We all know the fairy tale about Mowgli. A little boy fell into a wolf pack and was suckled by a she-wolf. He lived among the animals and became just like them. However, such a plot does not only happen in fairy tales. In real life, there are also children fed by animals. Moreover, such incidents do not happen in remote African and Indian regions, but in densely populated areas, very close to people’s homes.
At the end of the 19th century in Italy, a village shepherd discovered a small child frolicking among a pack of wolves. Seeing the man, the animals ran away, but the baby hesitated, and the shepherd caught him.
The foundling was completely wild. He walked on all fours and had wolfish habits. The boy was placed in the Institute of Child Psychiatry in Milan. He growled and didn’t eat anything for the first few days. He looked to be about 5 years old.
It is quite understandable that a child raised in a wolf pack aroused great interest among doctors. After all, it was possible to study the psyche of a creature born as a human, but who did not receive the appropriate upbringing. And then we could try to make him a normal member of society.
However, nothing worked out. Real Mowgli children are not fairy-tale heroes. The boy ate poorly and howled sadly. He would lie motionless on the floor for hours, ignoring the bed. A year later he died. Apparently the longing for forest life was so great that the child’s heart could not stand it.
The above case is far from isolated. There have been at least three dozen of them over the past 100 years. So in the 30s of the 20th century, not far from the Indian city of Lucknow (Pradesh), a railway employee discovered a strange creature in a carriage standing at a dead end. It was a boy of about 8 years old, completely naked and with a bestial look. He did not understand human speech, moved on all fours, and his knees and palms of his hands were covered with calloused growths.
The boy was admitted to the hospital, but a month later a local fruit seller came to the clinic. He asked to be shown the child. This man's infant son disappeared 8 years ago. Apparently, he was dragged away by a wolf while the mother was sleeping with the baby in the yard on a mat. The merchant said the missing child had a small scar on his temple. So it turned out, and the boy was given to his father. But a year later the foundling died, unable to acquire human traits.
Mowgli children move on all fours
But the most famous story, which perfectly characterizes the phenomenon of Mowgli children, fell to the lot of 2 Indian girls. This is Kamala and Amala. They were discovered in a wolf's den in 1920. The children felt quite comfortable among the gray predators. Doctors determined Amala's age to be 6 years old, and Kamala looked 2 years older.
The first girl died soon after, but the eldest lived to be 17 years old. And for 9 years, doctors described her life day after day. The poor thing was afraid of fire. She ate only raw meat, tearing it with her teeth. She walked on all fours. She ran leaning on her palms and soles of her feet with her knees bent. During the daytime, she preferred to sleep, and at night she wandered around the hospital building.
In the first days of their stay with people, the girls howled protractedly every night. Moreover, the howl was repeated at the same intervals. This is around 9 pm, 1 am and 3 am.
The “humanization” of Kamala took place with great difficulties. For a very long time she did not recognize any clothes. Everything they tried to put on her, she tore off. I was truly terrified of washing. At first I didn’t want to get up from all fours and walk on my feet. Only after 2 years she was able to be accustomed to this procedure, which was familiar to other people. But when it was necessary to move quickly, the girl got down on all fours.
After incredible work, Kamala was taught to sleep at night, eat with her hands and drink from a glass. But teaching her human speech turned out to be a very difficult task. In 7 years, the girl learned only 45 words, but she pronounced them with difficulty and could not construct logical phrases. By the age of 15, her mental development corresponded to 2 to a year old child. And at the age of 17 she barely reached the level of a 4-year-old person. She died unexpectedly. My heart just stopped. No abnormalities were found in the body.
Wild animals are humane towards small children
Here is another case that also occurred in India in the state of Assam in 1925. The hunters found in the leopard’s den, in addition to its cubs, a 5-year-old child. He growled, bit and scratched just as well as his spotted “brothers and sisters.”
In a nearby village, one family recognized him. Its members said that the father of the family, working in the field, walked away for a few minutes from his 2-year-old son, who was sleeping in the grass. Looking back, he saw a leopard with a child in its teeth disappear into the jungle. Only 3 years have passed since then, but how have they changed? little son. Only after 5 years did he learn to eat from dishes and walk on his feet.
