Preparations 

Mowgli children raised by animals (14 photos). Mowgli children: Photographer illustrated real stories of people raised by animals

Vanzina E., Nikishina Yu., Shkunova A..

The purpose of this work-determine what constitutes human nature ? Find out whether a person is endowed with the signs of a person from birth, or acquires them as a result of communication with his own kind?

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MUNICIPAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

"BASIC EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL №78"

Zavodskoy district of the city of Saratov

Research work

CHILDREN OF "MOWGLI"

Yulia Nikishina,

Shkunova Anna,

Vanzina Elena

students of 8 "B" class

Supervisor:

Emelyanova Valentina Nikolaevna,

biology teacher - chemistry

MOU "OOSH No. 78",

highest qualification category

Saratov

year 2013

1. Introduction_______________________________________________3

2. Who are they - "children of Mowgli"? __________________________4

3. "Children of Mowgli" among us____________________________5

4. Signs of "Mowgli's syndrome" _______________________7

5. Is the process of human recovery possible?_________8

6. Conclusion _____________________________________________ 11

7. List of used literature _____________________12

8. Appendices__________________________________________13

Introduction:

Fear was watching me from the TV screen. Jumping on all fours, a fifteen-year-old girl with a frantic bark rushed to the TV camera. Then she stopped, breathed heavily, sticking out her tongue like a dog, and continued to rush along the green meadow. This girl was diagnosed with the world's rarest diagnosis - "Mowgli's syndrome".

We all read "Mowgli" in childhood, and hundreds of boys played "Tarzan". In Kipling's fairy tale about the human cub Mowgli, a child raised by animals learned from them kindness, decency and, one might say, humanity.(slide number 2)

I had a question: Can this happen in real life? Can this girl, who grew up in a dog house, abandoned to the mercy of fate by her own parents, acquire the same qualities, become a full-fledged person?

In the entire observable history of the human race, a little more than a hundred cases have been recorded, documented or oral, when children grew up away from people, alone or in the company of animals whose habits they adopted. Unfortunately, there are now more and more reports of such children in the media.

The purpose of this project-determine what constitutes human nature? (slide number 3)

Tasks:

  1. Find out whether a person is endowed with the signs of a person from birth, or acquires them as a result of communication with his own kind?
  2. What is the role of congenital and acquired in human development?
  3. Who are the "children of Mowgli"?
  4. Is human recovery possible?

Who are they - "children of Mowgli"?

Carl Linnaeus, who created the classification of plants and animals, in 1758 introduced the term Homo ferens into scientific use, which meant "a creature completely covered with thick hair and not having the gift of speech."

As an example, Linnaeus described several Homo ferens, among them a Lithuanian "bear boy", an Irish "sheep boy", two Pyrenean hairy boys and a savage girl from Champagne.

Researchers have collected a huge amount of material about several dozen "wild children" who grew up among animals:(slide number 4)

The first "wolf boy" was discovered in 1344 in Hesse (Germany).

Until the age of 4, he lived in a hole, ate raw food and was protected by wolves.

In 1731, a 10-year-old girl was found in France, whose thumbs were elongated, allowing her to easily fly from tree to tree.

Mauga's children are people deprived of human society, children who went missing many years ago. There were cases when a child was born with some kind of abnormality, and the mother, fearing that she would be accused of having connections with evil spirits, secretly took the child into the forest, into caves, into the mountains, and left it there to certain death. It happened differently: left without parental care, the baby got lost and the animals accepted him into their family. Sometimes it happened that the females of the animals themselves captured the babies - these are the females who lost their cubs. Not only those children who got lost become feral, but also those who were specially kept in an isolated room, never being released outside.

(slide number 5)

Unfortunately, more and more children - Mowgli began to be found not in the forest and not in the jungle, but next to us, in cities and villages, in our time. They live very close, sometimes in neighboring apartments or houses, but most often they are found by pure chance, and often only when irreversible changes in their physical development and psyche have already occurred.

"Children of Mowgli" among us.

It turns out that people who grew up among animals are found almost every year. And their fate is not at all like in a fairy tale ...(slide number 6)

(slide number 7)

Cat boy. In the fall of 2003, 3-year-old Anton Adamov was found in one of the houses in the village of Goritsy, Ivanovo Region. The kid behaved like a real cat: meowing, scratching, hissing, moving on all fours, rubbing his back against the legs of people. For the entire short life of the boy, only a cat communicated with him, with whom the 28-year-old parent locked the child - so as not to distract him from drinking.

(slide number 8)

Podolsky dog ​​boy. In the city of Podolsk near Moscow in 2008, a seven-year-old child was discovered who lived in an apartment with his mother, and, nevertheless, suffered from "Mowgli's syndrome". In fact, he was raised by a dog: Vitya Kozlovtsev was fluent in all dog habits. He ran beautifully on all fours, barked, lapped from a bowl and curled up comfortably on the rug. After the boy was found, his mother was deprived of parental rights. Vitya himself was transferred to the "House of Mercy" Lilit and Alexander Gorelov.

