Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches? ;) Woodpeckers are known for their uncanny ability to extract insects from trees and their maniacal, contagious laughter. But one thing we could never understand is how they manage to avoid painful migraines, despite striking trees with their beaks at the rate of 20 times per second. As one ophthalmology expert eloquently put it, “That is equivalent to striking a wall at 16 miles an hour—face first—each time.” That’s why researchers decided in 2011 to study exactly how woodpeckers manage to avoid brain injuries. They filmed the birds’ pecking with high-speed cameras and measured its impact using a special force sensor. They also analyzed the structure of the woodpecker’s head and its effect on protecting the birds’ brains. They found that the “morphology of cranial bone and beak” are the primary factors in preventing impact injuries. It turns out that a bird that gets food by rapidly smashing its head against trees is carefully built to withstand such activity. Who would have thought?
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:27:50 +0000
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