Over 150 years ago, Sir Francis Galton coined the phrase "nature versus nurture". At that time, the scientist investigated what has more influence on psychological development person - whether his heredity or the environment in which he is. 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" means young man who was 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. In such 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 was for 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 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 some effective means and methods simply did not exist. 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 African green 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 handed over to Molly and Paul Vaswa, in 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. different time. The girls were discovered after mystical stories spread throughout the village about the figures of two ghostly spirits, which 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 widely famous history 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 mental development prevented Victor from leading 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 behind 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. Another time her father tied her in sleeping bag and laid it like that on the bed. 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 got to 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 job. It is said that Peter was able to live to a ripe old age.

The photo project, dedicated to the modern Mowgli - children who grew up among animals - has become one of the most high-profile and stunning projects created by London-based German-born photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten. These staged photographs reveal the terrible problems of modern society, in which, unfortunately, there is still a place for such anti-social phenomena as child homelessness.

The photo project is based on real stories children who were once lost, stolen or simply abandoned by their parents to their fate.

1. Lobo, the wolf girl, Mexico, 1845-1852

In 1845, this girl was seen running on all fours with a pack of wolves attacking a herd of goats. A year later, she was seen eating a goat along with the wolves. The girl was caught, but she escaped. In 1852, she was again seen - this time sucking a she-wolf, but she again managed to escape into the forest from people trying to catch her. She was never seen again.

2. Oksana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991

Oksana was found living with dogs. She was 8 years old, and from the age of 6 she lived with animals. The girl's parents were alcoholics and one day they simply forgot her on the street. A three-year-old girl, in search of warmth, made her way into the corral with animals, where she fell asleep among mongrel dogs, which then saved her life. When the girl was found, she behaved more like a dog than a human child. She ran on all fours, sticking out her tongue, grinning and barking. Of all human words, she understood only "yes" and "no." Intensive therapy helped Oksana regain social and verbal skills, but only at the level of a five-year-old child. Now she lives in a clinic in Odessa and takes care of the animals on the farm at the institution.

3. Shamdeo, India, 1972

This four-year-old boy was found playing with wolf cubs in the forests of India. He had dark skin, pointed teeth, long hooked nails, matted hair and calluses on the palms, elbows and knees. He liked to hunt chickens, he could eat earth, had a craving for blood, and wandered around with stray dogs. He managed to wean him from eating raw meat, but he never spoke, just learning to understand sign language a little. In 1978, he was given to Mother Teresa's Hospice for the Poor and the Dying in Lucknow, where he received a new name - Pascal. He died in February 1985.

4. Rights (bird boy), Russia, 2008

Rights, 7-year-old boy found in his 31-year-old mother's two-room apartment. The kid was locked in a room full of birdhouses with dozens of ornamental birds, among food and droppings. The mother treated her son like one of her pets. She never physically hurt him, never beat him, never left him hungry, but she never spoke to him like a person. The boy communicated only with birds. He couldn't speak, but he could chirp. When they did not understand him, he began to wave his arms like a bird with wings.

Prava was transferred to a psychological assistance center, where he is undergoing rehabilitation.

5. Marina Chapman, Columbia, 1959

Marina was abducted in 1954 from a remote village in South America at the age of 5 and abandoned by her captors in the jungle. She lived with a family of small capuchin monkeys for five years before being accidentally discovered by hunters. The girl ate berries, roots and bananas that the monkeys dropped; she slept in the hollows of trees and moved on all fours. One day the girl got food poisoning. The old monkey led her to a pool of water and forced her to drink until she vomited, after which the girl became better. Marina made friends with little monkeys, thanks to which she learned to climb trees and recognize what is safe to eat.

The girl had completely lost the ability to speak by the time she was found by the hunters. Unfortunately, even after that, she had a hard time, as the hunters sold her to a brothel, from where she escaped, after which she wandered the streets for a long time. Then she fell into slavery to a family that traded in dark deeds, and stayed there until a neighbor rescued her, who sent her to live with his daughter and son-in-law in Bogotá. The new family adopted the girl, and she began to live with their five own children. When Marina came of age, she was offered the function of housekeeper and nanny for a family of relatives. In 1977, together with his new family Marina moved to Bradford (UK), where she lives today. She got married and had children.

