Red Wolf

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Ellis was brought up deep in the countryside in the small village of Great Massingham, near King's Lynn Norfolk. He began observing wild animals at a young age, learning to use his sense of smell and sound to find his way at night when studying foxes and badgers. He first trained to be a gamekeeper, but left the job when the Head gamekeeper found out that Ellis was feeding rather than culling foxes. He then joined and served with the Royal Marines. After he left the Marines he contacted a Native American biologist, Levi Holt, and from their meeting he was able to spend several months living at the Wolf Education and Research Center on Nez Perce tribal lands in northern Idaho, United States as a volunteer in a project studying wolves at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They taught him how to observe wolves, and he was able to get into a pack of wolves and live among them. He recorded wild wolf howls and gradually learned to identify individual pack members and began to realise that wolves are highly intelligent and instinctive individuals that show trust and balance within their pack's social structure.

In Their Own Story

In 2005 Ellis spent 18 months living in captivity at Combe Martin Wildlife Park with three abandoned wolf pups - Yana, Tamaska and Matsi, educating them to be wild wolves. Ellis also claims, in The Man Who Lives with Wolves, to have spent two years living as a member of a wild wolf pack in Idaho. He told a reporter for The Guardian, "I ate what they ate, mostly raw deer and elk, which they would often bring back for me, or fruit and berries. I never fell ill and my body adapted quickly to its new diet". Despite the food being generally unappealing, Ellis commented that, when you're hungry enough, even raw meat begins to look appetizing. The documentary The Wolfman, which first aired on Five in the UK on 18 May 2007, shows how, by carefully mimicking wolf behaviour, Ellis was able to raise the three wolf cubs to maturity. It also shows how his expertise brought him to the attention of a Polish farmer, whose livestock had suffered wolf attacks. Ellis travelled to Poland to study the local pack, bringing with him audio recordings of wolf howls. Ellis believed that if the local wolves heard howls coming from the farm they would believe another pack had already claimed it as their territory, and keep clear to avoid a conflict. Initial results were encouraging and in the first few weeks after the farmer began playing the recordings the farm suffered no further attacks.

Reader's Guide

Ellis has been criticized by the International Wolf Center for perceived sensationalism. Nancy Gibson, a wolf biologist who'd studied under L. David Mech, wrote: "I have raised far more captive wolves than the 'Man Among Wolves,' Shaun Ellis... Rearing 10-day-old pups into adulthood takes a trained group of individuals, just like a pack. When humans take a break from the wolves, others need to be present for consistent care that includes feeding, immunizations and critical handling to limit time under the care of a veterinarian. Ellis did a disservice to the longtime experience of wolf caregivers, if, in fact, he was the sole caregiver, as implied." David Mech himself stated "Mr. Ellis is neither a scientist nor an expert on the natural behavior of wolves." Denise Taylor, the executive director of the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, dismissed Ellis's methodology as part of "the macho-driven pursuits of the seemingly burgeoning number of TV presenters who think it is acceptable to drag what are perceived to be scary and highly dangerous creatures from their habitats, and wrestle with them and dominate them". The research projects Ellis is involved with in Poland and Yellowstone National Park have the goal of developing humane methods to discourage wolves from entering areas of potential conflict with humans.

Did You Know?

• Shaun Ellis was born on 12 October 1964.
• He first trained to be a gamekeeper but left when the Head gamekeeper found out he was feeding rather than culling foxes.
• Ellis spent 18 months living in captivity at Combe Martin Wildlife Park with three abandoned wolf pups - Yana, Tamaska and Matsi.
• He claims to have spent two years living as a member of a wild wolf pack in Idaho, eating raw deer and elk.
• The documentary The Wolfman first aired on Five in the UK on 18 May 2007.