the penguins at Melbourne Aquarium.
An injured shark was the first to be treated to one of Ms Edmunds' rubs, and the team at the aquarium firmly believe that massage saved the creature's life.

After working with several sharks, and even fish, the aquarium vet suggested Ms Edmunds have a go with a penguin that hadn't responded to pain medication, and whose X-ray came back clear.
''The results spoke for themselves. Not only was the walking behaviour improved, but the social behaviour of the bird improved as well.''

While penguins have evolved to be resilient to ice-related injuries, Ms Edmunds says there is that occasional time a penguin leaps from the water and gets hurt. And that's when it pays to be living at Melbourne Aquarium.

''These penguins have got to be the luckiest birds in captivity!''

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