What can a woodpecker do, that you cannot do?
Woodpeckers have brains?
Who knew?
They peck on my rain gutters and chimney cap.
I guess they are just trying to make noise,
and show a potential mate they have big peckers...
When I see them they’re going for the rotten wood
I think woodpecker’s brains are somewhere down near their tail.
The take-home message of the study, apparently, is that to prevent CTE, you need to recruit bird-brained football players.
So the science wasnt settled after all? Im shocked like Claud Raines.
I wanna know how they developed that silly laugh.
To my knowledge, a woodpecker is no different than a human pecker when brain protection is considered. And an unprepared result happens many times disastrous.
wy69
The article seems to say that if woodpeckers did employ some sort of shock-absorbing technique, it would be like pounding on something with a pillow between their beaks and the targeted surface. How does that make sense?
Their shock-absorption system is a combination of things, most of which are on the inside of their heads. Their tongues wrap all the way around their brains, and the spongy bone which has layers of soft bone within is part of how they handle the impact. Their hyoid bone is also built for the pounding their head takes.
They certainly aren’t putting something between their beak and their targeted surface. They also look for hollow, noisy things that are loud when they hammer on it. The ones around hear sometimes use our gutters, sometimes trees or possibly metal sheds. I’ve never seen or heard them drum a solid metal thing like a vehicle.
The old woodpeckers don’t have brains. The modern, vibrating, silicone ones do.
And it’s bush, not trees.
If they aren’t protected in one way, they may be protected in another way. Maybe their brains are different.
And yes, I am being sarcastic for those who can't see that fact.
Funny how the article goes from “according to popular belief” to “scientists hypothesized”. Presumably only those scientists involved in woodpecker science. Not, say, nuclear scientists.
I doubt that there are any truly “popular” beliefs about much of anything related to woodpeckers.
1. How about those in the White House?
The headline is erroneous. According to the researchers, the size and the orientation do protect the birds brain from damage. So the birds do protect their brains. My GUESS is the absorption of energy from the shock is through other energy dissapating mechanisms....like the way the skull and brain are constructed(both material and energy dissapating mechanisms.
Maybe they’re faking it.
Funny!