Mowgli is a popular character created by Kipling. For a long time, both book lovers and movie fans continue to admire this hero. And there is nothing strange about this, because Mowgli embodies beauty, intelligence and nobility, while being just a jungle fairy tale.
There is another fairly famous character raised by monkeys. We are, of course, talking about Tarzan. According to the book, he managed not only to integrate into society, but also to marry successfully. At the same time, animal habits almost completely disappeared.
Do fairy tales have a place in the real world?
Naturally, the stories look quite attractive, they take your breath away, take you into a world of adventure and make you believe that the characters will find a place for themselves in any country, in any conditions. But in reality, everything doesn't look so great. There have never been such cases when a child raised by animals eventually became a human being. He will begin to develop Mowgli syndrome.
Main features of the disease
The development of people is characterized by the presence of specific boundaries when certain functions are formed. Learning to speak, imitating parents, walking upright and much more. And if a child does not learn all this, then he will not do it when he grows up. And the real Mowgli is unlikely to learn human speech and will not begin to walk on all fours. And he would never understand the moral principles of society.
So what does Mowgli syndrome mean? We are talking about a certain number of characteristics and parameters that are possessed by those who were not raised in human society. This is the ability to speak, and the fear caused by people, and non-recognition of tableware, etc.
Of course, a “human child” raised by animals can be taught to imitate human speech or behavior. But Mowgli's syndrome turns all this into ordinary training. Naturally, a child is capable of adapting to society if he is returned before the age of 12-13. However, he will still suffer from mental problems.
There was a case when a child was raised by dogs. Over time, the girl was taught to talk, but this did not make her consider herself a human. In her opinion, she was just a dog and did not belong to human society. Mowgli syndrome sometimes leads to death, because children raised by animals, when they get to people, begin to experience something other than just physiological.
Experts know a large number of stories of “human children”, and only a small part of them is known to society. This review will look at the most famous Mowgli children.
Chimpanzee boy from Nigeria
In 1996, a boy, Bello, was found in the jungles of Nigeria. It was difficult to determine his exact age, but according to experts, the child was only 2 years old. The foundling was found to have physical and mental abnormalities. Apparently because of this they left him in the forest. Naturally, he could not stand up for himself, but the chimpanzees not only did not harm him, but also accepted him into their tribe.
Like many other feral children, a boy named Bello adopted animal habits and began to walk like monkeys. The story became widespread in 2002, when the boy was discovered in a boarding school for abandoned children. At first, he often fought, threw various things, ran and jumped. However, over time he became calmer, but never learned to talk. In 2005, Bello died of unknown causes.
Bird boy from Russia
Mowgli syndrome made itself felt in many countries. Russia was no exception. In 2008, a six-year-old boy was found in Volgograd. Human speech was unfamiliar to him; instead, the foundling chirped. He acquired this skill thanks to his parrot friends. The boy's name was Vanya Yudin.
It should be noted that the guy was not physically harmed in any way. However, he was unable to make contact with people. Vanya had birdlike behavior and used his hands to express emotions. This was due to the fact that the guy lived for a long time without leaving the room in which his mother’s birds lived.
Although the boy lived with his mother, according to social workers, she not only did not talk to him, but also treated him like another feathered pet. At the present stage, the guy is in a center for psychological help. Experts are trying to return it from the bird world.
Boy raised by wolves
In 1867, a 6-year-old boy was found by Indian hunters. It happened in a cave where a pack of wolves lived. Dean Sanichar, which was the name of the foundling, ran on all fours, like animals. They tried to treat the guy, but in those days there were not only appropriate means, but also effective methods.
At first, the “human cub” ate raw meat, refused to eat dishes, and tried to tear off his clothes. Over time, he began to eat cooked meals. But I never learned to talk.
Wolf girls
In 1920, Amala and Kamala were discovered in a wolf den in India. The first was 1.5 years old, the second was already 8 years old. For most of their lives, the girls were raised by wolves. Although they were together, experts did not consider them sisters, since the age difference was quite significant. They were just left in one place at different times.