American researcher Jezell published a book whose heroes were Mowgli children. In total, it describes 14 similar cases. It is noteworthy that wolves always became the “educators” of these children. In principle, this is not surprising, since gray predators live not far from human habitation. That is why they come across small children left unattended in the forest or field.
For the beast this is prey, and he takes it to the lair. But a helpless crying baby can awaken the wolf's instinct of motherhood. Therefore, the child is not eaten, but left in the pack. First, the dominant female feeds him with milk, and then the whole flock begins to feed him with semi-digested burps from the eaten meat. On such food, children can eat off such cheeks that it’s just a sight for sore eyes.
True, one nuance arises here. After 8-9 months, the wolf cubs turn into independent young wolves. And the child continues to remain helpless. But here the gray predators’ parental instinct kicks in. They feel the baby's helplessness and continue to feed him.
A child living among wolves becomes just like them
It must be said that some scientists question the very fact of young children being among animals. But every year there is more and more such evidence. Therefore, skeptics give up their positions and begin to admit the obvious.
In conclusion, it should be noted that people deprived of human communication begin to gradually lag behind in their mental development from those who live in a normal society. The Mowgli children are proof of this. They once again confirm the well-known truth that For the development of a person, the most important age is from birth to 5 years.
It is during these years that the child’s brain masters the fundamental principles of the psyche, acquires the necessary skills and basic knowledge. If this initial 5-year period is missed, then it is almost impossible to raise a full-fledged person. The absence of speech has a particularly detrimental effect on the brain. This is precisely what a child loses in the first place by communicating with animals. To become a full-fledged person, you need to communicate with your own kind. And if you communicate with wolves or leopards, you can only become just like them.
A photo project dedicated to modern Mowglis - children who grew up among animals - has become one of the most high-profile and stunning projects created by London-based photographer of German origin Julia Fullerton-Batten. These staged photographs reveal terrible problems modern society, in which, unfortunately, there is still a place for such anti-social phenomena as child homelessness.
The photo project is based on real stories children who were once lost, stolen or simply abandoned by their parents to their fate.
1. Lobo, wolf girl, Mexico, 1845-1852
In 1845, this girl was seen running on all fours with a pack of wolves attacking a herd of goats. A year later, she was seen eating a goat with wolves. They managed to catch the girl, but she escaped. In 1852, she was seen again, this time suckling a she-wolf, but she again managed to escape into the forest from people trying to catch her. She was never seen again.
2. Oksana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991
Oksana was found living with dogs. She was 8 years old and had lived with animals since she was 6 years old. The girl's parents were alcoholics and one day they simply forgot her on the street. A three-year-old girl, in search of warmth, snuck into a pen with animals, where she fell asleep among the mongrel dogs, which then saved her life. When the girl was found, she acted more like a dog than a human child. She ran on all fours, sticking out her tongue, baring and barking. Of all human words, she understood only “yes” and “no.” Intensive therapy helped Oksana regain social and verbal skills, but only at the level of a five-year-old child. Now she lives in a clinic in Odessa and takes care of animals on the farm at the institution.
3. Shamdeo, India, 1972
This four-year-old boy was found playing with wolf cubs in the forests of India. He had dark skin, pointed teeth, long hooked nails, matted hair and calluses on the palms, elbows and knees. He liked to hunt chickens, could eat dirt, had a thirst for blood, and roamed with stray dogs. They managed to wean him off eating raw meat, but he never spoke, he simply learned to understand a little sign language. In 1978, he was sent to the Mother Teresa Hospice for the Poor and Dying in Lucknow, where he received a new name - Pascal. He died in February 1985.
4. Rights (bird boy), Russia, 2008
Rights, a 7-year-old boy found in the two-room apartment of his 31-year-old mother. The baby was locked in a room completely lined with bird houses with dozens of decorative birds, among food and droppings. The mother treated her son like one of her pets. She never caused him physical suffering, did not beat him, did not leave him hungry, but she never spoke to him as a person. The boy communicated only with birds. He couldn't speak, but he could chirp. When they didn’t understand him, he began to flap his arms like a bird’s wings.
Rights have been moved to the center psychological assistance where he is undergoing rehabilitation.
