Cover of The Man Who Lives with Wolves

The Man Who Lives with Wolves

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?

Read more

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 Perce 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.

Audience
adult

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Man Who Lives with Wolves? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Man Who Lives with Wolves. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Wolves at Our Door: The Extraordinary Story of the Couple Who Lived with Wolves Shares animals, nonfiction, wolves
  2. Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild Shares nonfiction, wolves, animals
  3. The Company of Wolves Shares wolves, animals, nonfiction
  4. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species Shares wolves, nonfiction, animals

“People who read The Man Who Lives with Wolves tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Wolf Almanac, New and Revised: A Celebration of Wolves and Their World
  2. Part Wild: One Woman's Journey with a Creature Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs
  3. Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Africa
  4. An Eagle Named Freedom: My True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

“If you want more of the same (biography about animals), start with these.”

  1. Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves
  2. Three Among the Wolves: A Couple and Their Dog Live a Year with Wolves in the Wild
  3. Wolves in the Land of Salmon
  4. The Hunt for Elsewhere

“If it was the animals that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Dreaming of Wolves
  2. Never Cry Wolf
  3. The Daily Coyote: Story of Love, Survival, and Trust In the Wilds of Wyoming
  4. White Wolf

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Wolves
  2. The Wolf-Birds
  3. Promise of the Wolves
  4. The Red Snow