Human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age
"Wolf child" redirects here. For the video game, see
Wolfchild. For the Silver Convention album containing the song of the same name, see
Summernights. For the East Prussian orphans, see
Wolf children.
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A feral child (also called wild child) is a young individual who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, with little or no experience of
human care, social behavior, or
language. Such children lack the basics of primary and secondary socialization. [1]The term is used to refer to children who have suffered severe
abuse or
trauma before being abandoned or running away. They are sometimes the subjects of
folklore and
legends, often portrayed as having been raised by animals. While there are many cases of children being found in proximity to wild animals, there are no eyewitness accounts of animals feeding human children.[2]
Description
Feral children lack the basic
social skills that are normally learned in the process of
enculturation. For example, they may be unable to learn to use a
toilet, have trouble learning to walk upright after walking on fours all their lives, or display a complete lack of interest in the human activity around them. They often seem mentally impaired and have almost insurmountable trouble
learning a human language.[3] The impaired ability to learn a
natural language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning, and taken as evidence in favor of the
critical period hypothesis.[4][5]
There is little scientific knowledge about feral children. One of the best-documented cases has supposedly been that of sisters
Amala and Kamala, described by Reverend J. A. L. Singh in 1926 as having been "raised by wolves" in a forest in
India. French surgeon
Serge Aroles, however, has persuasively argued that the case was a fraud, perpetrated by Singh in order to raise money for his orphanage. Child psychologist
Bruno Bettelheim states that Amala and Kamala were born mentally and physically disabled.[6] Yet other scientific studies of feral children exist, such as the case of
Genie.[5]
History
Prior to the 1600s, feral and wild children stories were usually limited to myths and legends. In those tales, the depiction of feral children included hunting for food, running on all fours instead of two, and not knowing language. Philosophers and scientists were interested in the concept of such children, and began to question if these children were part of a different species from the human family.
The question was taken seriously as science tried to name and categorize the development of humans, and the understanding of the natural world in the 18th and 19th century.[7] Around the 20th century, psychologists were attempting to differentiate between biological behavior and culture. Feral children who lived in isolation or with animals provided examples of this dilemma.
Journalistic accounts of children raised by animals
Raised by primates/monkeys
Marina Chapman claimed to have lived with
weeper capuchinmonkeys in the
Colombianjungle from the age of five to about nine, following a botched kidnapping in about 1954.[8] Unusual for feral children, she went on to marry, have children and live a largely normal life with no persisting problems.
Saturday Mthiyane (or Mifune) (1987), a boy of around five, was found after spending about a year in the company of monkeys in
KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa. He was given the name Saturday after the day he was found, and Mthiyane was the name of the headmistress of the Special School which took him in. At the age of around 17, he could still not talk, and still walked and jumped like a monkey. He never ate cooked food and refused to share or play with other children.[10] In 2005 he was killed in a fire.[11]
John Ssebunya, from
Uganda, was a toddler when his father killed his mother and hanged himself. Instead of going into a care facility, he went to live with vervet monkeys. For two years he learned how to forage and travel. The monkeys protected him in the wild. When he was around seven years old, he was brought back to civilization. According to a local villager, when he was a child, the only forms of communication he was capable of were crying and demanding food, and he was a "wild boy" whom everyone feared.[12] He has since gained full speech abilities and has also twice competed in the Special Olympics for Uganda.