5. Marina Chapman, Columbia, 1959
Marina was kidnapped in 1954 from a remote village in South America at the age of 5 and abandoned in the jungle by her captors. She lived with a family of baby capuchin monkeys for five years before she was accidentally discovered by hunters. The girl ate berries, roots and bananas that the monkeys dropped; she slept in the hollows of trees and moved on all fours. One day a girl got food poisoning. The old monkey led her to a puddle of water and made her drink until she vomited, after which the girl felt better. Marina made friends with little monkeys, thanks to whom she learned to climb trees and recognize what is safe to eat.
The girl had completely lost the ability to speak by the time she was found by hunters. Unfortunately, even after that she had a hard time, since the hunters sold her to a brothel, from where she escaped, after which she wandered the streets for a long time. Then she fell into slavery to a family involved in dark deeds, and stayed there until she was rescued by a neighbor, who sent her to live with his daughter and son-in-law in Bogota. New family adopted a girl, and she began to live with their five children. When Marina reached adulthood, she was offered the role of housekeeper and nanny for a family of relatives. In 1977, together with his new family Marina moved to Bradford (UK), where she still lives today. She got married and had children.
Together with her youngest daughter, Marina wrote a book about her difficult childhood spent in the wild forest, and about everything she had to endure subsequently. The book is called "The Girl with No Name".
6. Madina, Russia, 2013
Madina lived with dogs from birth until she was 3 years old. She ate with the dogs, played with them and slept with them during the cold season. When social workers found her in 2013, the girl was walking on all fours, completely naked and growling like a dog. Madina's father abandoned the family shortly after her birth. Her 23-year-old mother began to abuse alcohol. She was always too drunk to care for the child and often disappeared from home. Also often the mother drank and feasted with her drinking companions while her young daughter gnawed bones on the floor, along with the dogs.
When her mother was angry with her, the girl ran outside into the neighboring yards, but none of the children played with her, because she did not know how to talk and only growled and fought with everyone. Over time, the dogs became the girl's best and only friends.
According to doctors, despite all this, the girls are physically and mentally healthy. There are fairly high chances that she will be able to lead a normal life after she learns to speak and acquires the human skills necessary for her age.
7. Jenny, USA, 1970
When Jenny was a child, her father decided that she was mentally retarded, so he constantly kept her on a high chair in one of the small rooms of the house. The girl spent more than 10 years in this “solitary confinement.” She even had to sleep on this chair. Jenny was 13 years old when her mother came with her to social services and social workers noticed strange behavior in the girl. She was still not accustomed to a regular toilet and had a rather strange gait. She also could not speak or make any articulate sounds. The girl kept spitting and scratching herself.
Jenny has been the subject of research for quite some time. Experts taught her, and she even learned a few words, but was not able to assemble them into a single grammatical structure. Over time, the girl learned to read short texts and acquired minimal social behavior skills. She had the chance to live a little more with her mother, and then she lived in different foster families, where, unfortunately, she went through humiliation, harassment and violence.
After everything she had suffered, the girl was able to be returned to the children's hospital, where doctors noted a clear regression in her development - she again returned to her previous silent state. In 1974, funding for Jenny's treatment and research ceased, and for quite a long time nothing was known about her or her whereabouts. Much time later, a private detective managed to find her in one of the medical institutions for mentally retarded adults.
8. Leopard Boy, India, 1912
This two-year-old boy was dragged into the jungle by a female leopard. Three years later, a hunter killed her and found three cubs in the den, one of which was a five-year-old boy. The child was returned to the Indian family in the remote abandoned village from which he was kidnapped. When the boy was first caught, he could run on all fours as quickly and adroitly as an ordinary adult could run on his own two feet. The boy's knees were covered with rough calluses, his fingers were bent almost at right angles (for more convenient climbing of trees). He bit, growled and fought with everyone who tried to approach him.
Subsequently, the boy was able to be accustomed to human behavior, and he even began to walk upright. Unfortunately, a short time later he became almost completely blind due to cataracts. The disease was hereditary in his family and had nothing to do with his “adventures” in the jungle.
9. Sujit Kumar (chicken boy), Fiji, 1978
The boy's parents locked him in a chicken coop for the dysfunctional behavior he exhibited as a child. Kumar's mother committed suicide and his father was killed. His grandfather took responsibility for the child, but he, too, continued to keep the boy locked in the chicken coop. He was 8 years old when neighbors saw him on the road, pecking something in the dust and cackling. His fingers were curled like chicken feet.