(slide number 9)

Boy from Reutovwho became the leader of the dogs. In 1996, 4-year-old Vanya ran away from his drinking mother and her boyfriend, an alcoholic. Having replenished the two millionth army of homeless children of the Russian Federation. He tried to beg food from passers-by on the outskirts of Moscow, climbed into a dumpster and met a pack of stray dogs, with whom he shared the edible garbage he found. They began to wander together. The dogs protected Vanya and warmed him up on winter nights, they chose him as the leader of the pack. So two years passed, until Mishukov was detained by the police, luring him to the back entrance to the restaurant kitchen. The boy was sent to an orphanage.

(slide number 10)

Skipping on all fours, a fifteen-year-old girl from Ukraine, Oksana Malaya, grew up in a doghouse, abandoned to the mercy of fate by her own parents, and miraculously survived, eating the milk of mongrels. In the orphanage, where she was finally taken, the dog girl does not like it. She strives with all her might to return to her former life - she mixes all the dishes in one plate and laps from there like a dog, and at the first opportunity begins to move on all fours.

The most famous are the Indian girls Kamala and Amala, found in the jungle in 1920. Until the trustee of the orphanage in Midnapore, Dr. Singh, caught the sisters, the locals who met the girls in the forest believed them to be werewolves. The sisters lived in a pack of wolves and moved either on their knees and elbows (when walking slowly) or on their hands and feet (when running fast). They didn't like daylight. The girls ate raw meat and self-caught chickens. In order to take the girls from the wolf lair, people had to shoot their "mother" she-wolf. At that time, the baby, who was later named Amala, was about one and a half years old, and the one who was given the name Kamala was about eight years old. Amala, less than a year after beginning life among humans, died of nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys). Kamala lived in civilization for about nine years. She adapted very poorly to human life: she learned only a few words and could not get rid of the habit of getting on all fours.

In China in 1996, a two-year-old boy was caught living with pandas. He crawled on the ground on all fours and ate bamboo. The body of the child, due to a genetic anomaly, was completely covered with hair. Perhaps it was because of this that superstitious parents once took the baby to the forest and left him there.

In 2001, a boy was caught in Chile who, at the age of 7, ran away from a shelter with a pack of dogs. For two years, the child wandered along the street with the dogs, running away from the policemen who were trying to grab him.

Many other examples are known:

Volgograd bird boy.

Ufa dog girl.

Vyazemsky girl-Mowgli.

Dog girl from Chita and many others.

(slide number 11)

Children raised by animals sufferdisease - "Mowgli's syndrome".

(slide number 12)

Signs of "Mowgli's syndrome".

According to the candidate of psychological sciences, teacher of the department of "Special and Clinical Psychology" Galina Alekseevna Panina, "Mowgli's syndrome" is a set of syndromes that a child who has grown up outside the social environment demonstrates.

Among the general signs of "Mowgli's syndrome" are speech disorders or inability to speak, inability to walk upright, desocialization, lack of skills in using cutlery, fear of people. At the same time, they often have excellent health and much more stable immunity than people living in society. Psychologists often noted that a person who has spent quite a long time among animals begins to identify himself with his "brothers".

The terrible diagnosis "Mowgli's Syndrome" - the irreversibility of defects in mental development - is one of the rarest in medicine, but doctors will have to make it until society learns to take care of unfortunate children deprived of the attention of their relatives, until it stops shifting to animal paws what is its prerogative until he realizes that he is losing a person in the most horrifying way - the loss of his soul.

Is the process of human recovery possible?

(slide number 13)

Social isolation in the first months and years of a person's life can lead to severe emotional instability and mental retardation, including the so-called "Mowgli syndrome". Lack of communication in a child leads to an abnormal formation of cells that isolate neurons and slows communication between different areas of the brain.

American neurophysiologists from Harvard Medical School in Boston conducted a study. One group of newborn mice was isolated from relatives, and the second was left to develop in a normal environment. After two weeks, the researchers compared the brains of the rodents from these groups. As it turned out, in isolated mice there was a malfunction of the cells that produce the substance myelin, which is responsible for the sheath of nerve fibers. Myelin protects neurons from mechanical and electrical damage. Violation of the production of this substance is the cause of diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

According to the results of the study, in the brains of mice that were in isolation, significantly less myelin was produced than in the brains of their socialized counterparts. Scientists do not exclude that a similar relationship exists in humans. It is quite possible that the same processes occur during the development of the so-called Mowgli children.

(slide number 14)

To the question whether the process of human recovery is possible after a long stay outside the human environment in society, experts do not give an unequivocal answer: everything is too individual. In the event that a person does not develop any of the functions in time, it is almost impossible to replenish them later. According to experts, after the 12-13 year old threshold of an undeveloped person, it is only possible to "train" or, in some cases, minimally adapt to the social environment, but whether it is possible to socialize him as a person is a big question. If a child enters the animal community before he has formed the skill of upright walking, then moving on all fours will become the only possible way for life - it will be impossible to retrain.

