There have long been stories in the legends and tales of different nations about how animals raised human children. For a long time, this was considered an invention, until such poor fellows were found in the forests. “Children of Mowgli”, raised by animals, were studied back in the Middle Ages, but only psychiatrists of the 20th century could truly explain their behavior and justify the impossibility of returning to the human environment.

The concept of “feral man”

If we consider the concept of “feral people” from the perspective of psychologists and sociologists, we can find out that these are individuals who were brought up outside of human society. Translated from the Latin language feralis means “dead, buried”. People deprived of the opportunity to communicate with their kind were considered lost to society.

In the English version, the word feral means “forest”, “wild”, “uncivilized”. This term was first used by Karl Linney, a Swedish scientist of the 18th century. He singled out for humans who grew up among animals, his step in the evolutionary ladder and gave them the scientific definition of Homo ferns.

In modern sociology, they were given the name “feral people,” and the first representative of this science to study their phenomenon was the American scientist Davis Kingsley. He began working on this issue in 1940.

Pupils of animals became children of different ages. There are cases when a wolf pack, dogs or birds became “parents” for babies, but there are examples of them taking, nursing and feeding children 3-6 years old.

Feral animals

At all times and among different peoples of the world, there were myths about children raised by animals. As scientists explain this phenomenon, animals are excellent “educators” of human cubs, and not only in their natural environment.

Today it is often possible to observe how pets take part in the lives of babies: they lull them, guard, protect, prevent them from falling or harming themselves in some way. The same instincts are characteristic of wild animals, especially those living in a pack. This is due to the fact that the animal community has its own hierarchy, ways of communication between its members and the education of young animals.

Ancient stories about feral children

The most famous feral children of antiquity are Rem and Romulus, fed by a she-wolf. As you know, many legends are based on historical facts, and the story of two brothers who lost their mother can also be true.

The boys were lucky that they were found by a shepherd, and they did not have time to run wild. In memory of his “adoptive mother,” Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the very hill where they spent their first years of life with a wolf pack.

Unfortunately, such stories rarely end so romantically, since feral people - children raised by animals - have serious mental abnormalities and are not able to become full-fledged members of human society.

Wild “foundlings” of past centuries

Most often, wolves became the adoptive “parents” of children. This is due to the high level of parental instinct that is natural for these animals and the fact that they unite in packs in which there are long-term relationships between its members.

The first documented evidence that a wolf pack had fed children was the 1173 Suffolk Chronicle of the English city. Unsuccessful attempts to return the wild child to human life were recorded in 1341 in Hesse. The hunters found the boy in a wolf den. When he was removed from the hole, he behaved like an animal: biting, scratching, squealing and growling. Thanks to the surviving records, it became known that he died, unable to withstand the bondage and feeding of human food.

No one at that time studied such phenomena, experts simply tried to return the human appearance to the children caught, which often ended in disastrous condition.

Children - “Bears”

There are frequent cases when feral people (examples from history - direct proof of this) were raised by bears. So, in 1767, in Hungary, hunters discovered a girl with blond hair of about eighteen. She was distinguished by excellent health, had a strong tanned body and behaved very aggressively. Even after placing her in a shelter, she refused to eat anything other than plant roots, berries and raw meat.

It is hard to say how such children survive. Bears do not gather in packs, although they have strong perennial alliances between males and females. In the same way, it is not known what the kids ate in the winter, when the animals lay in hibernation. Only a few cases of raising children by bears have been recorded, one of them is a boy, found in Denmark in the 18th century, the second is an Indian girl, discovered in 1897.

All the documents of those years indicated that the children found had animal habits, had sharp eyesight, a great sense of smell, and could only "speak" with sounds that the animals that raised them usually made them.

Feral people 20-21 centuries

Most often in the last century, jungle children met in India. Among them were wolf children, panthers and leopards. For example, the world learned about two girls - Kamal and Amal, who were caught in 1920. One of them was a year and a half, the other - 8 years, but both have already developed wolf instincts. So, they did not tolerate daylight, but at night they saw very well if they were exclusively raw meat, varied water, moved on bent arms and legs rather quickly, hunted chickens and small rodents.