Social workers took the boy to a local nursing home, but there, due to aggressive behavior, he was tied to a bed and spent more than 20 years in this position. Now he is over 30, and he is being cared for by Elizabeth Clayton, who once saved him from home.
10. Kamala and Amala, India, 1920
Kamala, 8, and Amala, 12, were found in 1920 in a wolf den. This is one of the most famous cases involving wild children. They were allegedly found by Reverend Joseph Singh, who was hiding in a tree above the cave where the girls were seen. When the wolves left the den, the priest saw two figures emerging from the cave. The girls looked terrifying, moved on all fours and did not look like people at all.
The man managed to grab the girls as they slept, curled up together. The girls tore off the clothes that were put on them, they scratched, fought, howled and ate nothing but raw meat. During their stay with the wolves, all their joints became deformed and their limbs looked more like paws. The girls showed no interest in communicating with people. But their vision, hearing and olfactory abilities were simply amazing!
Amala died a year after the girls began living among people. Kamala learned to speak a few phrases and walk on two legs, but at the age of 17 she also died of kidney failure.
11. Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998
The boy was abused by his parents and ran away from home when he was only 4 years old. He was forced to wander the streets and beg. He became friends with a pack of stray dogs and wandered the streets with them and shared his food with them. The dogs accepted the boy, began to treat him with respect, and, ultimately, he even became something of their leader. Ivan lived with the dogs for two years until he was discovered and sent to a shelter for street children.
The fact that the boy was among animals for a relatively short period of time had a positive effect on his ability to recover and socialize. Today Ivan lives an ordinary life.
12. Marie Angelique Memmi Le Blanc (wild girl from Champagne), France, 1731
Apart from her childhood, the story of this 18th century girl is surprisingly well documented. During 10 years of wandering, she walked alone thousands of kilometers through the forests of France, eating roots, plants, frogs and fish. Armed only with a club, she fought off wild animals, mainly wolves. When people caught her (at the age of 19), the girl was completely dark-skinned, with matted hair and hard, curled claws. When the girl got down on all fours to drink water from the river, she was constantly on alert and looked around, as if expecting a sudden attack. Marie did not know human speech and could only communicate by growling or howling.
For many years she never touched cooked food, preferring to eat raw chicken and rabbits. Her fingers remained curled and she used them to dig up roots or climb trees. In 1737, the Queen of Poland, mother of the French Queen, on her way to France, took Memmi with her on a hunt, where the girl showed herself still capable of running like an animal - fast enough to catch and kill wild rabbits.
However, the girl’s recovery from the consequences of her ten-year stay in the wild was remarkable. She acquired several wealthy patrons and learned to read, write, and speak French fluently. She died in Paris in 1775, at the age of 63.
13. John Ssebunya (monkey boy), Uganda, 1991
At the age of 3, the boy ran away from home after seeing his father kill his mother. The baby hid in the jungle and took root in a family of wild monkeys. In 1991, when he was 6 years old, the boy was accidentally discovered by hunters and sent to an orphanage. When they cleaned him there and washed him of dirt, it turned out that the child’s body was completely covered with coarse hair.
The boy's diet in the jungle consisted mainly of roots, leaves, sweet potatoes, nuts and bananas. He was also infected with dangerous intestinal worms, which could reach half a meter in length.
John was relatively easy to train and educate, learned to talk and even showed a talent for singing! Thanks to this, he subsequently even toured the UK with a male choir.
14. Victor (wild boy from Aveyron), France, 1797
Victor was first discovered in the late 18th century in the forests of St. Sernin-sur-Rance, in the south of France. He was caught by the people, but somehow managed to escape again. In January 1800, the boy was recaptured. He was about 12 years old, his body was completely covered with scars, and the child was unable to utter a word. It is believed that he spent about 7 years in the wild.
Testing the boy's ability to withstand low temperatures, the French biology professor sent Victor to walk naked through the streets in the snow. Oddly enough, the boy was not at all depressed by this, and he felt surprisingly calm even in such conditions.