Raised by wolves
Hessian wolf-children[13]: 15–7 [14] (1304, 1341 and 1344) lived with the
Eurasian wolf in the forests of Hesse:
The first boy (1304) was taken by wolves at age 3 and found when 7 or 8 by
Benedictine monks, the wolves having cared for him by "surrounding him in cold weather, and fed him the best meat from the hunt." He was later sent to the court of Prince
Henry, and became accustomed to human society but said he preferred the wolves.[15]
The second boy (1341) resisted capture, biting and scratching; he continued to run on all four limbs and hid under a bench. He refused any food given to him and died shortly after being found.[15]
The third boy (1344) was found in the winter near the farm Echtzel in
Wetterau. He had lived with wolves in a dense wooded area known as "the Hart" for 12 years. He was found by nobles who used the area as hunting grounds. He eventually lived to the age of 80,[15] but is also reported to have also died shortly after discovery.[16]
The
Hasunpur wolf boy (1843), wandered into the town at around age 12, apparently raised by wolves. He was dark-skinned, covered in short hair, and ate both cooked and raw meat. He soon learned to walk and understand hand signs but never spoke; he often sat at a shop in the town bazaar, where his parents recognized him and took him back. His further fate is unknown. (Case reported by the Rajah of Hasunpoor Bundooa.)[15]
Dina Sanichar, discovered among
wolves in a cave in Sikandra (near
Agra) in
Uttar Pradesh,
India in 1872, at the age of 6. He went on to live among humans for over twenty years, including picking up smoking, but never learned to speak and remained seriously impaired for his entire life.[17][18]
Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja (
c. 1946,
Sierra Morena,
Spain) lived for 12 years with
wolves in the mountains of Southern Spain. He was discovered at age 19.[19] Rodríguez's story was depicted in the 2010 Spanish-German film Entrelobos. For his portrayal of Rodríguez, young actor Manuel Camacho received a Best New Actor nomination at the
2011 Goya Awards.
Raised by dogs
Oxana Malaya was an eight-year-old
Ukrainian girl who lived with
Black Russian Terriers for six years. She was found in a
kennel with dogs in 1991. She was neglected by her parents, who were alcoholics. The three-year-old, looking for comfort, crawled into the farm and snuggled with the dogs. Her behavior imitated dogs more than humans. She walked on all fours, bared her teeth, and barked. She was removed from her parents' custody by the social services.[citation needed] As she lacked human contact, she did not know any words besides "yes" and "no".[20] Upon adulthood, Oxana has been taught to subdue her dog-like behavior. She learned to speak fluently and intelligently[21] and works at the farm milking cows,[22][21] but remains somewhat intellectually impaired.[23][24]
Ivan Mishukov, a six-year-old boy born in
Reutov,
Russia, was rescued by the
police in 1998 from wild dogs, with whom he lived for two years. He ran from his mother and her abusive alcoholic boyfriend at the age of four. He earned the dogs' trust by giving them food and in return the dogs protected him.[25] The boy had risen to being "
alpha male" of the pack.[25] When the police found him, they set a trap for him and the dogs by leaving food in a restaurant kitchen.[25] Because he had lived among the dogs for only two years, he relearned language fairly rapidly.[26] He studied in military school and served in the
Russian Army.[26]
A 10-year-old Chilean boy (Dog Boy) was rescued after living with street dogs for two years. At the age of five, the boy was abandoned by his parents. After fleeing a subsequent child care facility, he roamed the streets with 15 stray dogs. He spent his time with them living in a cave and searching for food, sometimes finding leftovers in garbage cans. In 2001, his situation was brought to the attention of the police. Upon a rescue attempt, the boy tried to escape by jumping into frigid ocean water. However, he was caught and hospitalized. He exhibited depression and aggressive tendencies, and although he could speak, he would rarely do so.[27]
Traian Căldărar,
