Shaun Ellis

Ellis has stated that he would like to see wild wolves eventually reintroduced into England, where they last lived in the 17th century when the last wolves were killed (see Wolves in the British Isles). Ellis has said about wolves, "Although many people refer to wolves as savage killers, I’ve come to know and love them as family."

The character of “Luke Warren in the book, ‘The Lone Wolf’ by Jodi Picoult was loosely based on Shaun, Jodi did extensive research on Shaun while researching her book.

Following complaints about noise, safety and traffic, Ellis's planning application at Combe Martin was withdrawn in 2013 and Ellis moved to Cornwall, where he set up the Wolf and Dog Development Centre in Truro.

During the summer of 2011 Ellis relocated along with his wolves and his new wife, conservation biologist Dr Isla Fishburn, to "The Wolf Centre". The centre was located at the seaside end of Combe Martin at Newberry Farm, Woodlands. It provided Ellis with his own dedicated base of operations from which to continue his work with the wolves. The Wolf Centre was not open to the general public, however it did offer a range of experiences and encounters to the public, including meet and greet sessions with Ellis and his wolf hybrids, and courses covering dog behaviour, instruction and training.

In February 2009, Five screened a follow-up two-part documentary, Mr and Mrs Wolf which focused on his attempts to get partner Helen Jeffs adopted as a member by the wolf pack at Combe Martin, as a new "wolf nanny" for the pregnant Alpha Female, Cheyenne. The programme aired on 17 and 24 February.

He was the founder and head of Wolf Pack Management at Combe Martin Wildlife Park in North Devon where he worked with 17 captive wolves, which included four pups born on 19 May 2008. There were originally six wolves at the park which he rescued from private ownership. He also used to regularly give educational talks about wolves.

Ellis featured in the first episode of Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs, a two-part documentary that aired on ITV on 24 August 2008 in which Clunes explores the canine world, and visited Ellis in Devon as part of an attempt to discover what binds wolves with pet dogs, with Ellis revealing that a lot of dog behaviour which is interpreted as human, is inherited from the wolf's hierarchical pack instincts. Filmed in January 2008, Clunes joined Ellis with the pack at Combe Martin.

Living with the Wolfman is an eight-part documentary about Ellis which aired in the United States on Animal Planet in October and November 2008. It is also due to be shown in the UK on Five. The documentary follows Ellis as he lives with the wolf pack at Combe Martin and his relationship with his partner, Helen and their life in Devon. It also shows how Ellis integrated his girlfriend into the pack.

Ellis was the subject of a documentary, The Wolfman which first aired on Five in the UK as The Wolfman on 18 May 2007, and has also been shown on the National Geographic Channel in the United States, where it was titled A Man Among Wolves. The documentary shows how, by carefully mimicking wolf behaviour, Ellis was able to raise the three wolf cubs to maturity. It also shows how his expertise brought him to the attention of a Polish farmer, whose livestock had suffered wolf attacks. Since wolves are a protected species in Poland the farmer hoped that Ellis might be able to find some non-violent way to deter the marauding pack. Ellis travelled to Poland to study the local pack, bringing with him audio recordings of wolf howls.

In 2005 Ellis spent 18 months living in captivity at Combe Martin Wildlife Park with three abandoned wolf pups - Yana, Tamaska and Matsi, educating them to be wild wolves and becoming the pack's alpha male.

Ellis has written five books about wolves: The Wolf Talk (2003), Spirit of the Wolf (2006), The Man Who Lives with Wolves (with Penny Junor, 2009) Living With Wolves (2010) and The Wolf Within: How I Learned To Talk Dog (2011). In 2004 BBC South West nominated Ellis as a "Local Champion" in South West England, a campaign that aims to highlight the work of people who are not always publicly recognised. He was featured on BBC Radio 4 on 2 May 2005 in a programme A Life with Wolves.

He has worked with wolves since 1990, and before that he studied the red fox in the UK, and then coyote in Canada.