Feral child

A feral child (feral, - wild or undomesticated) is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) 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. Just over a hundred incidences have been reported in English, though more incidences may have been unreported. These cases are considered interesting from a psychological and a sociological perspective. When completely brought up by animals the feral child exhibits behaviors (within physical limits) almost entirely like those of the particular care-animal, such as its variety of instincts, fear of or indifference to humans, etc.

Children with some human experience before isolation are more easily rehabilitated after discovery. Children who learn an alternative, animal culture, especially during the first 5 or 6 years of life, find it almost impossible to learn human language, to walk or engage meaningfully with other humans - even after intensive and loving care for years - see Amala and Kamala.

Origins and effects
Feral children are those who have been separated from society by being lost or abandoned in the wild. The category also includes children who have been purposely kept apart from human society, e.g. kept in a room in solitary confinement. Sometimes abandonment is due to the parents' rejection of a child's severe intellectual or physical impairment, and feral children may experience severe child abuse or trauma before being abandoned or running away.

Myths, legends, and fictional stories have depicted feral children reared by wild animals such as wolves and bears. Famous examples include Ibn Tufail's Hayy, Ibn al-Nafis' Kamil, Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli, Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan and his son Korak, and the legends of Enkidu and Romulus and Remus.

Legendary and fictional feral 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. In reality, feral children lack the basic social skills which 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 and 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. 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.

Feral children in mythology and fiction are often depicted as having superior strength, intelligence and morals compared to "normal" humans, the implication being that because of their upbringing they represent humanity in a pure and uncorrupted state.

It is essentially impossible to convert a child who became isolated at a very young age into a relatively normal member of society and such individuals need close care throughout their lives. When they are "discovered", feral children tend to become the subject of lively scientific and media interest. Once the excitement dies down and their limitations in terms of learning culture and social behaviour become obvious, frustration can set in and they often spend the rest of their lives being passed from one caregiver to another. It is common for them to die young, though their potential lifespan if they had been left in the wild is difficult to know.

There is little scientific knowledge about feral children. One very useful source is the detailed diaries of Reverend Singh who, in 1920, discovered Amala and Kamala in a forest in India, two girls who appeared to have been brought up from birth by wolves. They were taken to an orphanage and the struggle to 'humanise the animals' began. Amala, who was one and a half years old when found, died a year later of a kidney infection, and Kamala, who was eight, survived until 1929 before dying of typhoid fever- only in her latter years beginning to speak a few words, stand up, and relate to other humans.

Other sources claim that Amala and Kamala were born mentally and physically disabled. The parents who did not wish to care for them, or lacked the resources to do so, left the two girls in the forest where Reverend Singh discovered them while hunting. Even after claiming them as his own, he still sent them to the orphanage to act as wolves for locals in order to raise money for the orphanage in its financial need.

Ancient reports
Herodotus, the historian, wrote that Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus I (Psamtik) sought to discover the origin of language 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 one of the children cried "becos" (a sound quite similar to the bleating of sheep) with outstretched arms the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of Phrygian word for bread. Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians.



Legend has it that Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Rhea Silvia and Mars, were raised by wolves. Rhea Silvia was a priestess, and when it was found that she had been pregnant and had had children, the local King Amulius 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 figure prominently in the events leading up to the founding of Rome (named after Romulus, who eventually kills Remus to have the city founded on the Palatine Hill rather than the Aventine Hill).