Romania (found in 2002) also known as "the Romanian Dog Boy" or "Mowgli". From the ages of four to seven, Traian lived without his family. The boy was found at the age of seven and was described as a three-year-old due to undernutrition. His mother had left her home because of domestic violence, and Traian ran from home sometime after his mother left. He lived in the wild and took shelter in a cardboard box. He suffered from infected wounds, having poor circulation, and a children's disease caused by vitamin D deficiency. Traian was found by Manolescu Ioan, who had been walking across the country after his car broke down. In the surrounding area, a dog that had been eaten was also found. Many assume that the boy was eating the dog to stay alive. When Traian was being cared for, he would usually sleep under the bed and wanted to eat all the time.[28] In 2007, Traian was being taken care of by his grandfather and was doing well in 3rd grade at school.[29]
Andrei Tolstyk (2004) was raised by dogs in a remote part of
Siberia from the age of three months to 7 years. He was neglected by his parents because he had speaking and hearing problems. Social workers who found the boy were curious about why the boy was not admitted to his local school. This boy was not able to talk as he lacked human interaction and had many dog-like characteristics including walking on all fours, biting people, and sniffing his food before eating.[25]
Madina, a three-year-old girl found in Russia in 2013. Madina lived with dogs from birth until she was three years old. She slept with them in the cold, ate food with them, and played with them. Her father left her after she was born, which caused her mother to become an alcoholic and neglect Madina. When found by social workers in 2013 she was completely nude and engaged in dog-like behavior including chewing on bones. Afterwards doctors confirmed that she was still mentally and physically capable despite being neglected for nearly her entire life.[20]
Raised by bears
A
Danish boy, reported in 1619 (original date of discovery unknown). Found at age 14 or 15 living with bears in a wooded area, "distinguished from them but by his shape." He later learned to speak but claimed to have no memory of his time with the bears.[15]
The three Lithuanian bear-boys (1657, 1669, 1694)[13]: 21–28 [14] –
Serge Aroles shows from the archives of the
Queen of Poland (1664–1688) that these are false. There was only one boy who lived in the forests of
Lithuania with the
Eurasian brown bear; he was found in the spring of 1663 and then brought to
Poland's capital.[30]: 196 [clarification needed] The boy, named Joseph, was one of two boys seen by hunters living in the woods with the bears. He was captured at about age 9, learning to walk upright and eat cooked meat, but disliked clothes and never spoke well. The other boy was never captured; the two may have been accidentally abandoned by their families trying to avoid
Tatar raids.
Raised by sheep
An
Irish boy brought up by
sheep, reported by
Nicolaes Tulp in his book Observationes Medicae (1672).[13]: 20–1 [14][31] The boy reportedly avoided capture for some time, and after being caught at age 16 in 1672 and taken to
Amsterdam refused to eat normal food, endured extreme temperatures, and still avoided other humans.[15][32] Serge Aroles gives evidence that this boy was severely disabled and was exhibited for money.[30]: 199–201
A 14-year-old boy also known as the
sheep boy (2009), was found in
Kyrgyzstan living in a
sheep flock. He was raised by sheep for 8 years. He had no communication skills and could not use the toilet. His parents left to find work and he was left with his grandmother. His grandmother took care of him until she died.[33]
Raised by cattle
The
Bamberg boy, who grew up among
cattle (late 16th century).[13]: 18–9 [14] The boy reportedly grew up among wild cattle in the region's mountains, and was later brought to the Prince of Bamberg's court. He initially continued his wild behavior, such as chasing and fighting dogs on all fours, but eventually accustomed to human society and later married.[15]
Raised by goats
Daniel,
AndesGoat Boy (1990), lived in the wild for about 8 years. He was discovered in the mountains of
Peru and was raised by
goats or
llamas. He walked and ran on all fours with the
mountain goats. He drank
goat's milk and ate berries and roots.[34]
Other cases
Jean de
Liège. Described by natural philosopher Sir
Kenelm Digby in his book 'Two Treatises' (1644). Jean, at age five, hid in the woods with his fellow villagers during a religious war. After the fighting left the area, Jean remained in the woods for another 16 years without human contact; during this time his senses became incredibly sharp. He was captured at age 21, "naked, 'all overgrown with hair,' and incapable of speech"; he reintegrated to human society and learned to speak, but lost his acute senses.[32]
Anna Maria Jennaert, (1717) caught at
Kranenburg near
Zwolle. She was born in
