How one bird hits the sea at 60mph and survives. 😯 If you’ve ever visited one of our clifftop reserves, you may have spotted some impressive, dive-bombing at breakneck speed. But how does the gannet do this? 👉The answer lies in muscles surrounding the neck vertebra, that lock into place before entering the water. This prevents the long neck from buckling. 👉Other adaptations include air sacs under the skin to act as ‘air bags’ to cushion the skeleton, and their lack of external nostrils prevent a jet of water being propelled into the head. If a human was to dive at the same height and speed as a gannet, we would do ourselves some serious damage. #gannet #ukwildlife #divebomb #diving