(slide number 15)

Yuri Levchenko, candidate of psychological sciences, says that in the period up to five years, the child develops elements of communication and psychosomatic functions(Appendix No. 1).Children in isolation do not have psychosomatic stability, and the elements of communication will not be developed in its complete absence. First of all, the child must communicate with his own kind. It is difficult to cure a child who before this age had no contact with people.

Two sisters taken from a pack of wolves, both dead; the youngest - almost immediately, and the eldest - a few years later, without having learned to speak

Podolsky dog ​​boy, Vitya Kozlovtsev, learned to walk, talk, use a spoon and fork, play and laugh in a year.

Oksana Malaya has been humanized for many years. Taught to scribble on a typewriter, embroider, count to twenty. But she couldn't be left unattended. The grown-up girl was transferred to a boarding school for adults, where she is allowed to communicate with her best friends - yard dogs. And help take care of the cows. Already matured, the dog girl is gradually degrading. Despite all the efforts of educators and teachers, she cannot read and write, although she could a year ago. With difficulty, he stands on two legs, to the question: “What do you like to do most of all?” answers: “Swing on the grass and bark”, and to the question: “Who are you? Are you human?", the girl, baring her teeth, gives a heartbreaking answer: "No, I'm an animal, I'm a dog."

(slide number 16)

There are cases when the "children of Mowgli" managed to survive among people. A ten-year-old boy lived with monkeys for three years, but was able to

We all know the story of Mowgli. A little boy got into a wolf pack and was fed by a she-wolf. He lived among the animals and became just like them. However, such a plot is not only found in fairy tales. In real life, there are also children fed by animals. Moreover, such incidents do not occur 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, and the baby hesitated, and the shepherd caught him.

The foundling was quite wild. He moved on all fours and possessed wolf habits. The boy was placed in the Institute of Child Psychiatry in Milan. He growled, the first days he ate nothing. 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, on it it was possible to study the psyche of a being born by a person, but who did not receive the appropriate upbringing. And then you could try to make him a normal member of society.

However, nothing happened. Real Mowgli children are not fairy tale characters. The boy ate badly, howled sadly. He could lie motionless on the floor for hours, ignoring the bed. He died a year later. Apparently, the longing for forest life was so great that the child's heart could not stand it.

This 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 XX century, not far from the Indian city of Lucknow (Pradesh), a railway employee discovered a strange creature in a dead end car. It was a boy of about 8 years old, completely naked and with an animal look. He did not understand human speech, moved on all fours, and his knees and palms of his hands were covered with callused growths.

The boy was admitted to the hospital, but a month later a local fruit merchant 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 when the mother slept with the baby in the yard on a mat. The merchant said that the missing child had a small scar on his temple. And so it turned out, and the boy was given to his father. But a year later, the foundling died, having failed to acquire human features.

Mowgli children walk on all fours

But the most famous story, which perfectly characterizes such a phenomenon as Mowgli children, fell to the lot of 2 Indian girls. These are Kamala and Amala. They were discovered in a wolf's lair in 1920. Among the gray predators, the children felt quite comfortable. Doctors determined the age of Amale at 6 years old, and Kamala looked 2 years older.

The first girl soon died, and the eldest lived to be 17 years old. And for 9 years, doctors described her life day by day. The poor thing was afraid of fire. She ate only raw meat, tearing it apart with her teeth. She walked on all fours. She ran, leaning on her palms and soles of her feet with half-bent knees. During the daytime, she preferred to sleep, and at night she wandered around the hospital building.

During the first days of their stay with the people, the girls howled lingeringly every night. Moreover, the howl was repeated at the same intervals of time. It is around 9 pm, at 1 am and at 3 am.

The "humanization" of Kamala took place with great difficulty. For a very long time she did not recognize any clothes. Everything that they tried to put on her was torn off. To wash felt real horror. At first, I did not want to get up from all fours and walk on my feet. Only after 2 years it was possible to accustom her to this procedure, familiar to other people. But when it was necessary to move quickly, the girl got on all fours.

After incredible labors, 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. For 7 years, the girl learned only 45 words, but she spoke them with difficulty and could not build logical phrases. By the age of 15, in her mental development, she corresponded to a 2-year-old child. And at the age of 17, she barely reached the level of a 4-year-old person. She died unexpectedly. The heart just stopped. No abnormalities were found in the body.

Wild animals are humane towards young children

And here is another case that also occurred in India in the state of Assam in 1925. The hunters found in the leopard's lair, in addition to its cubs, a 5-year-old child. He growled, bit and scratched no worse than his spotted "brothers and sisters."

