Woodpeckers are no strangers to this animal, but when it comes to really digging deeper, most people know very little about woodpeckers. For example, if I ask you how many woodpeckers there are in the world, can you answer that? Therefore, today we will do a special issue of science about woodpeckers, so that everyone has a deeper understanding of "forest doctors".
Yellow-billed chestnut woodpecker
Morphologically, the proportion of the woodpecker's head is relatively large, and its mouth is straight, long and hard, which can break through the tough skin of trees. At the same time, in order to hook out the insects in the tree, the woodpecker has also evolved a long and retractable tongue, and there are short hooks on this tongue, which can be inserted into the body of the insect to hook the insect.
According to the statistics of the parents of biology, there are currently 221 species of birds in 34 genera and 221 species in the world that are classified as woodpeckers. Depending on the species, the beaks of woodpeckers also vary in length. The longest woodpecker beak is currently recorded at 56 cm, while under normal circumstances, adult woodpeckers generally have a mouth longer than 9 cm.
Red-green woodpeckers
Of all the woodpeckers, the most common are the spotted woodpecker and the green woodpecker, which also have a significant population in our country (in the wild, the woodpecker we often see is the green woodpecker). It is worth mentioning that due to the importance of woodpeckers to forests, five years ago, the IUCN put all species of woodpeckers on the Red List of Threatened Species to strengthen the protection of forest doctors. So, any act of harming a woodpecker is illegal.
White-browed woodpecker
Of course, depending on the number of woodpeckers, the level of protection they receive varies. Like the woodpecker photographs cited in this article, including the yellow-billed chestnut woodpecker, the red-green woodpecker, the white-browed woodpecker, the yellow-crowned woodpecker, and the gold-backed woodpecker, these five woodpeckers are very precious woodpeckers. If a human hunts these woodpeckers, the aggravating circumstances are punishable by imprisonment for a term of not less than 5 years and not more than 10 years.
Yellow-crowned woodpecker
In general, a woodpecker pecks at a tree about 600 times a day (nor is their purpose to cure the tree, but to find bugs to fill their stomachs). And the whole process of pecking at trees is very fast, and scientists have observed that the woodpecker's mouth pecks at trees faster than the speed of sound. Under normal circumstances, the brain of any animal cannot withstand such a concussion, so why can a woodpecker? Thanks to their unique brain structure.
Gold-backed woodpecker
Over the course of a long period of research, biologists dissected the bodies of various woodpeckers and eventually found that all woodpecker brains had 3 layers of shock protection:
First layer of shock protection: The skull of the woodpecker is loose and filled with air, and there is a tough outer meningeum inside the skull, which is the first layer of shock protection device for woodpeckers.
Second layer of shock protection device: There is also a narrow gap between the outer meningeum and the brain marrow of the woodpecker, which contains liquids, which reduce the fluid transmission of the shock waves and can play a good role in shock protection.
Third layer of shock protection device: In order to be able to better prevent shocks, the woodpecker has developed muscles on both sides of the head, which are extremely resistant to shocks and can ensure that the woodpecker can quickly peck at the tree without causing brain damage.
Wallface thought:
Sometimes you have to lament the magic of the laws of nature. Take creatures like woodpeckers, for example, wherever there are forests on earth, they often have their active figures, as if they were arranged by a pair of invisible hands. Therefore, for human beings, following the laws of nature and striving to achieve the unity of heaven and man is the real long-term way.
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