Feral children were found under rather interesting circumstances. At that time, rumors about two ghostly spirits who lived with the wolves became widespread in the village. Frightened residents came to the priest for help. He, hiding near the cave, waited for the wolves to leave and looked into their lair, where the children who were raised by the animals were discovered.
According to the priest’s description, the girls were “disgusting creatures from head to toe”, they moved exclusively on all fours, and did not possess any human characteristics. Although he had no experience in adapting such children, he took them with him.
Amala and Kamala slept together, refused to wear clothes, ate only raw meat, and howled often. They could no longer walk vertically, as the tendons and joints on their arms became shorter as a result of physical deformation. The girls refused to communicate with people, trying to return back to the jungle.
After some time, Amala died, because of which Kamala fell into deep mourning and even cried for the first time. The priest thought that she too would soon die, so he began to work more actively on her. As a result, Kamala learned to walk, at least a little, and even learned a few words. But in 1929 she too died due to kidney failure.
Children raised by dogs
Madina was discovered by specialists at the age of three. She was raised not by people, but by dogs. Madina preferred to bark, although she knew some words. After examination, the found girl was found to be mentally and physically healthy. It is for this reason that the dog girl still has a chance to return to a full life in human society.
Another similar story happened in Ukraine in 1991. Parents left their daughter Oksana at the age of three in a kennel, where she grew up for 5 years surrounded by dogs. In this regard, she adopted the behavior of animals, began to bark, growl, and moved exclusively on all fours.
The dog girl knew only two words - “yes” and “no”. After a course of intensive therapy, the child nevertheless acquired social and verbal skills and began to talk. But the psychological problems never went away. The girl does not know how to express herself, and quite often tries to communicate not by speech, but by showing emotions. Now the girl lives in Odessa in one of the clinics, often spending her time with animals.
Wolf girl
The Lobo girl was first seen in 1845. She, along with a pack of predators, attacked goats near San Felipe. After a year, the information about Lobo was confirmed. She was seen eating the meat of a dead goat. The villagers began searching for the child. They were the ones who caught the girl and named her Lobo.
But, like many other Mowgli children, the girl tried to break free, which she did. The next time she was seen was only 8 years later near the river with the wolf cubs. Frightened by people, she picked up the animals and disappeared into the forest. No one else met her.
wild child
The girl Rochom Piengeng disappeared along with her sister when she was only 8 years old. She was found only 18 years later in 2007, when her parents no longer hoped for it. The wild cub discovered was a peasant whose girl was trying to steal food. Her sister was never found.
We worked a lot with Roch and tried with all our might to return him to normal life. After a while she even began to say some words. If Rochom wanted to eat, she pointed to her mouth, often crawled on the ground and refused to wear clothes. The girl never got used to human life and ran away into the forest in 2010. Since then, her whereabouts have been unknown.
Child locked in a room
All those who are interested in children raised by animals know a girl named Jean. Although she did not live with animals, she resembled them in her habits. At the age of 13, she was locked in a room with only a chair and a potty tied to it. Father also liked to tie Jean up and lock her in a sleeping bag.
The child’s parent abused his power, did not allow the girl to talk, punishing her for trying to say something with a stick. Instead of human interaction, he growled and barked at her. The head of the family did not allow her mother to communicate with the child. For this reason, the girl’s vocabulary included only 20 words.
The genie was discovered in 1970. At first they thought she was autistic. But then the doctors discovered that the child had become a victim of violence. For a long period, Jean was treated in a children's hospital. But this did not lead to any significant improvements. Although she was able to answer some questions, she still had the habits of an animal. The girl kept her hands in front of her all the time, as if they were paws. She didn't stop scratching and biting.
Subsequently, a therapist began to take care of her upbringing. Thanks to him, she learned sign language and began to express emotions through drawings and communication. The training lasted for 4 years. Then she went to live with her mother, and then ended up with foster parents, with whom the girl was again unlucky. The new family caused the child to become mute. Now the girl lives in Southern California.
Wild Peter
Mowgli syndrome, examples of which were described above, also appeared in a child living in Germany. In 1724, people discovered a hairy boy who moved only on all fours. They were able to catch him through deception. Peter did not speak at all and ate only raw foods. Although he subsequently began to do simple work, he never learned to communicate. Wild Peter died at an old age.
