The Man Who Lives with Wolves
By Tanya Turgeon
The Man Who Lives with Wolves
by Shaun Ellis, Star of "Living with the Wolfman"
with Penny Junor
Harmont Books, 2009
268 pages
$24.99
Review by Tanya Turgeon
"The Man Who Lives with Wolves" is an interesting read following on the heels of
"The
Emotional Lives of Animals". Both Shaun Ellis and Marc Beckoff, the respective authors,
passionately want us to connect with animals in a more natural and considerate way. While
Beckoff uses scientific research to prove animals have emotions deserving acknowledgement;
Ellis (having grown up far, far from academia) takes a hands-on approach by living with wolves.
Ellis repeatedly states that working with wolves requires all emotions to be set aside and takes a
crack at vegetarians (one of Beckoff's ethical suggestions), which would probably hurt Beckoff's
feelings. Ironically, wolves grace the cover of Beckoff's book.
Despite the disparity both men were drawn to their calling through an initial connection with
dogs. "Even I have no idea what I wanted from those wolves or why I felt so compelled to get to
them in that way...maybe it was because they reminded me of the dogs I had grown up with..." And, like Beckoff, Ellis continually turns to man's best friend as the species people can relate to
most. "I had always felt that the key to the wolf was the dog, and vice versa--that the way to get
people to understand and respect the wolf was by comparing it to the animals they had in their
living rooms."
Ellis's writing is rough around the edges, yet appropriate for a man who constantly notes his lack
of personal hygiene, diet of raw meat, regular state of exhaustion, and commitment to
communicating solely through howling to achieve acceptance by the wolves. Despite the literary
weaknesses, Ellis gets the job done well enough that you can envision his lone experiences in the
wilderness and the pack interactions. The picture inserts help too. For a guy who admits
preferring the company of wolves to people--even choosing their company over his own family--collecting and sharing his thoughts through a book (and the documentary television show"Living with the Wolfman") must have been challenging. The effort seems a generous way to
circulate his unique findings.
Anyone harboring a fascination for wolves (including the entire tween population drawn in by
the Twilight saga) or a curiosity about their dog's ancestry and not-so-distant cousin will find
Ellis's life work amazing. His application of what he has learned from the wolf towards understanding, training, and coexisting peacefully with the dogs who share our lives is
surprisingly in contrast to domination techniques popularized by the more mainstream
Cesar
Millan, but
makes perfect sense based on Ellis's firsthand experience. Ellis has made sacrifices along the
way to obtain this knowledge and connect with these noble and once endangered creatures, yet
it's clearly not a sacrifice when he needs them as much as they come to need him. Any species
would be lucky to have such a willing advocate.