Together with her youngest daughter, Marina wrote a book about her difficult childhood spent in the wild forest, and about everything that she had to endure afterwards. The book is called The Girl with No Name.

6. Madina, Russia, 2013

Madina lived with dogs from birth until she was 3 years old. She ate with the dogs, played with them and slept with them during the cold season. When she was found by social workers in 2013, she was on all fours, completely naked, and snarling like a dog. Madina's father left the family shortly after her birth. Her 23-year-old mother began to abuse alcohol. She was always too drunk to take care of the child and often disappeared from the house. Also, often the mother drank and feasted with drinking companions, while her young daughter gnawed bones on the floor, along with the dogs.

When her mother was angry with her, the girl ran out into the street, into neighboring yards, but none of the children played with her, because she could not talk and only growled and fought with everyone. Over time, dogs became the girl's best and only friends.

According to doctors, despite all this, the girls are physically and mentally healthy. There are fairly high chances that she will be able to lead a normal life after she learns to speak and acquires the human skills necessary for her age.

7. Jenny, USA, 1970

When Jenny was a child, her father decided that she was mentally retarded, so he constantly kept her in a children's potty chair in one of the small rooms of the house. The girl spent more than 10 years in this "solitary cell". She even had to sleep in this chair. Jenny was 13 years old when her mother came with her to social services and social workers noticed oddities in the girl's behavior. She was still not accustomed to a regular toilet and had a rather strange gait. She also could not speak or make any articulate sounds. The girl kept spitting and scratching herself.

For quite some time, Jenny has been the subject of research. Specialists taught her, and she even learned a few words, but was not able to assemble them into a single grammatical structure. Over time, the girl learned to read short texts and acquired minimal social behavior skills. She had a chance to live with her mother for a while, and then she lived in different foster families, where, unfortunately, she went through humiliation, harassment and violence.

After everything she had endured, the girl was returned to the children's hospital, where the doctors stated a clear regression in her development - she again returned to her previous silent state. In 1974, funding for Jenny's treatment and research stopped, and for quite a long time nothing was known about her or her whereabouts. Much later, a private detective managed to find her in one of the medical facilities for mentally retarded adults.

8. Leopard Boy, India, 1912

This two-year-old boy was dragged into the jungle by a female leopard. Three years later, a hunter killed her and found three cubs in the lair, one of which was a five-year-old boy. The child was returned to the Indian family in the remote abandoned village from which he had been abducted. When the boy was first caught, he could run on all fours as quickly and dexterously as an ordinary adult can run on his own two feet. The boy's knees were covered with coarse calluses, his fingers were bent almost at a right angle (for more comfortable climbing trees). He bit, growled and fought with anyone who tried to approach him.

Subsequently, the boy managed to accustom to human behavior, and he even began to walk upright. Unfortunately, a short time later, he became almost completely blind due to cataracts. The disease was hereditary in his family and had nothing to do with his "adventures" in the jungle.

9. Sujit Kumar (Chicken Boy), Fiji, 1978

The parents locked the boy in the chicken coop for the dysfunctional behavior he exhibited as a child. Kumar's mother committed suicide and his father was killed. His grandfather took responsibility for the child, but he also continued to keep the boy locked in the chicken coop. He was 8 years old when the neighbors saw him on the road, pecking at something in the dust and clucking. His fingers were twisted like chicken feet.

Social workers took the boy to a local nursing home, but there, due to aggressive behavior, he was tied to a bed and spent more than 20 years in this position. Now he is in his 30s and is cared for by Elizabeth Clayton, who once saved him from home.

10. Kamala and Amala, India, 1920

Kamala, aged 8, and Amala, 12, were found in 1920 in a wolf den. This is one of the most famous cases of "wild children". They were supposedly found by Reverend Joseph Singh, who was hiding in a tree above the cave where the girls were seen. As the wolves left the lair, the priest saw two figures emerging from the cave. The girls looked terrifying, moved on all fours and did not look like people at all.

