The World’s Best Athletes: Travels with Whimbrels

By Timm Döbert, Wings of Survival

Shorebirds connect continents, countries, and communities across their migration flyways. Their extraordinary journeys require exceptional endurance, resilience, and courage. Arguably, long-distance avian migrants are the greatest ‘athletes’ on the planet, dwarfing the physiological capabilities of any human to ever live.

These messengers of the sky, however, are in dire trouble. Human-induced global changes considerably amplify the naturally challenging complexity of seasonal migrations. Shorebird populations have plummeted by over 40% in the last 50 years due to a range of anthropogenic pressures, foremost the loss and degradation of habitat. 

The decline of shorebirds mirrors the overall state of the biosphere. The loss of biodiversity, a warming climate, and environmental pollution threaten birds and humans alike. In fact, the fate of migratory birds – our best barometers for the state of the planet – and their habitats is inseparably tied to our own well-being.

Just like birds have no borders, transboundary conservation efforts are inevitable for protecting the diversity of life. In addition to scientific knowledge generation and applied conservation, impact storytelling is a powerful tool for inspiring people to care for nature. In fact, the exceptional planetary stewardship provided by Indigenous Peoples is deeply rooted in the wisdom and beauty of inter-generational stories.

Sport is the world’s greatest unifying force and engagement platform. Institutions like the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Union for Conservation of Nature increasingly embrace the potential of sport for moving broad audiences to reduce our concerted footprint on nature.

Wings of Survival is a first of its kind Race with Nature, a ground-breaking quest of resilience and hope. The initiative is underpinned by a trilogy of unmotorized expeditions, following the epic journeys of migratory shorebirds across their major flight paths, connecting countries and communities. Inspired by the emotional and physical disconnect of humans to the natural world, Wings of Survival is setting out to help rediscover our place in the web of life, to empower a shift to planetary stewardship.

In June, we, Dr. Timm Döbert (scientist & explorer) and Leanna Carriere (eco-athlete), will embark on the first Wings of Survival expedition, a cycling and packrafting traverse of the Americas from Alaska’s High Arctic to the southern tip of Patagonia: 30,000km across 15 countries along the Pacific Americas flyway.

This expedition follows the migration of Hudsonian Whimbrels, a species committed to one of the longest migrations in the animal kingdom. In partnership with Prof. Juan Navedo (Austral Shorebird Alliance), Prof. Chris Guglielmo (Centre for Animals on the Move, Western University), and their research teams, we recently equipped five adult whimbrels with Argos GPS tags on Chiloé Island, Chile as part of a long-term migration monitoring study supported by Lotek. The bird’s movement data will soon be visualized in Movebank and a ZeroSixZero adventure map on the Wings of Survival website. The estimated duration of the expedition is nine months, starting mid-June in Alaska and arriving Patagonia before our tagged whimbrels commence their northbound return. 

The three pillars for building bridges between the human-avian experience are science, education, and community, creatively married into impact storytelling. Collaboration with a diverse group of researchers, also enables the scientific exploration into the resilience of plant-based ultra-endurance athletes, the migration dynamics of GPS-tracked whimbrels, avian diversity along the Americas natural history transect, and social signaling towards transformative mind shifts. Education efforts focus on stimulating curiosity and care, by bringing young people on the expedition through weekly virtual classrooms, in partnership with Exploring by the Seat of your Pants, as well as through on-the-ground engagement in each of the 15 countries en route. Many coastal communities along the route are united in their importance for whimbrels and other at-risk shorebirds. Community meet-ups will be facilitated by local conservation and cycling partners and embrace the vital connection between human and planetary health.

Over the past four years, the planning and preparation of Wings of Survival have been documented by international film producers spearheaded by Moving Artistry Productions in Edmonton, Canada. Many moments including the tagging of our five whimbrels in Chilean Patagonia, training at high-altitude in Colombia, packrafting wild rivers in Alaska, and in-depth interviews have already been captured for the envisioned feature film. The film teaser and a short project description can be watched on the Wings of Survival website.

Thanks to the support of Environment Climate Change Canada, I had the opportunity to meet many of Cornell’s Coastal Solutions Fellows at the 2024 Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group meeting in Sackville, Canada. The vision of the Coastal Solutions Fellowship Program – to enable and empower the next generation of shorebird conservation leaders across Latin America – strongly aligns with the motivations behind the Wings of Survival initiative. I was impressed about the range of the Fellows’ approaches to shorebird conservation, and I am excited to learn more about these efforts during the expedition. In fact, partnership with the Coastal Solutions Program and other organisations, such as the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is critical for leveraging positive impact for nature and people.

We are excited to welcome you to the Wings of Survival initiative, as a follower spreading the word (IG), a financial supporter leveraging our ability to create positive impact for nature (GoFundMe), or a partner fueled by a shared motivation.

We’d love to hear from you to explore possibilities around the expedition and the film! 

e: timm@wingsofsurvival.com, w: +1 (780) 862-9726

e: justin.brunelle@movingartistry.com