Conclusion
These are not all examples. We can endlessly list people who have Mowgli syndrome. The psychology of wild foundlings is of great interest to many specialists, if only because not a single person raised by animals has ever been able to return to a normal, fulfilling life.
From childhood, a person is formed under the influence of the conditions in which he grows. And if, before the age of 5, a child finds himself surrounded by animals rather than people, he adopts their habits and gradually loses his human appearance. "Mowgli Syndrome"- got this name cases of children forming in the wild. After returning to people, socialization became impossible for many of them. How the fates of the most famous Mowgli children turned out is further in the review.
The first known case of children being raised by animals, according to legend, was the story of Romulus and Remus. According to myth, they were nursed by a she-wolf as children, and later found and raised by a shepherd. Romulus became the founder of Rome, and the she-wolf became the emblem of the capital of Italy. However, in real life, stories about Mowgli children rarely have such happy endings.
The story, born from the imagination of Rudyard Kipling, is in fact completely implausible: children who are lost before they learn to walk and talk will not be able to master these skills in adulthood. The first reliable historical case of a child being raised by wolves was recorded in Hesse in 1341. Hunters discovered a child who lived in a pack of wolves, ran on all fours, jumped far, squealed, growled and bit. An 8-year-old boy spent half his life among animals. He could not speak and ate only raw food. Soon after returning to the people, the boy died.
The most detailed case described was the story of the “wild boy from Aveyron”. In 1797, in France, peasants caught a child of 12-15 years old in the forest, who behaved like a small animal. He could not speak; his words were replaced by a growl. Several times he ran away from people into the mountains. After he was recaptured, he became the object of scientific attention. Naturalist Pierre-Joseph Bonaterre wrote “Historical Notes on the Savage from Aveyron,” where he detailed the results of his observations. The boy was insensitive to high and low temperatures, had a special sense of smell and hearing, and refused to wear clothes. Dr. Jean-Marc Itard tried to socialize Victor (as the boy was named) for six years, but he never learned to speak. He died at the age of 40. The life story of Victor from Aveyron formed the basis of the film “Wild Child”.
Most of the children with Mowgli syndrome were found in India: from 1843 to 1933. 15 such cases have been recorded here. Dina Sanichar lived in a wolf den, he was found in 1867. The boy was taught to walk on two legs, use utensils, wear clothes, but he could not speak. Sanichar died at the age of 34.
In 1920, Indian villagers turned to missionaries to help them get rid of creepy ghosts from the jungle. The “ghosts” turned out to be two girls, 8 and 2 years old, who lived with the wolves. They were placed in an orphanage and named Kamala and Amala. They growled and howled, ate raw meat, and moved on all fours. Amala lived for less than a year, Kamala died at the age of 17, having by that time reached the development level of a 4-year-old child.
In 1975, a 5-year-old child was found among wolves in Italy. They named him Rono and placed him in the Institute of Child Psychiatry, where doctors worked on his socialization. But the boy died eating human food.
There were many similar cases: children were found among dogs, monkeys, pandas, leopards and kangaroos (but most often among wolves). Sometimes the children got lost, sometimes the parents themselves got rid of them. Common symptoms for all children with Maguli syndrome who grew up among animals were the inability to speak, moving on all fours, fear of people, but at the same time excellent immunity and good health.
Alas, children who grew up among animals are not as strong and beautiful as Mowgli, and if they did not develop properly before the age of 5, it was almost impossible to catch up later. Even if the child managed to survive, he could no longer socialize.
The fate of the Mowgli children inspired photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten to create
Who among us is not familiar with Rudyard Kipling's touching story about “Little Frog” Mowgli, a boy who grew up in the jungle? Even if you haven’t read The Jungle Book, you’ve probably watched cartoons based on it. Alas, the real stories of children raised by animals are not as romantic and fabulous as the works of the English writer and do not always end with a happy ending. For your attention - modern human cubs, who had neither the wise Kaa, nor the good-natured Balu, nor the brave Akela among their friends, but their adventures will not leave you indifferent, because the prose of life is much more interesting and much more terrible than the work of even brilliant writers.