Documented cases
Of the approximately 100 cases often cited, few have been confirmed or well studied, many lack detail, and many may have been exaggerated and embellished. Here is a limited list:
 * Hessian wolf-children (1341-1344).
 * The Bamberg boy, who grew up among cattle (late 1500s).
 * Hans of Liege; the Irish boy brought up by sheep, reported by Nicolaes Tulp in his book Observationes Medicae (1672).
 * The three Lithuanian bear-boys (1657, 1669, 1694).
 * The girl of Oranienburg (1717).
 * The two Pyrenean boys (1719).
 * Peter the Wild Boy of Hamelin (1724).
 * The Wild Girl of Champagne (1731).
 * The Hungarian bear-girl (1767).
 * The wild man of Kronstadt (ca 1780).
 * Victor of Aveyron (1797), portrayed in the 1969 movie by François Truffaut The Wild Child (L'Enfant sauvage).
 * Kaspar Hauser (early 1800s), portrayed in the 1974 film by Werner Herzog The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle).
 * Amala and Kamala, girls raised by wolves, found in 1920 near Midnapore, Calcutta region, India.
 * Ramu, Lucknow, India, (1954), snatched by a wolf as a baby, raised until the age of 7.
 * Syrian Gazelle-boy A boy aged around 10 was found in the midst of a herd of gazelles in the Syrian desert in the 1950's, and was only caught with the help of an Iraqi army jeep, because he could run at speeds of up to 50 km/h. Possibly a hoax.
 * Saharan Gazelle Boy (1960), gazelle boy of Rio de Oro (the Spanish Sahara), written about by Jean-Claude Armen.
 * Genie, Los Angeles, California, discovered 1970.
 * Robert (1982) Robert lost his parents in the Ugandan civil war at the age of three, when Obote's looting and murdering soldiers raided their village, around 50 mi from Kampala. Robert then lived in the wild, presumably with Vervet monkeys, for three years until he was found by soldiers.
 * James Goodfellow (1983) - was found in Brazil, had been raised by wild wolves. He proceeded to be the alpha male within the pack.  He ran on all fours and howled in the night.  He was seen cleaning himself with his tongue and hands, very common among feral children.
 * Baby Hospital (1984) This 7-year-old girl found by an Italian missionary in Sierra Leone. She was seemingly brought up by apes or monkeys. Baby Hospital was unable to stand upright and crawled instead of walking, and ate directly from her bowl without using her hands. She made the chattering noises of apes or monkeys. Baby Hospital's arms and hands were reported to be well developed, but not her leg muscles. She resisted attempts to civilise her, instead spending much of her time in an activity that is very unusual for feral children: crying.
 * Saturday Mthiyane (Saturday Mifune) (1987) a boy of around 5 in the company of monkeys over a period of a year, in the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa.
 * Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, (1990s) raised with dogs until the age of 9.
 * Daniel, Andes Goat Boy (1990) found in Peru, and was said to have been raised by goats for eight years.
 * John Ssebunya, Uganda, (1991) raised by monkeys for several years in the Ugandan jungle.
 * Belo, the Nigerian Chimp Boy (1996) about 2 years of age, raised by chimpanzees for 1 1/2 years.
 * Ivan Mishukov (1998) found near Moscow, raised by dogs for two years, and had risen to being "alpha male" of the pack.
 * Edik, Ukraine, (1999) Edik was found by social workers apparently living with stray dogs in an apartment.
 * Alex the Dog Boy (2001) found in Talcahuano, Chile.
 * Traian Căldărar, Romania, (2002) lived 3 years of his childhood with wild dogs in the Romanian wilderness.
 * Andrei Tolstyk (2004) of Bespalovskoya, near Lake Baikal, Russia, abandoned by parents, to be raised by a guard dog.
 * Viktoria, Katharina and Elisabeth in Linz, Austria (discovered October 2006). Aged 14, 18 and 21. Mother kept them in a dark cellar for 7 years. The girls played with mice and developed their own language.
 * Cambodian "jungle girl", Cambodia, (2007), alleged to be Rochom P'ngieng, who lived 19 years in the Cambodian jungle. Other sources questioned these claims.
 * Name Unknown, Uzbekistan, (2007) found after eight years.
 * Amy G, Bulgaria (2007). Amy G was found in a mountain area in Bulgaria called Bansko where she had been raised by stray dogs. She was unable to communicate and appears to have lived on wild berries and rats.
 * Lyokha, Russia (December 2007). Lyokha was found in the Kaluga region of Central Russia; he had been living with a pack of Wolves, had typical wolflike behavior and instincts. He was unable to speak any human language.  Taken to a Moscow hospital, he received some medical treatment, a shower and nailtrim and several meals before escaping from the hospital.  He is believed to still be in the wild.
 * Lyokha, Russia (December 2007). Lyokha was found in the Kaluga region of Central Russia; he had been living with a pack of Wolves, had typical wolflike behavior and instincts. He was unable to speak any human language.  Taken to a Moscow hospital, he received some medical treatment, a shower and nailtrim and several meals before escaping from the hospital.  He is believed to still be in the wild.