The youngest girl could not stand the bondage and died a year later from jade. Kamala lived another 9 years and during this period she was able to master primitive human skills: to walk smoothly, wash herself with water, eat from plates and even utter a few words. But until her death, she ate raw meat and offal.

According to scientists, feral people, who have lived among animals for a long time, completely adopt the habits of their “adoptive parents”, which do not disappear even after a long stay in human society.

Particularly frequent cases of detection of feral people from the 1990s to the present day. Whether this is due to the fact that the children got negligent parents, or they themselves got lost in the forest as a child, or maybe their habitat was simply disturbed, and therefore they could be caught, is unknown.

The value of the child's social development

Scientists are very fond of experimenting to prove their scientific theory. Psychologists who wanted to prove that the child is already born with the need for socialization did not pass by this way of knowing the truth.

During the experiment, newborns were divided into 2 groups. In one with the children they nursed, talked to them when feeding or changing diapers, kissed. In another group, they did not communicate with children, but did everything necessary so that they were fed and well-groomed.

After a while, scientists noticed in children who were deprived of affection, weight loss and other abnormalities, so the experiment was interrupted. Thus, scientists have proved that a person initially has a need for love and communication with his own kind.

Thus, it becomes clear why feral people are deprived of human feelings and rely purely on animal instincts acquired by them.

The nature of feral people

All cases of the discovery of individuals raised by animals suggest that in the wild they were characterized by a strong craving for survival. Just so feral people would not be able to survive, even with the best care from their bestial "parents".

Animals always act according to what their instincts suggest, although there are cases when they experienced longing, losing their offspring. This does not last long, and short-term memory allows them to forget about the loss, which is completely different from human behavior. A person may experience suffering from the death of a child all his life.

All Mowgli children acted as instincts told them: they sniffed food and water before eating, defecated, hunted, ran away from danger and defended themselves like their wild “parents”. This animal nature cannot be eradicated if the child spent a long time among animals.

Humanization of the Aveiron Savage

Attempts to humanize feral children have always been made. One of the successful examples is the story with the Aveiron boy. It was discovered in the south of France in 1800. And although this teenager moved on straight legs, all other habits betrayed an animal in him.

It took a lot of time and patience to train him to go to the toilet where it should be, not to tear off his clothes and eat from the dishes. At the same time, the boy never learned to play games, communicate with peers, although no deviations were found in his psyche. This "savage" lived to be 40 years old, but never became a member of society.

Based on this, it can be concluded that children deprived of human love lose their ability to socialize at birth at birth. They are replaced by instincts that are less developed in ordinary people than in animals.

If the child is lucky, and he was found at an early age, then he can be restored to the human essence and instilled proper behavior. So it was, for example, with five-year-old Natasha from Chita. She was raised by dogs, who turned out to be better parents than dad and mom. The girl barked, walked like dogs, and ate the same as they did. The fact that she was found at such an early age gives hope that she can again “humanize” herself.

A boy from Uganda, who was raised by green monkeys, was able to fully recover. He came to them at the age of four, and when he was discovered 3 years later, he lived and acted as his “adoptive parents”. Since too little time has passed, the child was able to return to society.

The reason for the appearance of feral children

Too often nowadays are children mentioned by animals raised. This is due in most cases to the indifference, disorder or cruelty of their parents. Examples of this mass:

• A girl from Ukraine, raised in a dog’s booth. From 3 to 8 years old, she lived with a dog, where her parents left. For such a short period, the baby began to walk like a dog, bark and behave like her dog.
• A 6-year-old boy from Volgograd, brought up by birds, could only tweet and clap his hands like wings when he showed emotions. He ate bird food, being covered by his own mother in a room with parrots. Now the child is undergoing rehabilitation from psychologists.

