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[Lifestyle] Review: “The Man Who Lives With Wolves” by Shaun Ellis with Penny Junor


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Let me start by saying I am not a fan of those people who go into the field ostensibly in the name of science (but who often have no science background) and make a name for themselves by “getting closer to <insert animal here> than anyone ever has before.” Timothy Treadwell, the infamous “Grizzly Man,” is the best example of this; a person who apparently wanted to raise public awareness about grizzlies, but seems to have disregarded all common sense about being safe around them. Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed by a bear in 2003. The circumstances surrounding the attack are unknown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man).

 

Then there are those who do have some sort of science background, but still choose to conduct their studies in very close contact with their subjects. Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas in Africa (see Gorillas in the Mist––the book or the movie––or Farley Mowat’s biography of Fossey, Woman in the Mists) and, more locally, Lynn Rogers and black bears in northern Minnesota are two examples. Though the information gleaned from these studies is sound, the methods used to collect it have been criticized.

 

Having said this, I am open to the insights people gain from these encounters (except for the “Grizzly Man” mentioned above). I am open to other ways of seeing the world and all that lives in it. As cultural anthropologist and writer Richard Nelson noted, “Certainty is for those who have learned and believed only one truth.” Strictly objective science is not the only path to knowledge about the natural world. It is from this perspective, then, that I read Shaun Ellis’s book, The Man Who Lives With Wolves. It is not a book I would even consider buying on my own, but my aunt gave it to me as a Christmas gift, so with an interest in wolves, I started into it. Incredibly, I found it to be a well-written story with intriguing insights to wolf behavior.

 

Review: “The Man Who Lives With Wolves” by Shaun Ellis with Penny Junor | Redbery Books

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