1. Ugandan boy adopted by monkeys
In 1988, 4-year-old John Ssebunya ran away into the jungle after witnessing a terrible scene - during another quarrel between his parents, his father killed the baby's mother. Time passed, but John never came out of the forest and the villagers began to believe that the boy was dead.
In 1991, one of the local peasant women, having gone into the jungle for firewood, suddenly saw in a flock of vervet monkeys, dwarf green monkeys, a strange creature, in which she recognized, not without difficulty, a little boy. According to her, the boy’s behavior was not much different from monkeys - he moved deftly on all fours and easily communicated with his “company.” The woman reported what she saw to the villagers and they tried to catch the boy. As often happens with children raised by animals, John resisted in every possible way, not allowing himself to pull himself together, but the peasants still managed to recapture him from the monkeys. When the vervet puppy was washed and tidied up, one of the village residents recognized him as a fugitive who went missing in 1988. Later, having learned to speak, John said that the monkeys taught him everything necessary for life in the jungle - climbing trees, searching for food, in addition, he mastered their “language”. Fortunately, after returning to the people, John adapted to life in their society without much difficulty, he showed good vocal abilities, and now the matured Ugandan Mowgli is touring with the Pearl of Africa children's choir.
2. Chita girl who grew up among dogs
Five years ago, this story appeared on the front pages of Russian and foreign newspapers - in Chita they discovered a 5-year-old girl, Natasha, who moved like a dog, lapped water from a bowl and, instead of articulate speech, only barked, which is not surprising, because, as it later turned out, the girl spent almost her entire life in a locked room, in the company of cats and dogs. The child’s parents did not live together and presented different versions of what happened - the mother (I just want to put this word in quotes), 25-year-old Yana Mikhailova claimed that her father had stolen the girl from her long ago, after which she did not raise her. The father, 27-year-old Viktor Lozhkin, in turn, stated that the mother did not pay due attention to Natasha even before he took the baby to him at the request of his mother-in-law. Later it was established that the family could not be called prosperous; in the apartment where, in addition to the girl, her father and grandparents lived, there was appalling unsanitary conditions, there was no water, heat or gas.
When they found her, the girl behaved like a real dog - she rushed at people and barked. Having taken Natasha from her parents, guardianship and trusteeship officials placed her in a rehabilitation center so that the girl could adapt to life in human society; her “loving” father and mother were arrested.
3. Volgograd birdcage prisoner
The story of a Volgograd boy in 2008 shocked the entire Russian public. His own mother kept him locked up in a 2-room apartment inhabited by many birds. For unknown reasons, the mother did not raise the child, giving him food, but not communicating with him at all. As a result, the boy, until he was seven years old, spent all his time with the birds, when law enforcement officers found him, in response to their questions he only “chirped” and flapped his “wings.” The room where he lived was filled with bird cages and simply overflowing with droppings. As eyewitnesses reported, the boy's mother clearly suffered from a mental disorder - she fed street birds, took the birds home and lay on the bed all day long, listening to their chirping. She didn’t pay any attention to her son, apparently considering him one of her pets. When the relevant authorities became aware of the “bird boy,” he was sent to a psychological rehabilitation center, and his 31-year-old mother was deprived of parental rights.
4. Little Argentine rescued by stray cats
In 2008, police in the Argentine province of Misiones discovered a homeless one-year-old baby who was in the company of wild cats. Apparently, the boy was in the company of cats for at least several days - the animals took care of him as best they could: they licked dried dirt from his skin, brought him food and warmed him on frosty winter nights. A little later, we managed to find the boy’s father, who led a vagabond lifestyle - he told the police that a few days ago he lost his son while he was collecting waste paper. The dad told officers that the wild cats always protected his son.
5. “Kaluga Mowgli”
2007, Kaluga region, Russia. Residents of one of the villages noticed a boy in the nearby forest who looked to be about 10 years old. The child was in a pack of wolves, who apparently considered him “one of their own” - together with them he obtained food, running on bent legs. Later, law enforcement officers raided the “Kaluga Mowgli” and found him in a wolf’s den, after which he was sent to one of the Moscow clinics. The surprise of the doctors knew no bounds - after examining the boy, they concluded that although he looked like a 10-year-old, in fact he should have been about 20 years old. From living in a wolf pack, the guy’s toenails turned almost into claws, his teeth resembled fangs, his behavior copied the habits of wolves in everything.
