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Scientists have debunked the popular theory of how a woodpecker can repeatedly beat its beak against a tree at high speed without damaging its own brain. The researchers analyzed high-speed video of three woodpecker species — the stacked woodpecker, the black woodpecker, and the great spotted woodpecker. They found their skulls did not act like shock-absorbing helmets as previously thought, but more like rigid metal hammers. In fact, their calculations showed that any shock absorbers would hinder the woodpecker’s pecking ability. Woodpeckers quickly drill into trees to extract insects deep in the wood with their long tongues. An international team of researchers has analyzed high-speed video of three woodpecker species. Here is a sequence of frames from a high-speed video of a woodpecker pecking (Dryocopus pileatus) Photo of a black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) filmed in a study in Alpenzoo Innbruck, Austria HAMMER OR HELMET? Scientists have long wondered how woodp...

Frame sequence from a high-speed video of a woodpecker pecking (Dryocopus pileatus). Credit: Erica Ortlieb & Robert Shadwick (University of British Columbia) Scientists have long wondered how woodpeckers can repeatedly pound their beaks into tree trunks without damaging their brains. This led to the idea that their skulls should act like shock-absorbing helmets. Now, researchers report in the journal Current Biology on July 14 have disputed this idea, saying that their heads act more like stiff hammers. In fact, their calculations showed that any shock absorbers would hinder the woodpecker’s pecking ability. “By analyzing high-speed videos of three species of woodpeckers, we found that woodpeckers do not absorb shocks from impacting trees,” said Sam Van Wassenbergh of the Universiteit Antwerp, Belgium. Van Wassenbergh and his colleagues first calculated the effects of slowing down during pecking at three woodpecker spec...