However, when trying to teach the guy to talk and behave as expected in society, all the teachers failed. The boy may have been able to hear and speak before he found himself in the wild, but after returning to civilization he was never able to do so again. He died in a Parisian research institute at the age of 40.
Many believe that the story of the Indian wolf boy Dean Sanichara inspired Rudyard Kipling to write his most famous and beloved by millions of readers, The Jungle Book.
Like Mowgli, Dean was a wild boy raised by wolves, although his life was very different from the fictional hero. Book Mowgli surprised readers with his upbringing. Having been in an Indian forest, he was adopted by animals who fed, protected and protected him. Dean was also raised by wolves, but this real-life boy's life was not so fairy-tale.
Born in India, living there until he was 6 years old, and then moving to England with his parents, the young writer Rudyard returned to his small homeland a decade later. His famous "Jungle Book" was published in 1895.
It turns out that Mowgli's story was born two decades after Din Sanichar was caught by Indian hunters in a pack of wolves. But unlike the smart book hero, Dean was mentally retarded, despite years of reintegration into human society.
Dean was not the only boy whose unusual life was embodied in a book narrative. But it was his life story that had a direct influence on one of the most famous British writers.
Hunters kidnapped him and killed his wolf companion
The hunters accidentally stumbled upon Dean in the jungle and witnessed him walking on all fours following his wolf friend. Curiosity got the better of them, and they began a whole hunt for the boy to catch him.
They made numerous attempts to lure the wild child and separate him from the wolf, but they were unable to separate them. The hunters killed the wolf at the first opportunity. Everything happened right before the boy's eyes.
He was labeled as mentally retarded as soon as he entered orphanage
The hunters brought Dean to an orphanage, where the missionaries baptized him and gave him the name Sanichar, which means "Saturday" in Urdu, because that was the day of the week he came to the orphanage. At that time, Father Erhardt was in charge of the mission, and tried to get to know and understand the boy better.
Dean had a rather difficult time adapting to his new life, because everyone considered him mentally retarded. However, he demonstrated the ability to reason and was eager to complete certain tasks from time to time.
He never learned to speak or write
Children learn to speak during the first two years of their lives. Some children pronounce “mama” or “dada” as early as six months and after a couple of years they begin to calmly communicate in sentences. These time milestones coincide with the child's mental, emotional and behavioral development.
However, Dean never speaks. Despite numerous attempts by those around him to teach him speech, the wolf boy never learned human language or learned to write. He communicated all his life by making animal sounds.
The boy quickly learned to smoke
The baby had an aversion to clothes and refused to talk, but he liked to walk on his feet rather than on all fours, although this was not easy for him. Very soon he adopted a bad habit from adults and became addicted to smoking. Perhaps this was the cause of tuberculosis, which later killed him.
He preferred to eat raw meat and sharpen his teeth on bones
Most children begin to grow teeth between four and seven months of age and have a full set of teeth by age three. Most likely, at first it was very difficult for Dean to eat without teeth in a pack of wolves, because wolves are carnivores and eat mainly raw game.
But over time, he seemed to have become accustomed only to the food that the flock ate. When he first appeared at the orphanage, the boy flatly refused to eat cooked food. But he greedily attacked the raw pieces of meat and, with a growl, gnawed at the bones.
He hated walking around dressed
Immediately after the boy was delivered from the jungle, people tried to instill in him the skills of living in society and forced him to dress. Having learned to walk like a human being, he forced himself to put on pants and a shirt for almost twenty years.
In addition to him, another wolf boy from Kronstadt was later brought to the orphanage, who shared Dean’s reluctance to dress. They both liked to run around naked in the jungle.
He managed to make friends with only one orphan - the same wild child
Dean spent most of childhood with animals and it was quite difficult for him to get used to people. But despite this, he managed to immediately find common language with another wild child who lived in the same shelter.
The father-rector of the orphanage believed that a “bond of sympathy” was instantly established between the boys and they even taught each other new skills of human behavior. For example, how to drink liquids from mugs. They both grew up in the wild, so they were much more comfortable together, because they understood each other.
During this period, several more children were found raised by animals in the Indian jungle.
No matter how strange it may sound, in addition to Dean, at the end of the 19th century, other wolf cubs were found in the Indian jungle. One of the missionaries found a wild child near Jalpaigur in 1892. The next year, a boy was found who loved to eat frogs in Batsipur near Dalsingarai.