Similar cases occur today in large cities and small towns around the world: in Africa, India, Cambodia, Russia, Argentina and other places. And the worst thing is that today unfortunate people are found not in forests, but in houses, animal booths and garbage cans - scouring for food.

All of us are familiar with the story of Mowgli, a boy raised among wolves. Alas, the real stories of children raised by animals are not as romantic and fabulous as the works of an English writer and do not always end with a happy ending. We bring to your attention modern human cubs who did not have either the wise Kaa, the good-natured Balu, or 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 worse than the work of even brilliant writers.

1. A boy from Uganda, adopted by monkeys

In 1988, the 4-year-old John Ssebunya fled to 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 left the forest and the villagers began to believe that the boy was dead.

In 1991, one of the peasants there, going to the jungle to get firewood, suddenly saw in a flock of vervettes, dwarf green monkeys, a strange creature in which she recognized the little boy with great difficulty. According to her, the boy’s behavior was not much different from monkeys - he deftly moved on all fours and easily communicated with his “company”. A woman reported what she saw to the villagers and they tried to catch the boy. As often happens with animal-raised children, John resisted in every way, preventing himself from being pulled in, but the peasants still managed to repulse him from the monkeys. When the pupil was washed and put in order, one of the villagers recognized him as a fugitive who went missing in 1988. Later, learning how to speak, John said that the monkeys taught him everything necessary for life in the jungle - climbing trees, finding food, in addition, he mastered their “language”. Fortunately, after returning to people, John easily adapted to life in their society, he showed good vocal skills and now an adult Ugandan Mowgli is touring with the Pearl of Africa children's choir.

2. Chita girl growing up among dogs

Five years ago, this story appeared on the front pages of Russian and foreign newspapers - in Chita they found a 5-year-old girl, Natasha, who walked like a dog, lap up water from a bowl and, instead of articulate speech, let out only barking, which is not surprising, because, as it turned out later, the girl spent almost her whole life in a locked room, in the company of cats and dogs. The parents of the child did not live together and stated different versions of what happened - the mother (I would like to quote the word), 25-year-old Yana Mikhailova claimed that her father had stolen the girl from her long ago, after which she did not take care of her upbringing. Father, 27-year-old Victor Lozhkin, in turn, stated that his mother did not pay enough attention to Natasha even before he took the baby to him at the request of her mother-in-law. Later it was established that the family could not be called prosperous in any way, in the apartment where, in addition to the girl, her father, grandparents lived, terrifying unsanitary conditions were observed, there was no water, heat and gas.

When they found her, the girl behaved like a real dog - rushed at people and barked. Having taken Natasha away from her parents, the guardianship and guardianship authorities 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 prisoner of the bird cage

The history of the Volgograd boy in 2008 shocked the entire Russian public. His mother kept him locked up in a 2-room apartment, populated by many birds. For unknown reasons, mother did not raise a child, giving him food, but not communicating with him at all. As a result, the boy spent seven years with birds all the time when law enforcement officers found him, in response to their questions, he only “twittered” and waved his “wings”. The room where he lived was crowded with bird cages and simply overfilled with droppings. According to eyewitnesses, the boy’s mother clearly suffered from a mental disorder - she fed street birds, took birds home and lay all day on the bed, listening to their tweets. She did not pay attention to her son at all, apparently considering him one of the pets. When the relevant authorities became aware of the “bird boy”, he was sent to a center for psychological rehabilitation, and his 31-year-old mother was deprived of parental rights.

4. Little Argentinean rescued by stray cats

In 2008, the police of the Argentine province of Misiones discovered a homeless baby one year old, who was in the company of wild cats. Apparently, the boy stayed in feline society for at least a few days - animals, as they could, took care of him: they licked dried up dirt from his skin, carried him food and warmed him on frosty winter nights. A little later, he managed to go to the father of a boy who led a vagabond lifestyle - he told the police that he had lost his son a few days ago when he was collecting waste paper. Dad told officers that wild cats always protected his son.

