How do you feel about snake massage? Does it sound like something exciting and not entirely terrifying?
If the idea of pythons slithering all around you while you are trying to relax is okay, then you might want to take a trip over to the Cebu City Zoo in the Philippines. This unconventional service is available for free and any interested person can try himself.
Meet your personal masseurs – Michelle, Walter, EJ and Daniel – all of them are Burmese pythons who are considered to be one of the five largest snakes in the world. The so-called spa-procedure consists of typical massage techniques administered by zoo staff members.
First the snakes are taken our of their cages and alternately placed on a visitor’s body, while he is silently lying down on a bamboo flooring in the open air. Then the ‘patient’ is slowly but thoroughly massaged for up to 15 minutes.
Like all snakes, Burmese pythons are carnivorous. Their diet consists primarily of appropriately sized birds and mammals. The snake uses its sharp rearward-pointing teeth to seize its prey, then wraps its body around the prey, at the same time contracting its muscles, killing the prey by constriction.
With four of the 5m-long snakes weighing a combined 250kg, there is no escape once the ‘treatment’ starts. In order to avoid accidents all the snakes are well fed – each python is fed 10 or more chickens beforehand – and volunteers are briefed on how to behave with the animals.
Safety precautions include: do not to blow air on the snake, as this makes them nervous; do not to shout for help as the snakes can feel your vibrations and think you’re prey or a predator; do not try to stand up on one’s own.
The snakes’ movement is believed to offer sensations that a massage therapist’s hands cannot, and being covered by the slithery serpents induces fear in customers, releasing adrenaline into the body — believed to positively affect metabolism.