Two years later, the child was found near Sultanpur and they say that he subsequently settled well among people and even went to work for the police. The last one to be found was 3 years later, a child near Shadzhampur, who was not able to adapt to life among people at all, although they tried to “tame” him for 14 years.
Dean was unable to fully adapt to society and tuberculosis killed him
After living in the orphanage for almost a decade, Dean was unable to catch up in his mental development. The eighteen-year-old boy barely reached 152 centimeters in height. The young man was low-browed and had big teeth; he was constantly nervous and felt “out of place.”
He is believed to have died at the age of twenty-nine due to tuberculosis in 1895. However, according to other sources, he was 34 years old by that time.
Evidence of the existence of children raised by wolves first appeared in India in the 50s of the 19th century.
The 1851 pamphlet An Account of Wolves Raising Children in Their Packs by Indian Statistics by Sir William Henry Sleeman is one of the first facts to explain the existence of six wolf children in India. Five of these wild children were found in what is now Sultanpur. One was caught in the area of modern Bahraich.
According to Sleeman, there were many wolves that lived near the city of Sultanpur and other areas on the banks of the Gomtri River, and they ran with "a lot of children."
Raised by wolves, children were killed in the jungle by tigers and other predators
Why were there only children raised by wolves in the jungle, and not adult boys or girls? It is likely that many children did not survive their childhood. Perhaps they were dying of hunger or were killed by wolves themselves or other predatory animals.
In The Jungle Book, Mowgli's most terrible opponent was the tiger Shere Khan. In India, even at that time, there were many tigers that could easily attack a child in a wolf pack, because people cannot run as fast as wolves. During the 19th century, hunters often found dead bodies of children in the jungle, gnawed by wild animals.
Wild children: truth or deception?
Over the years, there have been numerous stories of feral children being captured and reintroduced to society, but many of the stories have since been debunked.
One of the most famous cases in the 1920s involved two girls, Amala and Kamala, who were almost nine years old when they were rescued from a wolf pack. The man who found them told everyone that the babies howled at the moon, walked on all fours and ate only raw meat. He tried to teach them to walk and talk.
Researchers were fascinated by this story and wrote many stories and books about them. But later it turned out that the girls were not raised by wolves at all, but from birth they were disabled with congenital defects of the limbs.
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). At an exhibition in London, she presented a series of staged photographs telling real stories about children growing up under very unusual circumstances.
Fullerton-Batten decided to look for data on children who grew up with animals after reading the book The Girl with No Name.
The stories she collected are about those who got lost in the forest or were otherwise raised by animals. It is characteristic that such cases have been recorded on at least four of the five continents.
Lobo Wolf Girl, Mexico, 1845-1852.
In 1845, people noticed a girl crawling on all fours with a pack of wolves attacking a herd of goats. A year later, she was noticed in the same company: everyone was eating raw goat meat together.
One day the girl was captured, but she managed to escape. In 1852, she was spotted again with her cubs, but this time she managed to escape. Since then, no one has seen her again.
Oksana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991
Oksana was found in a dog kennel in 1991. She was 8 years old at that time, 6 of them she lived with dogs. Her parents were alcoholics, and one night they accidentally left the girl on the street. To keep warm, the baby climbed into the nursery on the farm, curled up, and the dogs saved her from the cold.
So the girl began to live with them. When people found out about this story, Oksana already looked more like a dog than a person. She ran on all fours, bared her teeth, breathed, sticking out her tongue, and growled. Due to the lack of connection with people, by the age of 8 she had learned only two words: “Yes” and “No”.
Intensive therapy helped Oksana regain social and verbal skills, but only at the level of a five-year-old child. Now the girl is 30 years old, she lives in a special clinic in Odessa and takes care of farm animals.
Shamdeo, India, 1972
Shamdeo, a 4-year-old boy, was discovered in the forest in 1972 while playing with wolf cubs. His skin was very dark - his teeth were pointed and his nails were long. There were huge calluses on the child's hands, elbows and knees. He loved to hunt chickens, ate dirt, and had an increased appetite for raw blood.
The child was taken from the forest by social services. They never weaned him off his love of raw meat. They didn’t teach him to speak either, but he began to understand sign language. In 1978, he was accepted into Mother Teresa's home for the poor. He died in February 1985.