5. Kaluga boy raised by wolves

2007 year, Kaluga region, Russia. Residents of one of the villages noticed in a nearby forest a boy who looked about 10 years old. The child was in a pack of wolves, who apparently considered him to be “their own” - along with them he got food, running on bent legs. Later, law enforcement officers raided the “Kaluga Mowgli” and found him in a wolf den, after which they sent him to one of the Moscow clinics. The doctors' surprise 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 life in a wolf pack, the nails on the guy’s legs turned almost into claws, his teeth resembled fangs, his behavior in everything copied the habits of wolves.

The young man did not know how to speak, did not understand Russian, and did not respond to the name Lesha given to him when he was caught, reacting only when he was called “pussycat pussycat”. Unfortunately, the specialists failed to return the boy to normal life - just a day after he was placed in the clinic, “Lesha” escaped. His further fate is unknown.

6. Pupil of Rostov goats

In 2012, the employees of the guardianship authorities of the Rostov Region, having come to one of the families with an inspection, saw a terrible picture - 40-year-old Marina T. kept her 2-year-old son Sasha in a pen for goats, practically not caring about him, while when the child was found, the mother was not at home. The boy spent all the time with animals, played and slept with them, as a result, by the age of two, he could not learn to speak and eat normally. Is it worth mentioning that the sanitary conditions in the room are two by three meters, which he shared with horned “friends” not only left much to be desired - they were terrifying. Sasha was exhausted from malnutrition when doctors examined him, it turned out that he weighed about a third less than healthy children of his age.

The boy was sent for rehabilitation, and then to the orphanage. At first, when they tried to return him to human society, Sasha was very afraid of adults and refused to sleep in bed, trying to get under her. A criminal case was opened against Marina T. under the article “Improper Parenting”, a lawsuit was sent to the court to deprive her of her parental rights.

7. Adopted son of a Siberian watchdog

In one of the provincial regions of the Altai Territory in 2004, a 7-year-old boy, who was raised by a dog, was discovered. The native mother left little Andrei three months after his birth, entrusting the care of the son to his alcoholic father. Soon after, the parent also left the house where they lived, apparently without even remembering the child. A watchdog who fed Andrey and raised in his own way became a father and mother for the boy. When he was found by social workers, the boy did not know how to speak, he only walked like a dog and was wary of people. He bit and carefully sniffed the food he was offered.

For a long time the child could not be weaned from dog habits - in the orphanage he continued to behave aggressively, rushing at peers. However, experts gradually managed to instill in him communication skills with gestures, Andrei learned to walk humanly and use cutlery while eating. The guard dog’s pupil is also used to sleeping in bed and playing with the ball, attacks of aggression occurred less frequently and gradually disappeared.

For several decades, scientists have been arguing about what is more important - acquired or innate traits of the human psyche? And what is the role of skills, living conditions, the environment of a person in the first years of his life. A study of a phenomenon called Mowgli  reveals part of the answers to this question.

About the amazing interaction between humans and wild animals can be found in the famous fairy tale Kipling. A wolf pack saved the little boy from the cannibal tiger and raised him. You can also recall the series called "Tarzan", which tells about a man who grew up in the jungle among monkeys. I would like to know what was the basis of such works - real events or pure fiction?

It turned out that there is documentary evidence of stories when children were really raised by animals. In the role of the so-called "educators" were bears, monkeys, wolves, tigers and even pigs. In almost all cases, this happened in rural areas, where parents could not carefully monitor their child. It also happened that for some time parents simply did not notice the loss of their child.

One of the most famous cases occurred at the village of Midnapur in eastern India. In the fall of 1920, two little girls were found near a wolf den. One was 8 years old and the other was about 1.5. Judging by the observations of experts, wolves took care of them as much as they did about their offspring. The girls howled, scratched, and deftly moved on four legs. They were sent to an orphanage, where the youngest soon died, and the eldest survived to 16 years. Over time, this girl learned to stand upright and walk like a normal person. She also began to eat human food. But she was able to learn only about 30 words.

