On August 1, a pair of endurance athletes set off from the desolate, windswept reaches of Prudhoe Bay on Alaska\u2019s Arctic coast with a mission that was as physically daunting as it was ecologically vital. Timm D\u00f6bert, an ecologist from the University of Alberta, and his partner, Leanna Carriere, a former elite athlete, climbed onto their bicycles to begin a grueling 18,600-mile odyssey. Their destination: the southernmost tip of South America. <\/p>\n
Now 98 days into their nine-month journey, the duo has already covered over 5,000 miles. Their expedition, which they have titled "Wings of Survival," is far more than a test of human physical limits. By loosely shadowing the path of a GPS-tracked Hudsonian Whimbrel, D\u00f6bert and Carriere are attempting to bridge the gap between human adventure and avian conservation, hoping to bring international attention to a species currently facing a precipitous population decline.<\/p>\n
The Hudsonian Whimbrel is a marvel of biological engineering. With their signature long, curved bills and football-shaped bodies, these shorebirds spend their summers on the Arctic tundra before undertaking one of the most perilous migrations in the animal kingdom. They traverse the Western Hemisphere, flying nonstop for stretches of up to seven days to reach coastal mudflats and beaches in places as distant as Patagonia.<\/p>\n
This incredible journey, however, has become increasingly hazardous. As migratory species, Hudsonian Whimbrels are uniquely vulnerable to a complex web of environmental threats. Their survival depends on a chain of high-quality stopover sites, many of which are being lost to coastal development, industrial expansion, and the encroaching effects of rising sea levels. Furthermore, the increasing severity of weather events during migration seasons has made their already exhausting travel even more lethal.<\/p>\n
The urgency of the situation was underscored by major changes in the scientific community this year. In a 2025 taxonomy update, eBird officially split the species from its Eurasian counterpart, a classification change subsequently adopted by the American Ornithological Society this October. While the bird is not currently listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the United Nations\u2019 Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species declared the Hudsonian Whimbrel endangered this past March. Estimates suggest the population has plummeted by 70 percent over the last two decades, a statistic that makes projects like "Wings of Survival" feel particularly pressing.<\/p>\n
The foundation for the current expedition was laid in January, when D\u00f6bert and Carriere traveled to Chilo\u00e9 Island in southern Chile. There, they worked alongside Juan Navedo, a Universidad Austral de Chile ecologist who has spent two decades studying migratory shorebirds. Together, they fitted five Hudsonian Whimbrels with high-resolution satellite tags to track their northward journey back to their breeding grounds.<\/p>\n
The resulting data provided researchers with unprecedented insight into the individual decision-making of these birds. The tags revealed surprising variation in flight paths; one whimbrel hugged the coastline from Baja California to reach Alaska, while another took a direct, high-risk route over the open ocean to reach Anchorage. <\/p>\n
Of the original five tagged birds, only one continues to transmit reliable data: Whimbrel 59764. After spending the breeding season near Hooper Bay in southwest Alaska, the bird migrated south in July, stopping in Baja California and crossing the Sea of Cortez to mainland Mexico before continuing through Ecuador. For the other four birds, the team can only speculate on their fates; they may have succumbed to the rigors of the journey, or simply shed their GPS transmitters.<\/p>\n
For D\u00f6bert and Carriere, the goal is to follow these birds’ footsteps\u2014or wingbeats\u2014as closely as humanly possible. While the birds complete their 9,000-mile journey in roughly two months, the cyclists are taking a much longer, more deliberate path, traversing coastal highways to reach the specific, vital stopover sites that the birds rely on. <\/p>\n
"There\u2019s definitely excitement when you know you\u2019re in a spot that the birds were," Carriere says. "It feels very special."<\/p>\n
The lack of comprehensive data on where these birds stop to refuel has long hampered conservation efforts. "Not many Hudsonian Whimbrels have been tracked along their entire migration, due largely to the expense involved," Navedo explains. "Scientists don\u2019t know exactly which places the birds rely on to complete their migration successfully. If we solve connectivity, we can focus conservation efforts in those areas."<\/p>\n
The project is already yielding tangible results. Earlier this year, a colleague in Mexico visited a strawberry field near San Quint\u00edn\u2014a site identified by one of the tagged birds\u2014and discovered a congregation of 500 whimbrels. It was the largest number of the species ever recorded in one spot in northwestern Mexico, providing clear evidence that the data collected by the expedition is identifying critical habitats in urgent need of protection.<\/p>\n