“Rights” (Bird Boy), Russia, 2008
Prava, a 7-year-old boy, was found in the tiny two-room house he shared with his 31-year-old mother. The boy lived in a room with dozens of ornamental birds - along with all the cages, food and droppings.
His mother treated the child like one of her pets. She did not physically beat him, but periodically left him without food and never spoke to him. Therefore, he could only communicate with birds. The boy could not speak - he could only chirp. He also waved his arms like a bird—with wings.
The right was taken away from the mother and sent to the Psychological Assistance Center. Doctors are still trying to rehabilitate him.
Marina Chapman, Columbia, 1959
Marina was kidnapped in 1954. She originally lived in one of the villages lost in the jungle of South America, but her kidnapper simply left her in the jungle. A baby capuchin monkey came out.
The hunters found the child only five years later. The child ate only berries, roots and bananas, slept in hollow trees and walked on all fours.
One day she was poisoned by something. One elderly monkey led her to a puddle of water and forced her to drink from it. The girl vomited and her body began to recover.
She was friends with young monkeys, knew how to climb trees, and was well versed in the fruits of local plants: which ones could be eaten and which ones could not.
By the time the hunters discovered her, Marina had completely forgotten how to speak. Those who found her took advantage of this: the child was sent to a brothel. There she lived as a street girl, and was later enslaved by a mafia family. And only many years later one of her neighbors rescued her and took her to Bogota. There they lived together with the savior’s own son.
When Marina became an adult, she worked as a nanny. In 1977, their family moved to the UK, where they still live today. Marina got married and had children. Her youngest daughter, Vanessa James, wrote a book about her mother’s wild experiences, “The Girl with No Name.”
Madina, Russia, 2013
Madina has lived with dogs since birth. For the first three years of her life, she played with them and shared food with them. They warmed her with their bodies in winter. Social workers found the girl in 2013. She was naked, walked on all fours and growled like a dog.
Madina's father left the family shortly after her birth. Her mother, a 23-year-old girl, drank herself to death. She did not care for the child at all, and one day she made a simple decision. She moved into the house of one of the rural alcoholics. She sat at the table with her drinking companions while her daughter chewed bones on the floor with the dogs.
One day Madina ran to the playground, but was unable to play with the other children: she could not speak. So the dogs became her only friends.
Doctors reported that Madina is mentally and physically absolutely healthy person, despite all the trials she went through. There is a good chance that one day she will return to normal. Despite the fact that I learned to speak too late.
Janie, USA, 1970
Janie's father once decided that his daughter was "retarded" and therefore began to hold her on the toilet seat in a small room of the house. She spent more than 10 years in this solitary confinement. I even slept in a chair.
She was 13 years old when a social worker accidentally noticed her condition in 1970. They say the child did not know how to go to the toilet and moved “somehow strangely: sideways and like a rabbit.” The teenage girl did not know how to speak or express any sounds at all.
She was taken from her parents, and since then she has become the subject of scientific research. Gradually she learned a few words, but never learned to write. But he reads simple texts and already knows how to interact with other people.
In 1974, funding for Janie's treatment program was stopped and she was placed in a private institution for mentally retarded adults.
Leopard boy, India, 1912
This boy was two years old when a female leopard stole him from the courtyard of a village house and took him into her care in 1912. Three years later, a hunter killed the animal and found its three cubs: two small leopards and a five-year-old child. The child was returned to his family in a small village in India.
At first, the boy could only sit on all fours, but he ran faster than any other adult. His knees were covered with huge, hard calluses, and his fingers were bent vertically at right angles to his palm. They were covered with tough, keratinized skin.
The boy bit, fought with everyone, and one day caught and ate raw chicken. He couldn't speak - he could only moan and growl.
Later he was taught to speak and walk upright. Unfortunately, he soon became blind from cataracts. However, this is not due to his experience of living in the jungle, but to heredity.
Sujit Kumar, Chicken Boy, Fiji, 1978
The authorities declared Sujit a mentally retarded child. After that, his parents locked him in a chicken coop. Soon his mother committed suicide and his father was killed. The grandfather took responsibility for the baby, but he believed that he would continue to be better off in the chicken coop.