In the nearest village, he was recognized by a family. Its members said that the father of the family, working in the field, for a few minutes moved away from his 2-year-old son sleeping in the grass. Looking back, he saw a leopard with a child in its mouth disappear into the jungle. Only 3 years have passed since then, but how their little son has changed. Only after 5 years did he learn to eat from dishes and walk on his feet.

American researcher Jesell published a book, the heroes of which were Mowgli children. In total, 14 such cases are described in it. It is noteworthy that the "tutors" of these children have always been wolves. In principle, this is not surprising, since gray predators live close to 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 is able to awaken the instinct of motherhood in a she-wolf. Therefore, the child is not eaten, but left in the pack. At first, the dominant female feeds him with milk, and then the whole flock begins to feed him with half-digested belching from the eaten meat. On such food, children can eat such cheeks, which is just a feast for the eyes.

True, there is one nuance here. After 8-9 months, the wolf cubs turn into independent young wolves. And the child continues to be helpless. But here the parental instinct works in gray predators. They feel the helplessness of the baby 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 that small children are among animals. But every year there are more and more such testimonies. Therefore, skeptics are losing ground and are beginning to recognize the obvious.

In conclusion, it should be noted that people deprived of human communication begin to lag behind in their mental development from those who live in a normal society. Mowgli children are proof of this. They once again confirm the well-known truth, which says that for the formation of a person, the most important age is from birth to 5 years.

It is during these years that the child's brain learns the fundamental foundations 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. It is precisely her that the child loses in the first place, 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, then you can only become the same as them.

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

Feral children: the difficulties of rehabilitation

There are several reasons why, having barely been born, an individual may find himself far away not only from his parents, but also from human civilization as a whole.

  1. In families where the father or mother has mental problems (often due to drug addiction and alcoholism), children are not given due attention, or vice versa, aggressive methods of education are used. Small victims are disappointed in people, starting to seek protection from pets or street animals.
  1. Adults completely isolate children with some developmental disabilities, such as autism, and do not communicate with them. In some underdeveloped countries, such babies are thrown into the forest to get rid of the "extra mouth".
  1. In rural areas of the subtropical and tropical zones, cases of abduction of babies by wild animals are not uncommon. Or small children themselves go into the forest and cannot find their way back.

Social isolation at an early age leads to mental degradation, which has received the name "Mowgli's syndrome" in scientific circles.

Clinical picture of the disease

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

Breaking away 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 is reflected in the appearance of "Mowgli". Their skeleton, especially the limbs, are deformed: the hands resemble twisted bird paws, the legs do not fully straighten. Massive calluses form on the knees from running on all fours, the jaws develop disproportionately, the teeth become sharp, like those of predators. Such children move at a tremendous speed by human standards, have great dexterity and developed organs of touch: hearing, sight, smell.

Important: after capture and attempts at social adaptation, people raised by animals rarely come to terms with the new conditions of existence 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"

There is a scientific explanation for the fact that "Mowglis" in real life cannot, like Kipling's hero, become people in the full sense of the word. They were in animal society at the moment when the most important skills are formed:

  • speech;
  • behavioral stereotypes;
  • food habits;
  • self-identification of a person.

That is, in the period between 1.5 and 6 years, which is also called sensitive. As a result, instead of active development, their intellect degraded, giving way to primitive survival instincts. The musculoskeletal system has also undergone 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 no longer become an independent, conscious person.

The chances of rehabilitation increase significantly when 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 correctness 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 by the royal vestal Rhea 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 nursed 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 years, it is difficult to separate truth from fiction, but the outcome of the infant wanderings of Romulus and Remus can be called prosperous. Their brothers in misfortune, whose names also remained in history, were much less fortunate.

An unknown boy, resembling a wild animal in appearance and behavior, was caught by residents of the Aveyron department, in southern France, in 1800. According to the 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 foundling, at the age of about 12 years, did not speak and did not perceive the questions addressed to him.

The boy ran away 8 times from people who tried to give him shelter, but he was again caught and tried to "tame". Finally, the little savage was handed over to medical student Jean Itard, who set out to bring his ward back to normal life. The methods used by the young doctor when teaching Victor - that's what the foundling from Averon was called, are still used by psychologists when working with mentally retarded children.

The boy began to adequately respond to the behavior of those around him and even said two words, otherwise he spoke with gestures. Having devoted 5 years to trying to socialize the teenager, Itard handed him over to the care of his housekeeper. Victor died a 40-year-old man, unable to adapt to human society.

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

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

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. In those days, ferals were not uncommon in a country where the jungle and savanna occupy large areas, coming close to human habitation.

Seeing how a 6-year-old kid frolics near the animal lair in the company of wolf cubs, the hunters were not surprised. Having driven out with the help of smoke and killed the predators, they took the “find” with them and handed it over to the local priest, Father Erhardt. The missionary named the boy Dina Sanichar (the name means "Saturday" in Urdu) 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 casually and even moved in an upright position, but his gait remained unsteady. He did not learn to say "wolf boy". The only thing he adopted from people was the habit of smoking, which is why he died, having contracted tuberculosis at the age of 34. All this time he lived alone in a missionary shelter.