In 1972, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a three-year-old child brought up by a bear entered the shelter of the Order of Mercy of Mother Teresa. Among people, the boy managed to live only about 14 years. It has preserved the habits of wild life. He was not interested in studying and he was very careful.

At the end of the 90s, a boy of 5-6 years old was found in tropical forests. His “parents” were baboons monkeys. Despite all the efforts of the people around him, he did not want to wear clothes, eat normal food (he ate only grass, fruits and vegetables), and continued to run on bent legs. Doctors believe that this child fell into the jungle in infancy. The human world is hostile to him.

A sufficient number of studied examples when young children lived among animals allowed scientists to draw disappointing conclusions. These children are almost impossible to retrain and teach human habits. If in the fairy tale about Magli events developed according to the highest level of morality, then in real life everything is much worse and more complicated. The famous Swedish scientist Karl Linney classified the animal kingdom. His work became the basis of modern biology. In the section on the study of man, Linnaeus singled out a special section called "The rational man went wild."

Those children who began their lives in the circle of animals, scientists attribute to the third civilization. Mowgli and not animals, and they can not be attributed to ordinary people. Children - Mowgli  get used to such an "animal" setting, can growl or howl, some even started to glow in the dark. However, human physiology does not allow them to quickly move away from danger, hunt well, get food and compete for leadership in their pack.

Mowgli is not destined to completely go into the life of wildlife for children, just as they will completely return to the usual “human”. Although, if such a child was engaged with a psychologist for many years, he assumed an “approximate human appearance”. But, unfortunately, there were no cases with a full return to normal life.

Some predatory animals saved children and cared for them for many years as their cubs. Dr. Dear Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, described all known cases of children living among animals from 1900 to 2004 in her book Supernatural Impulses. She counted 31 children with such a fate.

Here are six similar stories.

1. Girls raised by wolves in India

In 1920, the 8-year-old Kamala and the 18-month-old Amala were found in a wolf den in Midinipur, India. The case was documented by Christian missionary J.L. Singh, who found them.

“These children were more ferocious than the cubs. Long tangled hair hung from their shoulders, their jaws had a strange wolf bite, and their teeth were angular and sharp. They didn’t eat vegetables and could smell raw meat from a distance, ”writes Dr. Abraham Sperling in his book Psychology for Millions.

After a year in an orphanage, Amala died. When this happened, her sister first showed human emotions. Kamala lived another 8 years. During this time, she learned to walk on two legs and pronounce a few words. True, when in a hurry, she ran on all fours.

The doctor who cared for them says that they only ate milk and meat and did not sleep at night, Sperling writes.

Their adoptive wolf mother fiercely resisted when they wanted to take the girls away from her, as if it were her puppies, writes Barrett. She had to be shot. Other wolves from the pack came into the village and howled.

2. The boy adopted by the monkeys after the murder of his mother

John Ssebun from Uganda was 2 or 3 years old when he witnessed how his father killed his mother. He fled to the jungle, where monkeys took care of him for a year. When a local resident in search of firewood went into the depths of the jungle, he was amazed to see a child among a group of monkeys.

The British Paul and Molly Wasswa later adopted the child. Journalist Evan Ferguson met with him 10 years later in 1999. Fergusson, who described the meeting in an article by The Guardian, says that Ssebunya could only speak Swahili and stutter very much. Although the boy’s manners, including short answers and avoiding eye contact, were very different, his answers were logical and meaningful.

For example, when Fergusson asked him about the poor attitude of some children in human society, Ssebunya answered through an interpreter: “They were just interested. I do not want to think badly of them because of this. I was different. " He could vaguely recall how the monkeys first carefully approached him when he was alone in the jungle for several days. He remembers that he was uncomfortable sleeping in the trees, and how the monkeys taught him to move through the trees in search of food.

According to Barrett, the monkeys threw sticks and stones at the villagers who were trying to take Ssebunya. She writes: "When children are found living among animals, their adoptive parents always fiercely resist when they try to pick them up."

