Living with wolves
 | | Shaun Ellis with youngsters Yana, Matsi and Tamaska. Ref: TG5031 |
THE youngest wolves at Combe Martin Wildlife Park have gained an extra resident in their enclosure - their keeper.
For the next few months at least, Shaun Ellis will be living alongside his timber wolf charges 24-hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. He plans to teach and study them, while gathering material for a second book.
Wolf Pack Management, run by Shaun and business partner Angela Curtis, now has nine wolves at the park, but it is the three newest additions, born in captivity earlier this year, which Shaun hopes will help bridge the gap between species.
An expert on wolf behaviour, Shaun has decided to spend the next several months literally living as a wolf - with little or no home comforts - as he assumes the role of a surrogate 'senior wolf' to teach the pups what they need to know.
He sleeps with the wolves in their den, with no bedding, and relying on body heat to keep warm. Food is whatever the wolves eat - venison or beef carcasses - with the sole concession that Shaun's is cooked before being thrown to him!
As 'dominant male', he also has the dubious privilege of eating the heart, liver and kidneys from the pack's 'kills'.
The three male pups, Tamaska, Yana and Matsi, now eight months old, were raised by humans, but not as pets. Now Shaun hopes to use his knowledge to good effect.
"The belief is that we can teach the wolf both something of our world and of its own. It is becoming part of the world and coming ever closer to farms, livestock and so on," he said.
"It has to be taught how to respond to such areas and what it will find there."
The routine is based around a four-day cycle of hunting, eating, defending a kill and preparing for the next hunt - everything a wild wolf would learn from its elders.
"Angela and the team bring a whole carcass into the enclosure, so the night before we would prepare for a hunt, using the remnants of an old kill to practise and work right through the night," said Shaun.
"Sleep comes when the wolves rest, when we are not preparing to 'hunt', teaching or defending a kill."
It will come as no surprise that eight weeks of this regime has left Shaun five stones lighter! But he is not concerned, and says this is simply his body being conditioned to the wolves' level of survival.
"People might think it is fantastic living under the stars with a pack of wolves, but the reality if far harsher than they could imagine," he said. "That is part of what we want to get across, what wolves have to get through."
His first book, The Wolf Talk, chronicled years of research, among Native Americans, in Poland and elsewhere, learning how to communicate with wolves and understanding their behaviour.
The book he is researching now will be called The Broken Promise, and while dealing with his 'captivity', it will also cover his attempts to honour the bond of trust between man and wolves which 'civilised' men broke, according to Native American lore.
The aim of Wolf Pack Management is to release the animals back into the wild, in Poland or even the UK, but more importantly to use lessons learned to teach wolves how to avoid conflict with man - and how to teach men to live beside wolves without resorting to guns and traps.
"With this new generation it has come full circle, giving us the chance to put into practise what we have learned," said Shaun.
"What we can safely and successfully teach these guys in a captive environment will be important, and although they won't be released, we can teach others born here at the park that will eventually return to the wild."
Although the park is closed for the season, Wolf Pack Management is still offering the chance to find out more about wolves and canine behaviour with a series of awareness days introducing students to the canine language and unique communication.
A more intensive course offers the full low-down on what Shaun and his team are doing, covering communication, husbandry, practical skills, fieldwork and more. People can also choose to sponsor a wolf for a year. To find out more call 07958 525014.
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