Another story of Mowgli children raised by wolves. Girls from India were found near the city of Pashimbang in 1920. The peasants were frightened by two ghosts that appeared at night along with the wolf pack and informed the missionaries about this.

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

Singh, who took "patronage" over them, kept a diary where he described the life of his wards. Amala died a year later from a kidney infection. Her sister, or rather “comrade in misfortune,” grieved for a long time, expressing emotions not only with wolf howls, but also with tears. However, after the death of the younger girl, the older one 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, since no one except Singh mentions them anywhere.

When this native of Uganda was 3 years old, in front of his eyes, his father brutally dealt with his mother. The frightened boy hid in the jungle, where he came under the protection of a flock of pygmy green monkeys - vervets. 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, who was collecting firewood in the forest.

The kind-hearted woman took the foundling to her house, where, despite desperate resistance, she washed and put it in order. It turned out that John developed hypertrichosis, either from a long stay in the wild, or because of nerves. When the boy was fed hot food, he almost died, because the body, accustomed to a raw food diet, refused to accept 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 human rights association - Paul and Molly Vasswa. Since the monkey boy spent the first years of his life among people, he managed to partially socialize. After 10 years, John not only fit into public life, but also became a soloist of the "Pearl of Africa" ​​choir, with which he tours Western countries.

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

Then she was caught by local poachers and sold to a brothel in the city of Cucuta in northeastern Colombia. Too young to serve customers, Marina worked 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 traded in theft and fraud, and after a while she got into a mafia family, where she turned into a sex slave. Fortunately, 14-year-old Marina was saved by her neighbor Marudja and sent to live with her daughter in Bogotá. Later, the girl, along with her patrons, left the country, settling in the English city of Bradford.

Marina does not know her real name. She got married, had two children and wrote an autobiographical book, The Girl with No Name, where she recounted her adventures.

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

Mowgli kids: real life examples

Mowgli is the hero of Rudyard Kipling, who was raised by wolves. In the history of mankind there are real cases when children were brought up by animals, and their life, unlike the book, ends far from a happy ending. After all, socialization is practically impossible for such children, and they live forever with those fears and habits that their “foster parents” passed on to them. Children who have tested their first 3-6 years of life with animals are unlikely to ever learn human language, even though they will be cared for and loved in later life.

The very first known case of a child being raised by wolves was recorded in the 14th century. Not far from Hesse (Germany), an 8-year-old boy was found who lived in a pack of wolves. He jumped far, bit, growled and moved on all fours. He ate only raw food and could not speak. After the boy was returned to the people, he died very quickly.

Aveyron Savage

Savage of Aveyron in life and in The Wild Child (1970)

In 1797, hunters in the south of France found a wild boy who was believed to be 12 years old. He behaved like a beast: he could not speak, instead of words - only a growl. For several years, they tried to return him to society, but everything was unsuccessful. He constantly ran away from people to the mountains, but he never learned to talk, although he lived surrounded by people for thirty years. The boy was named Victor, and scientists actively studied his behavior. They found out that the savage from Aveyron had a special hearing and sense of smell, his body was insensitive to low temperatures, and he refused to wear clothes. His habits were studied by Dr. Jean-Marc Itard, thanks to Victor he reached a new level in research in the field of education of children who are lagging behind in development.

Peter from Hannover


In 1725, another feral boy was found in the forests of northern Germany. He looked about ten years old, and he led a completely wild lifestyle: he ate forest plants, walked on all fours. Almost immediately, the boy was transported to the UK. King George I took pity on the boy and placed him under observation. For a long time, Peter lived on a farm under the care of one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, and then her relatives. The savage died at the age of seventy, and over the years he was only able to learn a few words. True, modern researchers believe that Peter had a rare genetic disease and was not fully feral.

Dean Sanichar

Most Mowgli children were found in India: only from 1843 to 1933, 15 feral children were found here. And one of the cases was recorded quite recently: last year, an eight-year-old girl was found in the forests of the Katarniaghat reserve, who was raised by monkeys from birth.


Another feral child, Dean Sanichar, was raised by a pack of wolves. He was seen several times by hunters, but they could not catch him, and, finally, in 1867 they managed to lure him out of the den. The boy was believed to be six years old. He was taken under guardianship, but he learned very little human skills: he learned to walk on two legs, use dishes and even wear clothes. But he never learned to speak. He lived with people for more than twenty years. It is Dean Sanichara who is considered the prototype of the hero of The Jungle Book.

Amala and Kamala


In 1920, the inhabitants of an Indian village began to be pestered by ghosts from the jungle. They turned to missionaries for help to get rid of evil spirits. But the ghosts turned out to be two girls, one was about two years old, the other about eight. They were named Amala and Kamala. The girls saw perfectly in the dark, walked on all fours, howled and ate raw meat. Amala died a year later, and Kamala lived with people for 9 years, and at 17 her development was comparable to a four-year-old child.