3. An ostrich boy from North Africa?

Sidi Mohammed was found at the age of 15 in 1945 in North Africa. He told the anthropologist Jean-Claude Armen that he had lived with ostriches since he was five. This story was cited in Notes Africaines on April 26, 1945. This incident was also described in Bob Ricard’s Inexplicable Phenomena.

The boy told Armen that when he was five years old, he found an ostrich nest, and the birds began to take care of him. He stayed there, fed on grass with them, learned to run at high speed and slept under their wings at night. Hunters found him and returned to his parents, but all the time he yearned for life with birds. This story is entirely based on the boy’s words, and it’s not clear if Armen did any research to verify these facts.

4. The boy from the chicken house in Fiji

Unlike the aforementioned children, Sujit Kumar was not adopted by animals in the true sense of the word. He simply was locked up with animals and spent so much time with them that he adopted their behavior. For several years, he talked more with chickens than with people who simply came to feed him and sometimes poured water from a hose to wash him.

When he was a child, his father was killed and his mother committed suicide. Kumar was taken by his grandparents, but he had noticeable signs of mental distress. They locked him in a chicken coop because they couldn't handle him, says his cousin.

In 2011, in an interview with ABC, Australian entrepreneur Elizabeth Clayton, having learned the story of Kumar in Fiji, decided to take custody of him. By this time, he had already become a grown man. He was found at the age of 12 in 1984, after which he was kept in a mental hospital for almost 20 years, where he, like in the chicken coop, practically did not communicate with anyone. He still eats chicken and attacks people trying to peck them.

At the time of this interview, Clayton Kumar was already over 30, and he was still clacking and could not speak. Clayton is trying to teach him how to communicate, she believes that it is necessary to find another guardian when she dies. She is over 60 years old, and Kumar is about 30, so she worries about his future. She says that if he does not learn to communicate, then it will be difficult for him to find a guardian.

5. South African boy raised by monkeys

Mthiyans from South Africa lived among monkeys for a year after their mother abandoned him. He was found when he was 5 years old and sent to a shelter, but only by the age of 15 he learned to walk directly on two legs.

Even 10 years later, he never learned to speak, refuses to eat cooked food. The story of Mthiyane is briefly mentioned in the book by David F. Björklund and Carlos Hernandez Blasi, “Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrated Approach”

  6. The boy raised by wolves in Central Asia

In 1962, geologists discovered Juma running along with a pack of wolves in the desert in Central Asia. They caught him in a net, but with great difficulty - all the wolves had to be killed. The boy was seven years old, he spent the next 30 years in a hospital in Turkmenistan, Adriana S. Bendzaken writes in the book “Meetings with Wild Children”.

He started talking four years later and told scientists that he rode on the back of his wolf mother, and then she taught him how to ride on the back of the rest of the wolves in a pack.

Question: is a small child able to survive and become a full-fledged personality in conditions of complete isolation from society, is of concern to writers and psychologists. The former draw rainbow-colored pictures of reunion with society, while the latter shake their heads in dismay, talking about the missed sensitive period of development. Why are characters like Mowgli, Tarzan or Bingo Bongo impossible in real life?

Feral children: rehabilitation difficulties

There are several reasons why, as soon as he was born, an individual may be far away not only from his parents, but also from human civilization as a whole.

1. In families where the father or mother have mental problems (often because of drug addiction and alcoholism), children are not given proper attention, or, conversely, aggressive educational methods are used. Small victims become disillusioned with people, starting to seek protection from domestic or street animals.

1. Adults completely isolate children with some developmental disabilities, for example, autism and do not communicate with them. In some underdeveloped countries, such babies are thrown into the woods to get rid of their "excess mouth".

1. In rural areas of the subtropical and tropical zones, cases of abduction of infants by wild animals are not uncommon. Or small children themselves go into the forest and can not find the way back.

Social exclusion at an early age leads to mental degradation, known in scientific circles as “Mowgli syndrome”.