The young man could not speak, did not understand Russian, and did not respond to the name Lyosha given to him during his capture, reacting only when he was called “kiss-kiss-kiss.” Unfortunately, the specialists were unable to return the boy to normal life - just a day after he was admitted to the clinic, “Lyosha” ran away. His further fate is unknown.
6. Pupil of Rostov goats
In 2012, employees of the guardianship authorities of the Rostov region, having come to check one of the families, saw a terrible picture - 40-year-old Marina T. kept her 2-year-old son Sasha in a goat pen, practically not caring about him, while When the child was found, the mother was not at home. The boy spent all his time with animals, played and slept with them, as a result, by the age of two he could not learn to speak or eat normally. Is it worth mentioning that the sanitary conditions in the two-by-three-meter room he shared with his horned “friends” not only left much to be desired - they were appalling. Sasha was emaciated from malnutrition; when doctors examined him, it turned out that he weighed about a third less than healthy children his age.
The boy was sent to rehabilitation and then to an orphanage. At first, when they tried to return him to human society, Sasha was very afraid of adults and refused to sleep in the bed, trying to crawl under it. A criminal case was opened against Marina T. under the article “Improper performance of parental responsibilities”; a lawsuit was filed in court to deprive her of parental rights.
7. Adopted son of a Siberian guard dog
In one of the provincial regions of the Altai Territory in 2004, a 7-year-old boy was discovered who was raised by a dog. His own mother abandoned little Andrei three months after his birth, entrusting the care of her son to his alcoholic father. Shortly after this, the parent also left the house where they lived, apparently without even remembering the child. The guard dog became the boy’s father and mother, who fed Andrei and raised him in his own way. When social workers found him, the boy could not speak, moved only like a dog and was wary of people. He bit and carefully sniffed the food that was offered to him.
For a long time, the child could not be weaned from dog habits - in the orphanage he continued to behave aggressively, rushing at his peers. However, gradually the specialists managed to instill in him the skills of communicating with gestures, Andrei learned to walk like a human and use cutlery while eating. The guard dog's pupil also got used to sleeping in bed and playing with a ball; his attacks of aggression occurred less and less often and gradually disappeared.
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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 "The 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 the 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 pounced on 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 his childhood with animals and found it quite difficult to get used to people. But despite this, he managed to immediately find a 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 children's bodies 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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If Mowgli children did not appear with frightening regularity in the modern world, this story could be considered a myth. But, most likely, this is the truth. In 1845, residents of San Felipe, Mexico, witnessed a terrible picture: a herd of goats grazing by the river was attacked by a pack of wolves, among which was... a little girl, and she took part in the hunt along with wild animals. A year later, the girl caught the eye of people again - this time she was caught eating a dead goat. It was decided to catch the child, which they soon succeeded in doing, but she was no longer human: the girl, who was raised by a pack of wolves, could not speak, ran on all fours and constantly howled like a wolf, as if calling on the pack for help. She eventually ran away. The next time they met Lobo was only 8 years later: no longer a girl, but rather a girl playing by the river with two wolf cubs. Seeing people, Lobo ran away and was never seen again.
Girl-dog Oksana Malaya, Ukraine
Oksana Malaya was born in the Kherson region in 1983. She and her many brothers and sisters were the children of binge alcoholics, so doctors subsequently suggested that Oksana may have had congenital mental disorders. But even if they weren’t there, she couldn’t grow up any other way: Oksana essentially spent her entire early childhood (up to 8 years old) in a barn, where her only teacher was a dog. When Oksana was taken from her parents in 1992 and brought to an orphanage, she behaved like a dog: she preferred to jump on the bed; if she didn’t like something, she could growl or even try to bite. She often ran from the orphanage for walks - and not with anyone, but with the local pack of dogs. And although such walks slowed down progress, Oksana managed to learn to speak and solve most behavioral problems. Since 2001, she has lived and worked in the Baraboy boarding house, taking care of cows and horses.