Over 150 years ago, Sir Francis Galton coined the phrase "nature versus nurture". At that time, the scientist investigated what has more influence on the psychological development of a person - whether his heredity or the environment in which he is located. It was about behavior, habits, intelligence, personality, sexuality, aggression and so on.

Those who believe in education believe that people become such precisely because of everything that happens directly around them, the way they are taught. Opponents argue that we are all children of nature and act according to our genetic predisposition and animal instinct (according to Freud).

And what do you think about this? Are we a product of our environment, our genes, or both? In this complex discussion, wild children are an important aspect. The term "wild children" refers to a young person who has been abandoned or found himself in a situation where he was deprived of any kind of interaction with civilization.

As a result, such children usually find themselves among animals. They often lack social skills, even such a simple skill as talking, they do not always acquire. Wild children learn on the basis of what they see around them, but the conditions, as well as the ways of learning, are markedly different from normal conditions.

History knows several rather revealing stories of "wild children". And these cases are much more complicated and interesting than the classic story of Mowgli. These are quite real people who can already be called by their names, and not by nicknames given by sensationalized media.

Bello from Nigeria. The press dubbed this boy the Nigerian Chimpanzee Boy. It was found in 1996 in the jungle of this country. No one can say with certainty the exact age of Bello, it is assumed that at the time of the discovery he was about 2 years old. The boy, found in the forest, turned out to be physically and mentally handicapped. This is due to the abandonment of his parents at the age of six months. This practice is very common among the Fulani tribe. At such a young age, the boy, of course, could not stand up for himself. But some chimpanzees who lived in the forest accepted him into their tribe. As a result, the boy adopted many of the behavior of monkeys, in particular their walking. When Bello was found in Falgore Forest, the discovery was not widely reported. But in 2002, one of the popular newspapers found a boy in a boarding school for abandoned children in Kano, in South Africa. The news of Bello quickly became a sensation. He himself often fought with other children, threw objects, and jumped and ran at night. Six years later, the boy had already become much calmer, although he retained many of the behaviors of a chimpanzee. As a result, Bello was never able to learn to speak, despite the constant communication with other children and people in his house. In 2005, the boy completely died for unknown reasons.

Vanya Yudin. One of the recent cases of a wild child was Vanya Yudin. News agencies nicknamed him "Russian Bird Boy". When Volgograd social workers found him in 2008, he was 6 years old and unable to speak. The child's mother abandoned him. The boy could do almost nothing, he just chirped and folded his arms like wings. He learned this from his parrot friends. Although physically Vanya was not injured in any way, he was not capable of human contact. His demeanor became bird-like, he expressed emotions by waving his arms. Vanya spent a long time in a two-room apartment, in which dozens of his mother's birds were kept in cages. One of the social workers who discovered Vanya, Galina Volskaya, said that the boy lived with his mother, but she never spoke to him, treating him like another feathered pet. When people tried to talk to Vanya, he only chirped in response. Now the boy has been transferred to a psychological assistance center, where, with the help of specialists, they are trying to return him to a normal life. The lack of human relationships led the child to another world.

Dean Sanichar. One of the most famous oldest cases of a wild child is Dina, nicknamed the "Indian Wolf Boy". When hunters found him in 1867, the boy was supposedly 6 years old. People noticed a pack of wolves that entered the cave, and with it a man running on four legs. The men smoked the wolves out of the hideout, when they entered, they found Dean. The boy was found in the jungles of Bulandshahr and an attempt was made to treat him. True, at that time there were simply no effective means and methods. However, people tried to communicate with him to rid Dean of his animalistic demeanor. After all, he ate raw meat, tore off his clothes and ate from the ground. Not from dishes. After some time, Dean was still taught to eat cooked meat, but he never learned to speak.

Rocham Piengeng. When this girl was 8 years old, she and her sister grazed buffalo in the Cambodian jungle and got lost. Parents had already completely abandoned the hope of seeing their daughters. 18 years have passed, on January 23, 2007, a naked girl came out of the jungle in the province of Ratanakiri. She secretly stole food from one of the peasants. He, having discovered the loss, went hunting for a thief and found a wild man in the forest. The police were immediately called. One of the families in the village recognized the girl as their missing daughter, Rochom Piengeng. There was a distinctive scar on her back. But the girl's sister was never found. She herself miraculously managed to survive in the dense jungle. After getting to people with Roch, they worked hard to try to return back to normal living conditions. Soon she was able to say some words: "mother", "father", "abdominal pain". The psychologist said that the girl tried to speak other words, however, it was impossible to understand them. When Rochom wanted to eat, she simply pointed to her mouth. The girl more often crawled on the ground, refusing clothes. In the end, she was never able to adapt to human culture, running back into the forest in May 2010. Since then, nothing is known about the whereabouts of the wild girl. Sometimes there are conflicting rumors. They say, for example, that she was seen in the cesspool of one of the village toilets.