Antwerp in 1698 and had been kidnapped in 1700 at 16 months old. She was taken by the mistress of a recently deceased merchant who had willed 5,000 dollars to the mistress's (also deceased) baby; the mistress took Jennaert to pass off as her own to collect the money. A large group had to be used to capture her, and she was found unable to speak and surviving on leaves and grass. In January 1718, she was identified after newspapers covered her story and reunited with her mother. She never learned to speak but recognized her mother and re-accustomed herself to human society.[15]
The two
Pyrenean boys (1719).[13]: 32 [14] The boys were reported to "run along the mountains on all-fours, and leaped from one rock to another like the
chamois." They were found on the French side of the range. Very little details are available of their case.[35] They were seen, but not captured.[36]
The girl of
Issaux (1719?), lost in the woods of the Pyrenees with friends at age eight and found at age 16 by a group of shepherds. She did not like human society and wished to return to the woods.[15][37]
A wild man in the Pyrenees (1723). He was caught by some hunters but escaped before reintegrating into human society.[16]
Another man in the Pyrenees (1774). Found by shepherds in forest of Yvary, he "inhabited the rocks" and was described as a "mild character" and a "solitary, but cheerful creature," harmlessly visiting the cottages of nearby workers. He never attempted to harm any animals, and always outran the shepherds' dogs when they were sent after him. While at one of the workers' cottages he was briefly caught, but "laughed heartily" and escaped. He appeared to be around 30, and was suspected to have been lost as an infant and "subsisted on herbs."[37][38]
Victor of Aveyron (1800) – Victor was a feral child in the forests of
Aveyron for twelve years. The subject is treated with a certain amount of realism in
François Truffaut's 1970 film L'Enfant Sauvage (UK: The Wild Boy, US: The Wild Child), where a scientist's efforts in trying to rehabilitate a feral boy meet with great difficulty.[39]
Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc was a famous feral child of the 18th century in
France who was known as The Wild Girl of
Champagne, The Maid of
Châlons, or The Wild Child of
Songy. Marie-Angélique survived for ten years living wild in the forests of France, between the ages of nine and 19, before she was captured by villagers in Songy in Champagne in September 1731. She was likely born in 1712 as a Native American of the Meskwaki (or "Fox") people, and brought to France in 1720;[40] or she was born in an unknown location in 1712.[41] Marie died in
Paris in 1775. Documents show that she learned to read and write as an adult, thus making her unique among feral children.
Hany Istók (a.k.a. Steve of the Marsh) of
Kapuvár,
Hungary (1749). According to documents stored at the Catholic parish of Kapuvár, an abandoned child was once found in a marshy lakeside forest by two fishermen. He was brought to the town of Kapuvár, where he was christened and received the name Steven. The local governor took him to his castle and tried to raise him, but the boy eventually escaped and ran back to the forest. Later, numerous folk tales developed around his character, depicting him as a "half fish, half human creature" who lived in a nearby lake.[42]
Ramachandra (1970s and 1980s) – First reported in 1973 in the Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh, at roughly 12 years old, and as living an
amphibian lifestyle in the
Kuwano River. He was rescued in 1979 and taken to a nearby village. He only partly adapted to a conventional lifestyle, still preferring raw food, walking with an awkward gait, and spending most of his time alone in nearby rivers and streams. He died in 1982 after approaching a woman who was frightened by him, and who badly scalded Ramachandra with boiling water. Historian
Mike Dash[44] speculates that Ramachandra's uncharacteristically bold approach to the woman was sparked by a burgeoning sexual attraction coupled with his ignorance of cultural morals and taboos.
Cambodian jungle girl (2007) – Alleged to be Rochom P'ngieng, who lived 19 years in the Cambodian jungle.[45] Other sources questioned these claims.[46] In August 2016, after immigration officials spent two weeks reviewing the case, the woman left
Cambodia with her family and returned to
Vietnam. Vietnamese media reported that her birth father discovered her through photographs on
Facebook. The woman never learned to speak while living with her adoptive family in Cambodia, and according to her Vietnamese birth family, she has been that way since birth.