The clinical picture of the disease

Wild Mowgli children (feralis from the Latin feralis - buried), copy the habits of the "adoptive parents", which are most often played by wolves, dogs and monkeys. When trying to make contact, they show panic and aggression: they try to bite, scratch, and cause injury.

Looking up from their own kind at an early age, “human cubs” move mainly on all fours and eat only raw food. They express their emotions not by crying, but by sounds: barking, roaring, screeching, hissing, howling. They do not know how to laugh and are afraid of open fire.

A long stay side by side with wild animals reflects on the appearance of the Mowgli. Their skeleton, especially the limbs, are deformed: the hands resemble twisted bird legs, the legs are not completely straightened. Massive corns form on the knees from running on all fours, the jaws disproportionately develop, the teeth become sharp, like in predators. Such children move with great speed by human standards, have great dexterity and well-developed organs of touch: hearing, sight, smell.

Important: after capture and attempts at social adaptation, people raised by animals rarely come to terms with new living conditions and die quickly. The fate of the survivors is no less sad - they will live in homes for the mentally retarded until the end of their days.

Scientific explanation of the phenomenon of "wild children"

The fact that the “Mowgli” in real life can not, like the hero of Kipling, become people in the full sense of the word, there is a scientific explanation. They were in animal society at the moment when the most important skills were formed:

• speech;
• behavioral stereotypes;
• food habits;
• self-identity.

That is, in the period between 1.5 and 6 years, which is also called sensitive. As a result, their intelligence, instead of active development, degraded, giving way to the primitive survival instincts. The musculoskeletal system also underwent irreversible changes, which makes walking on two legs without additional support almost impossible.

Important: after the onset of puberty, from about 12 to 14 years old, people with Mowgli syndrome can only be trained, forcing them to memorize words or movements. But they will not become an independent, conscious person.

The chances of rehabilitation increase significantly if you get into social isolation after 3, and even better 5 years. And the real stories of people brought up in exceptional conditions prove the validity of this hypothesis.

The most famous "human cubs"

The first Mowgli children in world history can be considered the twins Romulus and Remus. According to legend, they were born the royal vestal Ray Sylvia from the god of war Mars. The brothers were taken from their mother and thrown into the Tiber, but they managed to survive, and the she-wolf fed the babies with her milk.

The twins remained absolute people, and Romulus even founded Rome. It is believed that he did a lot for the formation and prosperity of the "Eternal City". Over the past years, it is difficult to separate the truth from fiction, but the outcome of the infant wanderings of Romulus and Remus can be called successful. Unfortunately, their fellow brothers, whose names also remained in history, were much less fortunate.

An unknown boy, in appearance and behavior resembling a wild animal, was caught by the inhabitants of the department of Aveyron, in the south of France in 1800. According to descriptions of contemporaries, he ate roots and vegetables stolen from the gardens of local residents, moved on all fours and did not wear clothes. The young man, at the age of about 12 years old, did not talk and did not perceive questions addressed to him.

The boy ran away 8 times from people trying to give him shelter, but he was again caught and tried to “tame” him. Finally, the little savage was handed over to medical student Jean Itar, who set out to return his ward to normal life. The methods used by the young doctor in the training of Victor - the so-called youngster from Aveyron was so called, are still used by psychologists when working with mentally retarded children.

The boy began to adequately respond to the behavior of others and even uttered two words, the rest was expressed in gestures. Devoting to attempts to socialize the teenager for 5 years, Itar transferred him to the care of his housekeeper. Victor died a 40-year-old man, having failed to adapt in human society.

After the fact, a version was put forward that the boy initially suffered from autism, for which his relatives abandoned him at 2 years old.

Based on this story, the film "Wild Child" was shot.

There are suggestions that the story of Mowgli Kipling wrote, based on real events from the life of an Indian wolf boy discovered by hunters in Uttar Pradesh in 1872. Ferals were not uncommon in those days in a country where the jungle and savannah occupy large areas, closely approaching human housing.