Trajan Caldarar. This famous case of a wild child also happened recently. Trajan, found in 2002, is more often called the Romanian dog boy or "Mowgli" after the name of a literary character. He lived separately from his family for 3 whole years, starting at the age of 4. When Trajan was found at 7 years old, he looked like 3 years old. The reason for this is extremely poor nutrition. Trajan's mother was the victim of a string of abuse from her husband. It is believed that the child could not stand such an atmosphere and ran away from home. Trajan lived in the wild until he was found near the Romanian Brasov. The boy found his shelter in a large cardboard box covered with leaves on top. When the doctors examined Trajan, he had a severe case of rickets, infection of wounds and poor circulation. Those who found the boy believe that stray dogs helped him survive. Found it by accident. The shepherd Ioan Manolescu's car broke down and he had to walk through the pastures. It was there that the man found the boy. Not far from him, the remains of a dog were found. It is assumed that Trajan ate it in order to stay alive. When the wild boy was taken into custody, he refused to sleep on the bed, climbing under it. Trajan was also constantly hungry. When he was hungry, he became extremely irritable. After eating, the boy almost immediately went to bed. In 2007, it was reported that Troyan adapted well under the supervision of his grandfather and even studied in the 3rd grade of school. When the boy was asked about his educational institution, he said: "I like it here - there are coloring books, games, you can learn to read and write. The school has toys, cars, teddy bears and the food is very good."

John Sebunya. This man was nicknamed "The Monkey Boy from Uganda". He ran away from home at the age of three when he witnessed the murder of his mother by his own father. Impressed by what he saw, John fled to the Ugandan jungle, where he is believed to have come under the care of green African monkeys. At that time, the boy was only 3 years old. In 1991, John was seen hiding in a tree by a woman named Milly, his compatriot. After that, she called for help from other villagers. As in other similar cases, John strongly resisted his capture. In this he was also helped by the monkeys, who began to throw sticks at people, protecting their "compatriot". However, John was caught and brought to the village. There he was washed, but his whole body was covered with hair. This disease is called hypertrichosis. It manifests itself in the presence of excessive hairiness in those parts of the body where there is no such usual cover. Living in the wild, John also became infected with intestinal worms. Some of them are said to have been almost half a meter long when they were removed from his body. The foundling was full of injuries, mostly from trying to walk like a monkey. John was transferred to Molly and Paul Vaswa, to their orphanage. The couple even taught the boy how to speak, although many claim that he already knew how to do this before running away from home. John was also taught to sing. Today he tours with the African Pearls children's choir and has practically got rid of his animal behavior.

Kamala and Amala. The story of these two Indian young girls is one of the most famous cases of wild children. When they were found in 1920 in a wolf den in Midnapore, India, Kamala was 8 years old and Amala was 1.5 years old. The girls spent most of their lives outside of people. Despite the fact that they were found together, researchers question the fact that they were sisters. After all, they had a rather large age difference. They just left them in the same place at different times. The girls were discovered after mystical stories spread throughout the village about the figures of two ghostly spirits, who were seen along with wolves from the jungles of Bengal. The locals were so frightened of the spirits that they called the priest to find out the whole truth. Reverend Joseph hid in a tree above the cave and waited for the wolves. When they left, he looked into their lair and saw two people hunched over. He wrote down everything he saw. The priest described the children as "a disgusting creature from head to toe." The girls ran on all fours and had no signs of being human. In the end, Joseph took the wild children with him, although he had no experience in their adaptation. The girls slept together, curled up, tore off their clothes, ate nothing but raw meat, howled. Their habits resembled animals. They opened their mouths, sticking out their tongues like wolves. Physically, the children were deformed - the tendons and joints on the hands became shorter, making it impossible to walk upright. Kamala and Amala had no interest in communicating with people. It is said that some of their senses worked flawlessly. This applies not only to hearing and vision, but also to a sharp sense of smell. Like most Mowgli children, this couple tried in every possible way to return to their former life, surrounded by people feeling unhappy. Soon Amala died, this event caused deep mourning in her friend, Kamala even cried for the first time. The Reverend Joseph thought that she too would die and began to work hard on her. As a result, Kamala barely learned to walk upright and even learned a few words. In 1929, this girl also died, this time due to kidney failure.