When Sujeet was eight years old, he ran out onto the road and was spotted. The boy cackled and flapped his arms like a chicken. He did not eat the food brought to him, but pecked it, clicking his tongue. He sat on the chair with his feet up and his toes turned inward.
Soon after his discovery, he was sent to a nursing home as a worker. But there he was different aggressive behavior, so he had to be tied to the bed with sheets for a long time. Now over 30 years old, he lives with Elizabeth Clayton, the woman who saved him and gave him a home.
Kamala and Amala, India, 1920
8-year-old Kamala and 12-year-old Amala were found in a wolf den in 1920. This is one of the most famous cases of the discovery of “Mowgli children”.
They were found by a certain Joseph Singh, who saw two children emerging from a cave of wolves. It was disgusting to look at them: they ran on all fours and behaved not at all like people. Soon, Singh made every effort, together with the police, to take the girls away from the wolves.
During the first nights, the girls slept curled up together, growled, tore off their clothes, ate nothing but raw meat and howled. Physically, they were also different: the tendons and joints in their arms and legs were contracted and deformed. The girls showed no interest in communicating with people. But their hearing, vision and smell were exceptionally developed.
Amala died the next year after returning to the people. Kamala did learn to walk upright and say a few words, but died in 1929 from kidney failure at the age of 17.
Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998
Ivan ran away from an alcoholic family when he was 4 years old. At first he lived on the streets and begged. And then he “made friends” with a pack of dogs. He began to feed them. They began to trust him. Ivan became something of a leader of the pack.
For two years he lived with them in abandoned buildings. Then he was caught and placed in an orphanage. The boy knew how to talk: he had to beg for alms. That is why he now lives a normal life.
Marie Angelique Memmi Le Blanc (Champagne Girl), France, 1731
This story received great publicity in the 18th century. Surprisingly, it is well documented.
Over the course of 10 years, it is unclear how the girl who ended up in the forest walked thousands of kilometers through the forests of France. She ate birds, frogs, fish, leaves, branches and roots of trees. She knew how to fight wild animals, including wolves. When she was 19 years old, she was captured by "civilized" people. The girl was black with dirt, overgrown, with sharp claws. She knelt down to drink water and constantly looked around for danger.
She could not speak; she communicated only by squealing and wheezing. But, it seems, she found amazing contact with rabbits and birds. For many, many years she ate only raw food and could not eat cooked food. She could climb trees like a monkey.
In 1737, the Queen of Poland, mother of the French Queen, took Memmi into her palace. Together with her, she went out hunting for rabbits: the girl ran after them as deftly as dogs.
But Memmi was able to recover, and in 10 years she learned to read, write and speak French fluently. In 1747 she became a nun, but not for long. Her patron died under mysterious circumstances.
Soon, however, Memmi found a new “owner” - Mrs. Eke. She published a photograph of the woman. Memmi lived in Paris in a wealthy family and died in 1775. She was 63.
John Ssebunya, Monkey Boy, Uganda, 1991
John ran away from home in 1988 when he was three years old. This happened after his father killed his mother in front of his eyes. The boy ran away into the jungle and began to live with monkeys.
In 1991, he was found and captured. At that time he was about six years old. By that time, his entire body was covered with hair. The boy ate only roots, nuts, sweet potatoes and cassava. Huge worms, half a meter long, lived in his intestines.
But everything turned out well: the child was taught to speak and walk. And his beautiful singing voice made him a stage star. Together with other African children, he toured the world as part of the Pearl of Africa children's choir.
Victor (Wild Boy of Aveyron), France, 1797
This is also a historical incident that is very well documented. A wild child was seen at the end of the 18th century in the forests of Saint Sernin-sur-Rance in the South of France. On January 8, 1800, he was caught.
He was 12 years old, his body was covered with scars, and the boy was unable to utter a word. It later turned out that he spent 7 years in the wild. Biology professors began to research it. It turned out that the boy can feel comfortable completely naked in the cold, knee-deep snow. Seems, low temperature Didn't cause him any discomfort at all!
People tried to teach him to behave "normally", but there was no progress. The boy could not speak for the rest of his life. He was sent to a special scientific institute in Paris, where he was studied until his death. He died at the age of 40.