Understanding how a bird the size of a whimbrel survives a week of nonstop flight remains a subject of intense scientific fascination. According to Chris Guglielmo, co-director of the Advanced Facility for Avian Research at Western University, the biological transformation is extreme. <\/p>\n
"On paper, whimbrels should run out of fuel after three or four days, based on how much fat they can store and how much energy flight requires," Guglielmo notes. In the weeks leading up to migration, the birds essentially double their body weight, building up muscle and fat reserves. Once they complete a long-haul flight, their bodies are utterly depleted. "The digestive system can be half the size that it was on take-off," Guglielmo says. "Even the heart can shrink by 25 percent."<\/p>\n
Guglielmo hopes the high-resolution data from this expedition will pay long-term dividends by validating cheaper tracking technologies. If they can confirm the exact stopover sites, researchers can install "Motus stations"\u2014an automated radio-telemetry system\u2014which are significantly more affordable than satellite tags. This would allow scientists to track a much larger number of birds for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n
For the cyclists, the physical toll of their journey has fostered a profound, empathetic connection to the birds. D\u00f6bert and Carriere are no strangers to extreme endurance\u2014they previously cycled across Canada, and Carriere holds the distinction of being Canada\u2019s first female decathlete. Yet, this journey stands in a league of its own.<\/p>\n
In a typical day, the duo bikes for 12 hours, covering 80 to 90 miles and consuming several thousand calories to maintain their energy levels. Meanwhile, the whimbrels they are tracing travel thousands of miles without food, water, or sleep, hitting speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. "It puts things in perspective for us because we\u2019re barely hanging in there," Carriere admits. The pair has even collaborated with researchers at the University of Alberta to act as test subjects, providing data on human resilience under long-term physical stress.<\/p>\n
Beyond the data, the project is designed to foster community. D\u00f6bert and Carriere take frequent breaks from their saddles to visit schools, lead local birding excursions, and engage with farmers, conservationists, and local officials. By choosing a species with such a broad geographic distribution, they have been able to create a tangible "contact point" for diverse communities across the Americas.<\/p>\n
Each week, the team hosts a virtual livestream through the Canadian NGO Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants<\/em>, connecting with classrooms around the world. These sessions use the whimbrel\u2019s migration as a lens through which to discuss broader environmental issues, including biodiversity loss and air quality. A documentary is currently in production, aimed at highlighting both the stunning landscapes of their route and the local initiatives working to support both human and avian welfare.<\/p>\n As the journey nears its conclusion, the tracking data has provided one final, serendipitous development: Whimbrel 59764 has returned to Chilo\u00e9 Island. D\u00f6bert and Carriere hope to reunite with the bird at the site where their tracking began, before continuing to the final leg of their ride in Ushuaia, Argentina. <\/p>\n For the cyclists, the trip is just the beginning. They envision "Wings of Survival" as a series of expeditions, with potential future routes tracking the Red Knot from Europe to Africa or the Bar-tailed Godwit from Asia to New Zealand. For now, however, their focus remains on the road ahead. Looking down at the whimbrel decals on their bicycles, they are reminded of the moment they first held those birds in their hands\u2014the feel of a small, frantic heartbeat before a journey of thousands of miles. <\/p>\n "You let them go, and you understand they\u2019re going to embark now on this epic migration," says D\u00f6bert. "There\u2019s this bond between the birds and us. It feels like a responsibility towards them as well to hang in there and make it happen."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On August 1, a pair of endurance athletes set off from the desolate, windswept reaches of Prudhoe Bay on Alaska\u2019s Arctic coast with a mission that was as physically daunting as it was ecologically vital. Timm D\u00f6bert, an ecologist from the University of Alberta, and his partner, Leanna Carriere, a former elite athlete, climbed onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[328,2389,1468,3007,844,488,489,1841,3005,3006,3008,490,2937],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-parks-nature","tag-camping","tag-cyclists","tag-epic","tag-hudsonian","tag-migration","tag-national-parks","tag-nature-travel","tag-save","tag-survival","tag-trace","tag-whimbrel","tag-wildlife","tag-wings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetripbook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}