Just saw a fascinating hour long special about a man named Shaun Ellis, who lives, eats and sleeps with three abandoned wolves in a zoo in England!

While this has little to do with working dogs, the insights and commentary and pack dynamics was extraordinary.

Would love to hear comments from those on the board who saw the show and would also urge those who didnt to check it out as I'm sure it will be replayed. Truly some amazingly intimate footage of this guy eating and playing and rough-housing with these wolves.

It was on at midnite again, i changed the channel after about 15 min. I thought it was goofy, lets see, he's had them since they were pups, he feeds them, they're still young, they're in a zoo, and he thinks he "speaks wolf". That idiot in Alaska thought he had the same relationship with grizzly bears, turns out he didn't.............they ate him and his girlfriend.

It should have been titled "man among zoo wolf pups"

Now, if he'd like to really make it interesting he'd film himself intergrating with a pack in the wild, that'd be something to watch, and give a true insight to pack behaviour, LOL

I was disappointed in this program too.
I would have liked to see him outside of a fenced in zoo enclosure. I think many of the things he claimed to have 'taught' them are pure instinct (like howling and pack order). Pack structure is apparent in all canids, wild or domestic so I don't think he is teaching them anything on that front either.

On the plus side, he did seem to be helping out the wolves in the wild by helping farmers protect their livestock by playing defensive howling audio to keep wolves off their land.

 Quote: cindy easton rhodes

I was disappointed in this program too.
I would have liked to see him outside of a fenced in zoo enclosure. I think many of the things he claimed to have 'taught' them are pure instinct (like howling and pack order). Pack structure is apparent in all canids, wild or domestic so I don't think he is teaching them anything on that front either.

On the plus side, he did seem to be helping out the wolves in the wild by helping farmers protect their livestock by playing defensive howling audio to keep wolves off their land.

I agree with this 100%. It is nice to see that he is working on a way to create "balance" between farmers/ranchers and the wolves. I am glad that I watched the whole thing, otherwise I would have missed that.

I still wonder how he is going to turn those wolves loose and expect them to at least NOT approach humans.

I found it disappointing, too. I was really sad to see that it was filmed in a zoo, the advertising indicated they were "in the wild".
Now, that said, he seems to really be able to read the body language, and vocatlizations of the wolves. The defensive howling was an interesting defense method, I thought. But the ethologist who commented on it was right, it needs to be tested much more. They don't know if the attacks on that one farmer's livestock stopped because of defensive howling or "shoot, shovel and shutup".
I appreciate that he says he's trying to rehabilitate the wolves to survive in the wild, but don't see that he gave them any sort of hunting examples except for the little fishing clip.
Tell you the truth, the guy ain't no Farley Mowatt. I loved Farley's book (Never Cry Wolf), though the movie made from the book was pretty hokey.
Bye the way, I did watch the show all the way through, just because I loved watching the wolves.

Let's see what happens when these wolves are adults. I'll bet you he'll be a meal before long. What a nut to give up his family for wolves. Where's his priorities? I don't even know why they put that in there.

I agree with Cindy that the things that he "taught" the wolves were instinctual. I even think the hunting for the fish was instinctual, but knowing where to go to find it might not be. And in that case, he's not going to be able to teach them anything in a zoo. And even if they were in the wild, I doubt there's much a human can teach a wolf about being a wolf. There's no way this guy, even if he's absorbed every bit of known info about wolves, could know enough to educate a pack of puppies as well as the real pack adults could. Still, even if it was instinctual, there's nothing really wrong with his attempts to teach. Worst case scenario is that he's being redundant.

I do appreciate the fact that he's trying a new approach to a very old and yet unsolved problem: Wolves vs. farmers.

I don't judge him too harshly for doing what he's doing in a zoo. I understand that it would be virtually impossible for him to be involved in a wolf pack in the wild. His ultimate goal with that pack is to release them (and him with them) into the wild, where he will likely become a snack because he wouldn't be able to keep up with the pack, participate effectively in a hunt, or defend the pack, and would therefore become a liability. At best, he'd be chased off. But in the meantime, I gathered that his main goal was to learn as much about wolves as could and even in captivity, I bet he knows a lot more than he did when he started. He may be learning things that are currently unknown to us (even with wolves in captivity) and his idea with the defensive wolf howls played by farmers may wind up having some merrit, and it's certainly worth a try.

Also, he's probably still helping to undo the "big bad wolf" idea. Most of us here don't have that image in our heads anymore, but there are still many, many people who do. I'm not saying that he's the next Farley Mowat, but like Farley Mowat, he's doing something that's never been done before. Who knows what will come of it? At the very least, he appears to be as expert as a human can be with communicating with a wolf, where one screw up in communication could cost him his life.

It'll be interesting to see what comes of this. Maybe nothing, but I do applaude anyone that tries something new in an effort to learn and hopefully save the lives of wolves.

I like wolves.

I thought the guy had some real balls by eating with the pack. I also thought he did an impressive job handling the pack situation when he returned from his trip. He could've been seriously hurt to say the least.

I was disappointed that the wolves lived in a zoo, and that he cooked his liver before he ate it. I thought he was eating a sandwich before they mentioned it!

IMO, he's as crazy and obsessed as the queer guy with the Grizzly Bears.

Is "teach" the best way to describe what he is doing? I think they could've done a better job explaining that part. We don't "teach" a dog to bite, he already knows how. It's instinct. We help him develop or mold him so he bites the way we want him to. Maybe that's not the best example. Could it be that this is what this guy is actually doing to help the wolves adapt easier in the wild.

The program that was on after this with the feral children is, I think, similar. These children missed an important stage in their development and had problems with speach. So, is it possible that these wolves would adapt easier in the wild with some help developing or bringing out the instincts? Maybe I'm out in left field here. I'm on my second pot of coffee with too much time on my hands.

I thought the show was good for what it was. I went into viewing the show keeping an open mind for what I was about to see. It was a little disappointing learning they were in a zoo, but then again that guy invested two years of his life with these wolves and was opportunistic to run with the chance to be a member of the pack.
How could he do this in the wild? I think some people’s expectations were a bit too high. The guy is dedicated and married to his work, I sure as hell wouldn't give up my family to run with wolves for two years, but if this is what he feels like he was meant to do to, wonders never cease, to each his own I guess.
I just love the way that people prejudge Shaun for what he has sacrificed to try and learn to educate himself and others; little bit narrow minded I think. JMO!!