Name Unknown,
Uzbekistan (2007) – A teenage boy found acting like a wild animal and snarling in the
mountains of
Samarkand after being reported missing in 1998.[citation needed]
Ng Chhaidy,
Theiva near
Saiha,
Mizoram,
India (2012) – She went missing in a jungle aged four, returning 38 years later. When she was first seen, she was naked, long-haired, and with long fingernails, which caused her to be seen as a "
wild woman".[47]
Ho Van Lang (2013) was found in
Quang Ngai, Vietnam.[48] His father, Ho Van Thanh, took him into the jungle (leaving behind a brother, Ho Van Tri) to flee from the
Vietnam War, where he was raised for four decades in isolation. Upon discovery, he barely spoke a few words of the local dialect from the
Cor minority.[49] According to his brother, he was developmentally stunted like a child and could not distinguish good from bad.[50] He died of
liver cancer on September 7, 2021, at age 52.[51]
Alleged cases of feral children
Ancient reports
The historian
Herodotus wrote that Egyptian
pharaohPsammetichus I (Psamtik) sought to discover the
origin of language, and prove Egypt was the oldest people on Earth by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly, he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When both of the children cried βεκος (bekos) with outstretched arms, the shepherd concluded that the word was
Phrygian because that was the sound of the Phrygian word for bread. Thus, they concluded that the
Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians.[52]
Modern reports
The Lobo Wolf Girl of
Devil's River (1845) – A figure in
Texas folklore, was captured in 1846, but escaped. She was last spotted at age 17 in 1852.[53] She was born to trapper couple Mollie and John Dent in May 1835, John leaving Mollie to get help with her delivery at a nearby
Mexican goat ranch. Upon returning Mollie was found dead and the baby missing, presumably eaten by wolves. In 1845, however, she was spotted helping a wolf pack attack a herd of goats, and the next year eating raw goat meat. She was briefly held in a ranch but the ranch was attacked by wolves, and in the confusion she escaped. She was last seen in 1852 suckling two wolf cubs along a river near
El Paso, but disappeared.[15]
Vicente Caucau (1948) – Chilean boy found in a savage state at age 12, allegedly raised by
pumas.[54]
The "ostrich boy" – A boy named Hadara was lost by his parents in the
Sahara desert at the age of two, and was adopted by
ostriches. At the age of 12, he was rescued and taken back to society and his parents. He later married and had children. The story of Hadara is often told in west Sahara. In 2000, Hadara's son Ahmedu told his father's story to the Swedish author of children's books, Monica Zak. Zak states that she did not believe the story but published it as an example of tales told in the desert.[55] Zak states: "This book I have built on all the strange and exciting details I got from Hadara's son, the rest I have fantasized together."[56]
Raised in confinement
Isabelle (1938) was almost seven years old when she was discovered. She had spent the first years of her life isolated in a dark room with her mother, who was deaf and unable to speak, as her only contact. Only seven months later, she had learned a vocabulary of around 1,500 to 2,000 words. She is reported to have acquired normal linguistic abilities.[57][58]
Anna (1938) was six years old when she was found, having been kept in a dark room for most of her life.[59] She was born in March 1932 in
Pennsylvania, United States. She was her mother's second illegitimate child. Her mother had tried to give Anna up for several months but no agency was willing to take the financial burden, as this was during the
Great Depression. Anna was kept in a store room at least until she was five and a half, out of the way of her disapproving grandfather, who was infuriated by her presence. Her mother also resented her, considering her troublesome. She was tied to a broken chair which was too small for her, and is believed to have also been tied to a cot for long periods of time. She was mostly fed milk and was never bathed, trained, or caressed by anyone. When she was found, she was suffering from
malnutrition as well as
muscle atrophy. She was immobile, expressionless, and indifferent to everything. She was believed to be deaf as she did not respond to others (later it was found that her deafness was functional rather than physical). She could not talk, walk, feed herself, or do anything that showed signs of cognition. Once she was taken away and placed in a foster home, she showed signs of improvement. At the age of 9, she began to develop speech. She had started to conform to social norms and was able to feed herself, though only using a spoon. Her teachers described her as having a pleasant disposition. Anna died on August 6, 1942, at the age of 10 of hemorrhagic
jaundice.[60]
Genie (1970) is the
pseudonym given to a feral girl born in 1957 in
Los Angeles. Confined to one room without external stimulation of any kind, Genie was strapped to a child's toilet and restrained in a makeshift harness for up to 13 hours per day and immobilized in a crib overnight.[61][62] It was also theorized that Genie's father would beat her with a wooden plank kept in the room if Genie vocalized at all, and that he would growl like a dog outside of her door.[63][61] This abuse continued from the age of 20 months until approximately 13 years and 7 months.[64][65][66] Attempts were made to teach Genie language, but results were limited.[61][67] After the first 5 years in which Genie received treatment, her living situation was mostly unstable, often moving between foster homes and hospitals, as her mother proved unable to care for her by herself.[68] As of 2016[update], Genie is a ward of the state of
California.
