|
A feral child is a human child who has lived away
from human contact from a very young age, and has little or no
experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of
human language. Feral children are confined by humans (often parents),
brought up by animals, or live in the wild in isolation. There have been
over one hundred reported cases of feral children, and this is a
selection of ten of them.
|
|
Wild Peter
The first really famous feral child was Wild Peter, “a naked, brownish,
black-haired creature” captured near Helpensen in Hanover in 1724, when
he was about 12. He climbed trees with ease, lived off plants and seemed
incapable of speech. He refused bread, preferring to strip the bark from
green twigs and suck on the sap; but he eventually learnt to eat fruit
and vegetables. He was presented at court in Hanover to George I, and
taken to England, where he was studied by leading men of letters. He
spent 68 years in society, but never learnt to say anything except
“Peter” and “King George”, although his hearing and sense of smell were
said to be “particularly acute”. |
|
 |
|
The Wild Girl of Champagne
The wild girl of Champagne had probably learned to speak before her
abandonment, for she is a rare example of a wild child learning to talk
coherently. Her diet consisted of birds, frogs and fish, leaves,
branches and roots. Given a rabbit, she immediately skinned and devoured
it. “Her fingers and in particular her thumbs, were extraordinarily
large,” according to a contemporary witness, the famous scientist
Charles Marie de la Condamine. She is said to have used her thumbs to
dig out roots and swing from tree to tree like a monkey. She was a very
fast runner and had phenomenally sharp eyesight. When the Queen of
Poland, the mother of the French queen, passed through Champagne in 1737
to take possession of the Duchy of Lorraine, she heard about the girl
and took her hunting, where she outran and killed rabbits. |
|
|
|
Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja
By definition, a “feral child” must have its roots in tragedy, and
Marcos Pantoja, his youth spent alone in the Spanish wilderness, is no
exception. Sold by his family to an ailing goatherder at seven years
old, Marcos cared for the old man’s animals in isolation. Following the
goatherder’s sudden death, the boy lived without any human contact for
twelve long years, the mountain’s fauna his only companions, teachers,
and family. At age nineteen he was rescued by Spain’s Guardia Civil and
returned to civilization, where he’s since lived in relative peace. |
|
|
|
Vanya Yudin
One of the more recent cases of a feral child is Vanya Yudin (referred
to by news agencies as ‘the Russian Bird Boy’). It is said that when he
was found by Russian caseworkers in 2008, he was 7 years old and unable
to speak. He did nothing but chirp and flap his arms as if he had wings,
and exhibited a lot of the behavior that you would expect from a bird.
He was kept in a two-room apartment with bird cages filled with dozens
of birds that were owned by his mother. Galina Volskaya, one of the
social workers taking part in the case stated that even though the boy
lived with his mother, she never spoke to him and she simply treated him
like another one of her pets. When Volskaya attempted to talk to the
boy, he didn’t speak, just chirped.
While he was never abused physically, the boy was still treated with
similar methods to others on the list due to the lack of human
interaction. He was put into an asylum where he received treatment to
allow him to become more human-like. After, he was sent to a center for
psychological care to further his journey to becoming more socially
aware and accepted.
She was of course put through intensive therapy to attempt to help her
to learn necessary social and verbal skills. She was able to learn how
to speak, though therapists say she has deep issues with attempting to
communicate and express herself emotionally. Today she lives at the
Baraboy Clinic in Odessa and spends a lot of her time tending to the
cows at the hospital’s farm, though she has expressed that she really
feels best when she is around dogs. |
|
 |
|
Oxana Malaya
In 1991, Oxana Malaya, who lives in Ukraine, was found and considered to
be a feral child. At the time she was found, she was only 8 years old
and is said to have lived amongst dogs since she was 3 years old. She
was kept in a kennel in the backyard of her home. Because of this she
picked up common behaviors that dogs exhibit: barking, growling, and
even protecting the pack, so to speak. She even walked on four legs as a
dog does and sniffed out her food before she ate it. When authorities
came to rescue Oxana, the other dogs growled and attempted to attack
them while Oxana barked and growled as well. Because of her lack of
human interaction, Oxana had no vocabulary except the words “yes” and
“no.”
|
|
 |
|
Ugandan monkey boy
It is said that John Ssebunya, also known as ‘The Ugandan Monkey Boy,’
ran away from home when he was three years old after witnessing his
father murder his mother. He fled to the Ugandan jungles where he was
said to be taken care of by green African monkeys. In 1991 he was found
hiding in a tree by a woman named Millie who was a local tribeswoman.
After spotting him she went back to her village to alert the men who
then went into the jungle to capture John. While they were eventually
successful, John and the monkeys, which had become his protectors,
fought back, throwing sticks to defend him. In the end he was captured
and taken back the village.
Once back in the village he was cleaned up but his entire body was
covered in hair called hypertrichosis, a condition that brings about
excessive amounts of hair in places that there usually isn’t hair. Also
since he was living in the wild he had contracted a case of intestinal
worms that were said to be over half a meter long once they exited his
body. He was full of injuries- mainly his knees from imitating how a
monkey walks. He was then given to Paul and Molly Wasswa who ran an
orphanage, and the two taught him how to speak, though many believe he
knew how to talk before running away. Today he sings with the Pearl of
Africa children’s choir and exhibits little to no animalistic behavior.
|
|
 |