Shaun Ellis (wolf researcher)
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Shaun Ellis (born 12 October 1964) is a British animal
researcher Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...
who lived among
wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
, and adopted a pack of abandoned North American timber wolf pups. He is the founder of Wolf Pack Management and is involved in a number of research projects in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
and at
Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...
in the United States. He has worked with wolves since 1990, and before that he studied the red fox in the UK, and then coyotes in Canada.


Early life

Brought up deep in the countryside in the small village of
Great Massingham Great Massingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It has a primary school (including a pre-school in the grounds), a village shop, a pub (Dabbling Duck), a village hall and a church (St Mary's). There is also a spor ...
, which is near King's Lynn
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, 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. Ellis first trained to be a
gamekeeper A gamekeeper (often abbreviated to keeper), or in case of those dealing with deer (deer-)stalker, is a person who manages an area of countryside (e.g. areas of woodland, moorland, waterway or farmland) to make sure there is enough game for s ...
, but left the job when the Head gamekeeper found out that Ellis was feeding rather than
culling In biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is the process of removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific tr ...
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 The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...
tribal lands in northern
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
, United States as a volunteer in a project studying wolves at the foot of the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
. 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.


Career

He was the founder and head of Wolf Pack Management at
Combe Martin Combe Martin is a village, civil parish and former manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor National Park. Due to the narrowness of the ...
Wildlife Park in North Devon where he worked with 17 captive wolves, which included four pups born on 19 May 2008. There were originally six wolves at the park which he rescued from private ownership. He also used to regularly give educational talks about wolves. 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 and becoming the pack's
alpha male In biology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking individual is so ...
. 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. Ellis has spent much of his adult life studying and living with wolves and has learned to communicate with them through scent and sound. He used to live directly outside the wolf enclosure at Combe Martin Wildlife Park, so that he could be in close proximity to the wolves at all times. The research projects Ellis is involved with in Poland and Yellowstone National Park in the United States have the goal of developing humane methods to discourage wolves from entering areas of potential conflict with humans. Ellis has stated that he would like to see wild wolves eventually reintroduced into England, where they last lived in the 17th century when the last wolves were killed. Ellis has said about wolves, "Although many people refer to wolves as savage killers, I’ve come to know and love them as family." During the summer of 2011 Ellis relocated along with his wolves and his new wife, conservation biologist Dr Isla Fishburn, to "The Wolf Centre". The centre was located at the seaside end of Combe Martin at Newberry Farm, Woodlands. It provided Ellis with his own dedicated base of operations from which to continue his work with the wolves. The Wolf Centre was not open to the general public, however it did offer a range of experiences and encounters to the public, including meet and greet sessions with Ellis and his wolf hybrids, and courses covering dog behaviour, instruction and training. Following complaints about noise, safety and traffic, Ellis's planning application at Combe Martin was withdrawn in 2013 and Ellis moved to
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, where he set up the Wolf and Dog Development Centre in
Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
.


Books

Ellis has written five books about wolves: ''The Wolf Talk'' (2003), ''Spirit of the Wolf'' (2006), ''The Man Who Lives with Wolves'' (with
Penny Junor Penelope Jane Junor (born 6 October 1949) is an English journalist and author. Early life and education Born in Leatherhead, Surrey, Junor was educated at Benenden School in Kent. Her father was the newspaper editor Sir John Junor and her bro ...
, 2009) Living With Wolves (2010) and The Wolf Within: How I Learned To Talk Dog (2011). In 2004 BBC South West nominated Ellis as a "Local Champion" in South West England, a campaign that aims to highlight the work of people who are not always publicly recognised. He was featured on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
on 2 May 2005 in a programme ''A Life with Wolves''. The character of "Luke Warren in the book, 'The Lone Wolf' by Jodi Picoult was loosely based on Shaun, Jodi did extensive research on Shaun while researching her book.


Television appearances


''The Wolfman''

Ellis was the subject of a documentary, ''The Wolfman'' which first aired on Five in the UK as ''The Wolfman'' on 18 May 2007, and has also been shown on the National Geographic Channel in the United States, where it was titled ''A Man Among Wolves''. The documentary 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 Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
farmer, whose livestock had suffered wolf attacks. Since wolves are a protected species in Poland the farmer hoped that Ellis might be able to find some non-violent way to deter the marauding pack. 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. In order for this to work Ellis had to determine the size of the pack and play back recordings of a similar-sized pack. Initial results were encouraging and in the first few weeks after the farmer began playing the recordings the farm suffered no further attacks. The documentary then shows Ellis returning to Devon, where he attempted to reintegrate himself with the three wolves. In his absence the wolves had established a new hierarchy, and though they recognised Ellis and welcomed him back he was now the pack's
omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...
, relegated to a peace-keeping role between the new alpha and beta males.


Reactions

Ellis, along with his program ''Man among Wolves'', has been criticized by the International Wolf Center for perceived
sensationalism In journalism and mass media, sensationalism is a type of editorial tactic. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers. This style of news reporting encourages biased or emotio ...
. Nancy Gibson, a wolf biologist who'd studied under L. David Mech, wrote the following in regards to Ellis's methods: Criticism was also leveled at his attempts to teach wolves how to howl and hunt, which Gibson asserted comes naturally to them.Nancy Gibson, "Sensational Geographic", ''International Wolf'', Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 2008). 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".Denise Taylor (summer 2007), "Humans are not wolves!", WolfPrint, issue 31


''Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs''

Ellis featured in the first episode of ''Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs'', a two-part documentary that aired on ITV on 24 August 2008 in which Clunes explores the canine world, and visited Ellis in Devon as part of an attempt to discover what binds wolves with pet dogs, with Ellis revealing that a lot of dog behaviour which is interpreted as human, is inherited from the wolf's hierarchical pack instincts. Filmed in January 2008, Clunes joined Ellis with the pack at Combe Martin.


''Living With the Wolfman''

''Living with the Wolfman'' is an eight-part documentary about Ellis which aired in the United States on
Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...
in October and November 2008. It is also due to be shown in the UK on Five. The documentary follows Ellis as he lives with the wolf pack at Combe Martin and his relationship with his partner, Helen and their life in Devon. It also shows how Ellis integrated his girlfriend into the pack.


''Mr and Mrs Wolf''

In February 2009, Five screened a follow-up two-part documentary, ''Mr and Mrs Wolf'' which focused on his attempts to get partner Helen Jeffs adopted as a member by the wolf pack at Combe Martin, as a new "wolf nanny" for the pregnant alpha female, Cheyenne. The programme aired on 17 and 24 February.


''Stan Lee's Superhuman''

He has also appeared on the US History Channels show ''Stan Lee's Superhuman'', which documents real-life superheroes from around the world.


''The Lion Man: One World African Safari''

In fifth episode of the first season of TV show '' The Lion Man: African Safari'', Craig Busch, an experienced self-taught "wild cat trainer" pays a visit to Shaun Ellis.


Bibliography

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References


External links


Official site of The Wolf and Dog Development Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Shaun Ethologists Living people 1964 births