New West Book Review

Wolf Man: Shaun Ellis Tells of His Life in an Idaho Wolf Pack

By Traci J. Macnamara, Guest Writer, 12-25-09

The Man Who Lives with Wolves
by Shaun Ellis with Penny Junor
Harmony Books, 288 pages, $24.99

Shaun Ellis’s deliberate run-ins with wolves have scarred his body, strained many of his personal relationships, and pushed him to the limits of physical and mental exhaustion.  That Ellis has survived to tell about the two years he ran with a wolf pack in Idaho’s Nez Percé or about the ways he’s risked his life to understand wild and captive wolves is remarkable in itself, and in The Man Who Lives with Wolves, Ellis shares the wisdom he’s gained from these encounters. 

Ellis, who writes with Penny Junor, is the star of the Animal Planet show Living with the Wolfman and founder of the Shaun Ellis Wolf Pack Foundation, a nonprofit organization based at Combe Martin Wildlife Park in North Devon, England dedicated to helping wolves worldwide.  Ellis works with three captive packs at the park, where he focuses his research on understanding how humans and wolves can peacefully coexist where their lives intersect. 

Ellis’s story begins with his childhood in rural England, where he grows up under the care of his grandparents and sneaks out at night to observe a family of foxes playing in the moonlight.  The special kinship Ellis develops with these animals makes him curious about others, and as an adult he sells his possessions in England to buy a plane ticket so that he can work as an intern with a wolf reintroduction program in Idaho. 

In Idaho’s Nez Percé, Ellis takes what he thinks of as a logical step in understanding wolf behavior and walks deep into the forest to connect with wolves on their turf.  His decision to do so is challenged and even misunderstood by many, and over the course of the next two years Ellis does what he believes no other human has done before.  He becomes accepted by a pack of wolves and ends up eating fresh carcasses alongside them, protecting their pups, and learning how to communicate in yips and howls. 

Ellis walks out of the Idaho woods ravaged by the harsh lifestyle he’s endured, but he goes on to use what he’s learned to help ranchers understand why wild wolves may be attacking their livestock and to encourage breeding in the captive wolves he works with in England.  In one instance, Ellis experiments by setting up a sound system at night to play a recording of wild wolves howling.  He hopes that the captive wolves will perceive a threat to their territory and respond by mating to increase their numbers—and they do. 

This story is also a personal one, and Ellis shares how his understanding of the wolf family gives him a sense of structure that he lacks growing up without a father and with a mother who works long hours to support them.  The loneliness and rejection Ellis grapples with as a child resurfaces in his adult relationships, but his passion for wolves remains constant. The wolves that Ellis cares for become the family he hasn’t found anywhere else within the animal kingdom. 

The Man Who Lives with Wolves is reminiscent of environmental activist Farley Mowat’s classic narrative of living among Arctic wolves, Never Cry Wolf.  Mowat’s book was originally published in 1963, but both books are similar in their efforts to dispel the cultural myth of wolves as vicious, blood-thirsty creatures that maim and kill without reason.  Ellis’s writing style is less entertaining than Mowat’s, which tends to be more comic and ironic in tone.  However, Ellis’s message about the importance of wolves in a balanced ecosystem is just as important today as Mowat’s was when Never Cry Wolf first brought the topic before a modern audience.

Ellis also makes an effort to offer practical lessons based on his observations working with both dogs and wolves.  His understanding of pack structure and the canine family unit can be helpful to domestic dog owners.  After all, as Ellis reminds us, the difference between the DNA of wolves and domestic dogs is a mere .2 percent.  Due to their similarities, Ellis argues that it makes sense to translate the wolf social structure into terms that dog owners can understand. 

Ellis freely admits that he’s not a scientist or biologist, and some of his maverick methods are questioned by those who take a more hands-off approach.  Ellis’s work gathering data is often gutsy and dangerous, but his results are based on the kind of experience that only such close encounters can offer. 

The Man Who Lives with Wolves is a successful book on several levels.  It teaches us and entertains us and invites us to share in the author’s adventurous lifestyle.  But perhaps more importantly, it challenges us to consider the relationship between humans and animals at a time when urban spaces are more frequently encroaching upon their natural surroundings. 

Ellis gently suggests that we humans “have assumed the role of the dominant creature on earth and yet we have no idea how to manage the creatures under us.” Even rats have a role in the natural order of things, but we toss trash out onto the streets and wonder why their breeding goes haywire.  With this example, Ellis offers the lesson that when we begin to be responsible for our actions, other animals will follow suit. 

In The Man Who Lives with Wolves, the story of Shaun Ellis’s life among the wolves becomes the larger story of humans and animals living together on this planet.  “Everything has a place in this world,” Ellis reminds us, “and we can’t be naïve enough to think we can safeguard ourselves if we let another species fail.”

Traci J. Macnamara is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in many magazines, journals and books, including Isotope and Backpacker.  She lives in Vail.

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