Seeing how a 6-year-old kid frolics around in the company’s lair in the company of cubs, the hunters were not surprised. Having driven out with the help of smoke and killing predators, they took the “find” with them and handed it to the local priest, Father Erhardt. The missionary named the boy Dean Sanichar (in Urdu, this name means “Saturday”) and tried to civilize him. The kid moved only on all fours, howled like a wolf and rejected any cooked food, preferring raw meat with bones.

Subsequently, Sanichar was able to wear clothes, although he did it extremely carelessly and even moved upright, but his walk remained uncertain. To say "boy-wolf" did not learn. The only thing that he adopted from people is the habit of smoking, which is why he died, having contracted tuberculosis at 34. All this time he lived alone in a missionary shelter.

Another story of wolf-raised Mowgli children. Girls from India were found near the city of Pashimba in 1920. The peasants were frightened by the two ghosts that appeared at night with the wolf pack and reported this to the missionaries.

Joseph Lal Singh, the manager of the local orphanage, went to the forest to find out the cause of the strange phenomenon. Having tracked down the wolf’s den, he looked there and saw girls curled up in a ball, little resembling human beings. Forest children were named Amala and Kamala. The first at the time of the discovery was 18 months, the second - about 8 years. Both savages displayed typical feral behavior.

Having taken “patronage” Singh over them, he kept a diary where he described the life of his wards. Amala died a year later from a kidney infection. Her sister, or rather a “mate in misfortune,” grieved for a long time, expressing her emotions not only with a howling wolf, but also with tears. However, after the death of the youngest girl, the elder became more attached to people, learned to walk upright and a few words. In 1929, Kamala died of kidney failure.

There is a version that the story of wolf girls is just a falsification, because apart from Singh, no one mentions them anywhere.

When this native of Uganda was 3 years old, in front of his eyes, his father brutally cracked down on his mother. A frightened boy hid in the jungle, where he fell under the protection of a flock of dwarf green monkeys - vervetki. In 1991, when John was 6 years old, he was noticed on a tree branch by a certain Millie, a resident of a nearby village, collecting firewood in the forest.

A kind-hearted woman took the baby to her home, where, despite fierce resistance, she laundered and put everything in order. It turned out that John developed hypertrichosis, either from a long stay in the wild, or on nervous soil. When the boy was fed hot food, he almost died, because the body, accustomed to raw food, refused to take boiled foods. In addition, giant tapeworms up to 1.5 m in length were found in the baby.

Later, John was transferred for rehabilitation to the family of the founders of the children's rights association - Paul and Molly Wasswa. Since the first years of his life the monkey boy spent among people, he managed to partially socialize. After 10 years, John not only fit into public life, but also became a soloist in the Pearl of Africa choir, with whom he toured Western countries.

In 1954, the heroine of the following story was stolen from a native village by a gang of Colombian slave traders and, for unknown reasons, was thrown into the jungle. It would be difficult for a 4-year-old girl if she had not been accepted into the flock of capuchin monkeys. For several years, the victim forgot the human language and adopted many of the habits of her savior.

Then it was caught by local poachers and sold to a brothel in the city of Cucuta in northeast Colombia. Too young to serve customers, Marina served as a servant until one day she ran away and began to lead a street life.

Having gathered her own gang of juvenile beggars, the girl hunted with theft and fraud, and after a while she got into the mafia family, where she turned into a sexual slave. Fortunately, the 14-year-old Marina was rescued by the neighbor Maruja and sent to live with her daughter in Bogota. Later, the girl, along with her patrons, left the country, settling in the English city of Bradford.

Marina doesn’t know her real name. She got married, gave birth to two children and wrote an autobiographical book, “A Girl Without a Name,” where she spoke about her adventures.

One of the most famous Mowgli children of our time. A resident of the Ukrainian village near Kherson, who was born in 1983, got into the world media by her strange "dog" behavior. When the girl was discovered by journalists at the age of 8, she rushed at them with barking, and then ran on all fours, lapped up water from a bowl and did other similar things.