What would compel a man to place himself in constant danger in order to
become a member of a wolf pack? To eat with them, putting his head into
a carcass alongside the wolves' gnashing teeth? To play, hunt, and spar
with them, suffering bruises and bites? To learn their language so his
howl is indistinguishable from theirs? To give up a normal life of
relationships and family so that he can devote himself completely to the
protection of these wild animals?
In The Man Who Lives with Wolves, Shaun Ellis reveals how his life
irrevocably changed the first time he set eyes on a wolf. In
exhilarating prose, he takes us from his upbringing in the wilds of
Norfolk, England, to his survival training with British Army Special
Forces to the Nez Percé Indian lands in Idaho, where he first ran with a
wolf pack for nearly two years.
Offering an extraordinary look into the lives of these threatened,
misunderstood creatures, Ellis shares how he ate raw kill-and little
else; washed rarely, and only in plain water; learned to bury his face
into the carcasses of prey-and, when necessary, to defend his share of
the kill; communicated with the pack by his howls and body language,
which over time became seemingly identical to theirs; and observed from
this unique vantage point how wolves give birth to and raise their
young, and enforce order among the pack.
After years of living in the wild, Shaun Ellis was barely able to
recognize the feral face that stared back at him from the mirror. And in
The Man Who Lives with Wolves, we discover the life of a rare and
fascinating man who abandoned civilization but never lost touch with his
humanity.