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Bird boy Ivan, Russia
Little Vanya from Volgograd was taken from his mother at the age of 7 years. The woman almost immediately wrote a refusal of the child: she did not torture her son, did not abuse alcohol and did not suffer from mental disorders. She simply didn’t need a child, but she did need birds: in the two-room apartment where Vanya lived with his mother, all free surfaces were filled with bird cages. Vanya’s mother fed her son, but that was the extent of her maternal care: she did not take him out of the apartment and did not communicate with him at all. As a result, the boy had no choice but to communicate with the birds. When the guardianship staff took him away, Vanya tried to express his thoughts by chirping and flapping his hands like wings.
Girl-dog Madina, Russia
When three-year-old Madina was discovered by social service workers, she had almost lost her human appearance: the baby, born in a dysfunctional family, walked naked on all fours, growled, barked and lapped water from a bowl like a dog. The girl's father abandoned her and disappeared, her mother was almost always drunk, so the baby was raised by dogs that Madina's mother fed with scraps. Amazingly, the pack of four-legged animals managed not only to save the child’s life: Madina’s physical health was in perfect order. The mental health had to be restored by doctors and psychologists.
Monkey girl Marina Chapman, Colombia
Marina Chapman does not remember her real name and does not know who her parents were. In 1950s Colombia, kidnapping and trafficking of children was a lucrative business. All that Marina remembers about her childhood: how she was playing on the street - and suddenly she was grabbed and dragged away. She also does not know who her captors were and why they had to abandon her in the jungle. Finding herself alone in a dense forest, the girl was scared to death. She wandered around, called her parents and cried, but the jungle was merciless: no one responded. She had no idea how to get food or find water, so she soon found herself on the verge of exhaustion.
She was soon found by a troop of capuchin monkeys, curious animals who were very interested in this “strange hairless monkey.”
“The monkeys apparently decided that I did not pose a threat, and everyone wanted to touch me to get to know me better. They made sounds as if they were talking to each other, encouraging each other and laughing. Several monkeys came up to me at once and started pushing me, tugging at my dirty dress and digging through my hair,” Marina recalls.
Out of despair and loss, Marina simply followed a flock of capuchin monkeys, who themselves soon became accustomed to her company and did not reject her company. With difficulty, but the girl mastered all the “wisdom” of monkey life. First of all, if you want to survive, you must be able to climb trees. At times she spent the night in a cave, but sometimes she slept right on the branches. She even learned to speak their language: “I had a great desire to speak and communicate. I started imitating monkey sounds for fun and to hear my voice. One or more monkeys immediately responded to what I “said”, and we began a “conversation”. I was very happy. This meant that the monkeys were paying attention to me. I began to imitate the sounds the monkeys made, trying to make it as similar as possible to the way they “speak.”
Marina spent 5 years in a monkey troop, but still sought the company of people. Alas, it did not bring her anything good: Marina was caught by poachers and sold to a brothel. Fortunately, she was too young to serve clients and remained a servant at the brothel. Soon she managed to escape and formed her own street gang. One day she was hired to work for a mafia family, and this time became a real hell for Marina: she was not allowed to go anywhere, she was severely beaten and they tried to rape her several times. As a result, Marina was lucky, as if as a reward for all her misadventures: the kind neighbor Marukha sent Marina from the city to her daughter, risking her own life.
Chicken boy, Fiji
Today, the boy raised by chickens is already a grown man who had to endure a terrible thing: he spent more than 20 years in a hospital bed, tied to it with belts: doctors on the island of Fiji simply did not know what to do with him.
It all started with the death of his parents: the chicken boy’s father was killed, his mother committed suicide. The grandfather could not find anything better than to throw his grandson into the chicken coop. The baby, who could not yet speak, found himself in the company of chickens and never saw people except his grandfather, who came to feed him. They discovered him completely by accident: he just came out of the chicken coop to take a walk along the road, but he did it like a chicken: he moved on his haunches, “pecking” pebbles on the road, flapping his “wings,” clicking his tongue and clucking. The Mowgli child was taken to the hospital, but they did not know how to treat it. As a result, he spent 20 years tied to his bed, like a violent patient. Now workers from several charitable organizations are working on the chicken man, but they most likely will not be able to help him.