Sujit Kumar (1979), named the "Chicken Boy of
Fiji" by the media, was born with
cerebral palsy and
epilepsy. Sujit's mother committed
suicide when he was a toddler and his father left him confined under the house to live with the chickens. Sujit was rescued while still a boy and committed to the Samabula Old People's Home, where he was confined to his room and tied to his bed. He could not speak, and his only verbalisation was clucking; his only interaction with people consisted of outbursts. Sujit remained at the old people's home for 20 years until he was found by Elizabeth Clayton, a wealthy Australian businesswoman who founded the Happy Home Trust to care for Sujit and other at-risk Fijian children. Sujit's behaviour has improved, but it is assumed that he will never learn to speak, and he remains profoundly disabled.[69]
Danielle Crockett (2005), of
Plant City, Florida,
United States, had been locked in her room and deprived of any human interaction for the first 7 years of her life, causing a variety of severe developmental delays. She was found and adopted, and, as of 2017[update], she lives in a group home. She has not learned how to speak but can now let people touch her, look others in the eyes, swim, and has made progress acclimating to human conditioning.[70][71][72][73]
Vanya Yudin (2008), the "Russian bird boy," is a seven-year-old boy who spent his entire life living in a tiny two bedroom apartment surrounded by birds. His mother never spoke to him and treated him as a pet, and when found he was unable to communicate except for chirping and flapping his arms like wings.[74]
Natasha (2009), born in
Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, is a five-year-old girl who spent her entire life locked in a room with cats and dogs, and no heat, water, or sewage system.[75][76] When she was found, she could not speak, would jump at the door and bark as caretakers left, and had "clear attributes of an animal."[76]
Sasha T. (2012) is a two-year-old Russian boy who was kept in a room with
goats his entire life by his mother. Without any human contact, he had not learned how to speak, and weighed only about two-thirds as much as a typical child his age when he was discovered by Russian social workers.[77]
Hoaxes
Following the 2008 disclosure by Belgian newspaper Le Soir[78] that the bestselling book Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years and movie Survivre avec les loups ("Surviving with Wolves") was a media
hoax, the French media debated the credulity with which numerous cases of feral children have been unquestioningly accepted. Although there are numerous books on these children, almost none of them have been based on archives; the authors instead have used dubious second- or third-hand printed information. According to the French surgeon Serge Aroles, who wrote a general study of feral children based on archives (L'Enigme des Enfants-loups or The Enigma of Wolf-children, 2007), many alleged cases are totally fictitious stories:
The teenager of
Kronstadt (1781)[13]: 49–55 [14][79] – According to the
Hungarian document published by
Serge Aroles, this case is a hoax: the boy, mentally disabled, had a
goitre and was exhibited for money.
Syrian Gazelle Boy (1946) – A boy aged around 10 was reported to have been found in the midst of a herd of
gazelles in the
Syrian desert in the 1950s, and was only rescued with the help of an
Iraqi army jeep, because he could run at speeds of up to 50 km/h (30 mph). However, it was supposedly a hoax, as are several other gazelle-boy cases.
Amala and Kamala – Claimed to have been found in 1920 by missionaries near
Midnapore,
Calcutta region, India, later proved to be a hoax to gain charity for Rev. Singh's orphanage.[30]: 104–113 Scholars from
Japan and
France launched a new inquiry about Amala and Kamala, and validated the discoveries and conclusions done by Serge Aroles 20 years before: the story was a hoax.[80]
Ramu,
Lucknow, India, (1954) – A girl taken by a
wolf as a baby, and raised in the jungle until the age of seven.[81]Aroles made inquiries on the scene and classifies this as another hoax.