Victor from Aveyron. The name of this Mowgli boy will seem familiar to many. The fact is that his story formed the basis of the film "Wild Child". Some say that it was Victor who became the first documented case of autism, in any case, this is a well-known story of a child left alone with nature. In 1797, several people saw Victor wandering in the forests of Saint Sernin sur Rance, in the south of France. The wild boy was caught, but he soon ran away. In 1798 and 1799 he was seen again, but finally caught on January 8, 1800. At that time, Victor was about 12 years old, his entire body was covered with scars. The boy could not utter a word, even his origin remained a mystery. Victor ended up in a city where philosophers and scientists showed great interest in him. The news of the found wild man quickly spread throughout the country, many wanted to study it, looking for answers to questions about the origin of the language and human behavior. The biology professor, Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, decided to observe Victor's reaction by taking off his clothes and laying him outside in the snow. The boy began to run in the snow, not showing any negative effects of low temperatures on his bare skin. They are said to have lived naked in the wild for 7 years. No wonder his body was able to endure such extreme weather conditions. The famous teacher Roche-Ambroise Auguste Bebian, who worked with the deaf and sign language, decided to try to teach the boy to communicate. But soon the teacher became disillusioned with his student due to the lack of any signs of progress. After all, Victor, being born with the ability to speak and hear, never did it right after he was left to live in the wild. Delays in mental development did not allow Victor to begin to lead a full life. Subsequently, the wild boy was taken to the National Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, where he died at the age of 40.

Oksana Malaya. This story happened in 1991 in Ukraine. Oksana Malaya was left by her bad parents in a kennel, where she grew up from 3 to 8 years old, surrounded by other dogs. The girl became wild, she was kept in the backyard of the house all this time. She adopted the common behavioral traits of dogs - barking, growling, moving on all fours. Oksana sniffed her food before eating it. When the authorities came to her aid, other dogs barked and growled at people, trying to protect their compatriot. The girl did the same. Due to the fact that she was deprived of communication with people, Oksana had only two words "yes" and "no" in her dictionary. The wild child underwent intensive therapy to help him acquire the necessary social and verbal skills. Oksana was able to learn to speak, although psychologists say she has big problems trying to express herself and communicate emotionally rather than with speech. Today, the girl is already twenty years old, she lives in one of the clinics in Odessa. Most of the time Oksana spends with the cows on the farm of her boarding school. But in her own words, she feels best when she is around dogs.

Gin. If you are professionally engaged in psychology or study the issue of wild children, then the name Jean will certainly pop up. At the age of 13, she was locked in a room with a pot tied to a chair. On another occasion, her father tied her up in a sleeping bag and laid her like that in her crib. Her father extremely abused his power - if the girl tried to speak, he beat her with a stick to make her quieter, he barked and growled at her. The man also forbade his wife and children to talk to her. Because of this, Jin had a very small vocabulary, which was only around 20 words. So, she knew the phrases "Stop", "No more." Jean was discovered in 1970 and is one of the worst known social exclusions to date. At first, she was thought to have autism until doctors discovered that the 13-year-old girl was the victim of abuse. Jean ended up at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital, where she was treated for many years. After several courses, she was already able to answer questions in monosyllables, learned to dress herself. However, she still stuck to her learned behavior, including the "walking bunny" manner. The girl constantly held her hands in front of her, as if they were her paws. Jean continued to scratch, leaving deep marks on things. Jean ended up being adopted by her therapist, David Rigler. He worked with her every day for 4 years. As a result, the doctor and his family were able to teach the girl sign language, the ability to express herself not only in words, but also in drawing. When Jean left the therapist, she went to live with her mother. Soon the girl came to a new foster parent. And she was not lucky with them, they again forced Jean to become dumb, she became afraid to speak. Now the girl lives somewhere in Southern California.

Madina. The tragic story of this girl is in many ways similar to the story of Oksana Malaya. Madina grew up with dogs without any contact with people. It was in this state that experts discovered it. At that time, the girl was only 3 years old. When they found her, she preferred to bark like a dog, although she could say the words "yes" and "no". Fortunately, the doctors who examined the girl declared her physically and mentally complete. As a result, despite some delay in development, there is hope for a return to a normal lifestyle. After all, Madina is at an age when it is still possible, with the help of doctors and psychologists, to return to the usual path of development.

Lobo. This child was also nicknamed "the wolf girl from the Devil's River." The mysterious creature was first discovered in 1845. Among the wolves, a girl ran on all fours, attacking a herd of goats near the Mexican San Felipe along with predators. A year later, the information about the wild child was confirmed - the girl was seen greedily eating a raw killed goat. The villagers were alarmed by such a neighborhood with an unusual person. They began searching for the girl, soon catching her. The wild child was named Lobo. She constantly howled at night like a wolf, as if calling on packs of gray predators to save herself. As a result, the girl escaped from captivity and ran away. The next time a wild child was seen after 8 years. She was by the river with two cubs. Frightened by the people, Lobo grabbed the puppies and ran away. Since then, no one has met her.

Wild Peter. Not far from German Hameln in 1724, people discovered a hairy boy. He moved exclusively on all fours. They could only catch the wild man with the help of deception. He could not speak, but ate exclusively raw food - poultry and vegetables. The boy, after his transportation in England, was nicknamed Wild Peter. He never learned to speak, but he became able to perform the simplest work. It is said that Peter was able to live to a ripe old age.