Do woodpeckers get headaches…?
Ivan Schwab, an ophthalmologist (!) who studied the anatomies of woodpeckers’ skulls to find out why they do not suffer from headaches after banging their heads against a tree trunk on an average of 12,000 times a day actually won an alternative Nobel prize for his research! He discovered that the reason they don’t is because they actually have sort of a biological version of a “shock absorber” behind their beaks–among other things–so that the impact doesn’t get through to the rest of their skulls!. Woodpeckers basically have a thick skull with spongy cartilage at the base of their beaks to absorb the force of all that hammering (the “shock absorber”). In addition, the mandibles—the upper and lower jaws—are attached to the skull by strong muscles that contract a millisecond before each blow, creating further cushioning. These muscles also divert the force of the impact to the base and rear of the skull, bypassing the woodpecker’s brain. In addition, each hammer blow is a perfect perp