Roman legend has it that
Romulus and Remus, twin sons of
Rhea Silvia and
Mars, were suckled by a
she-wolf. Rhea Silvia was a
priestess, and when it was found that she had been pregnant and had children, King
Amulius, who had usurped his brother's throne, ordered her to be buried alive and for the children to be killed. The servant who was given the order set them in a basket on the
Tiber river instead, and the children were taken by
Tiberinus, the river god, to the shore where a she-wolf found them and raised them until they were discovered as toddlers by a shepherd named
Faustulus. He and his wife
Acca Larentia, who had always wanted a child but never had one, raised the twins, who would later feature prominently in the events leading up to the founding of
Rome (named after Romulus, who eventually killed Remus in a fight over whether the city should be founded on the
Palatine Hill or the
Aventine Hill).[82]
Legendary and fictional children are often depicted as growing up with relatively normal
human intelligence and skills and an innate sense of culture or civilization, coupled with a healthy dose of
survival instincts. Their integration into human society is made to seem relatively easy. One notable exception is Mowgli, for whom living with humans proved to be extremely difficult.
The book Knowledge of Angels involves a feral girl found on a fictional island based upon
Mallorca. She is the subject of an experiment to see if the knowledge of God is learned or innate. Placed in a convent, while she is there the nuns are instructed not to teach her about God or even mention him in front of her. This is to see whether an atheist who washed up there should be condemned or not.
The
Earthsea series by
Ursula K. Le Guin mentions a brother and sister who were abandoned on a remote island as children, and thus grew up as feral children; in A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged washes up on their island and is unable to communicate much with them, as they only know a few words in their native language (which he did not speak at the time). They were both elderly and very frightened of him, but the sister gives him one of her few possessions when he leaves. Later in The Tombs of Atuan, Ged tells Tenar about the sister and brother (named Anthil and Ensar respectively), and Tenar explains their names, lineage, and how the abandonment was known about in their (and her) home country. Tenar and Ged agree that abandonment was kinder than the murder the children would have otherwise been victims of, but Ged remarks that it was still very cruel and "They scarcely knew human speech."
The 2006 novel Magic Hour by
Kristin Hannah is about a six-year-old feral child living during her formative years inside a cave in the
Olympic National Forest. The girl wanders one day into the fictional small town of Rain Valley,
Washington, searching for food and carrying her pet wolf pup and unable to speak. The police chief calls in her psychiatrist sister to teach the girl how to speak and to find the girl's family.
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^Gillain, Anne (2013). François Truffaut : The Lost Secret. Translated by Fox, Alistair. Indiana University Press (Ind.). p. 215.
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^Aroles, Serge (2004). Marie-Angélique : Haut Mississippi, 1712-Paris, 1775 : survie et résurection d'une enfant perdue dix années en forêt. Terre-éd.
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^Hecquet (2017-05-04). Histoire d'une jeune fille sauvage trouvée dans les bois à l'âge de dix ans. Gallimard.
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^[1], "Hany Istók legendája" (Legend of Hany Istók)
^Davis, K. (1947). Final Note on a Case of Extreme Isolation. American Journal of Sociology, 52(5), 432–437. Retrieved January 19, 2021, from
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abcCurtiss, Susan. (1977). Genie : a psycholinguistic study of a modern-day "wild child". New York: Academic Press.
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^Rymer, Russ. (1993). Genie : an abused child's flight from silence (1st ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
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^Curtiss, Susan; Fromkin, Victoria; Krashen, Stephen D. (1978). "Language Development in the Mature (minor) Right Hemisphere". ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 39–40: 23–37.
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^Suzuki, Kotaro; Vauclair, Jacques (2016). De quelques mythes en psychologie : Enfants-loups, singes parlants et jumeaux fantômes (in French). Le Seuil.
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Bibliography
For the first opportune critical approach based on archives :
Aroles, Serge (2007). L'Enigme des enfants-loups [The Enigma of wolf-children] (in French). Editions Publibook.
ISBN978-2-7483-3909-3.