The man managed to grab the girls while they were sleeping, curled up together. The girls tore off the clothes they put on, they scratched, fought, howled and ate nothing but raw meat. During their stay with the wolves, all their joints were deformed and the limbs looked more like paws. The girls showed no interest in interacting with people. But their sight, hearing and olfactory abilities were simply amazing!

Amala died a year after the girls began to live among people. Kamala learned to speak a few phrases and walk on two legs, but at the age of 17 she also died of kidney failure.

11. Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998

The boy was abused by his parents and ran away from home when he was only 4 years old. He was forced to wander the streets and beg. He befriended a pack of stray dogs and roamed the streets with them and shared his food with them. The dogs accepted the boy, began to treat him with respect, and, eventually, he even became something of their leader. For two years, Ivan lived with the dogs until he was discovered and sent to a shelter for homeless children.

The fact that the boy was among the animals for a relatively short time had a positive effect on his ability to recover and socialize. Today Ivan lives a normal life.

12. Marie Angelique Memmie Le Blanc (wild girl from Champagne), France, 1731

Apart from the childhood period, the history of this girl from the 18th century is surprisingly well documented. For 10 years of wandering, she alone walked thousands of kilometers through the forests of France, eating roots, plants, frogs and fish. Armed only with a club, she fought off wild animals, mainly wolves. When she was caught by humans (at the age of 19), the girl was completely dark-skinned, with matted hair and hard, twisted claws. When the girl got down on all fours to drink water from the river, she was constantly on alert and looked around, as if expecting a sudden attack. Mari did not know human speech and could only communicate with a growl or howl.

For many years she never touched cooked food, preferring to eat raw chicken and rabbits. Her fingers remained crooked and she used them to dig up roots or climb trees. In 1737, the Queen of Poland, the mother of the French queen, on her way to France, took Memmi with her on a hunt, where the girl showed herself still able to run like an animal - fast enough to catch and kill wild rabbits.

However, the recovery of the girl from the consequences of her ten-year stay in the wild was remarkable. She had several wealthy patrons and learned to read, write and speak French fluently. She died in Paris in 1775, at the age of 63.

13. John Ssebunya (monkey boy), Uganda, 1991

At the age of 3, the boy ran away from home after seeing his father kill his mother. The kid hid in the jungle and took root in a family of wild monkeys. In 1991, when he was 6 years old, hunters accidentally discovered the boy and sent him to an orphanage. When it was cleaned and washed of dirt there, it turned out that the body of the child was completely covered with coarse hair.

The boy's diet in the jungle consisted mainly of roots, leaves, sweet potatoes, nuts and bananas. He was also infected with dangerous intestinal worms, the length of which reached up to half a meter.

John was relatively easy to train and educate, learned to talk and even showed a talent for singing! Thanks to this, he subsequently even toured the UK with a male choir.

14. Victor (wild boy from Aveyron), France, 1797

Victor was first discovered at the end of the 18th century in the forests of St. Sernin-sur-Rance, in the south of France. He was caught by humans, but somehow managed to escape again. In January 1800, the boy was recaptured. He was about 12 years old, his body was completely scarred, and the child was unable to utter a word. It is believed that he spent about 7 years in the wild.

Testing the boy's ability to endure low temperatures, the French professor of biology sent Victor naked to walk the streets in the snow. Oddly enough, the boy was not depressed at all, and he felt surprisingly calm even in such conditions.

However, when trying to teach a guy to talk and behave as it should in society, all teachers failed. Perhaps the boy was able to hear and talk before he was in the wild, but after returning to civilization, he was never able to do so again. He died in one of the Paris research institutes at the age of 40.

"feral children" are the latest project of the photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten(Julia Fullerton-Batten), in which she offers a look at children who grew up under unusual circumstances.

The photographer rose to prominence with her 2005 series Teen Stories, when she explored a girl's transition into adulthood.

Fullerton-Batten said The Girl with No Name inspired her to look for other cases of feral children. So she collected several stories at once. Some of them got lost, others were kidnapped by wild animals, and many of these children were neglected.

Mowgli children

Lobo - a wolf girl from Mexico, 1845-1852

In 1845, a girl ran on all fours with a pack of wolves chasing a herd of goats. A year later, people saw her again when she ate a goat with the wolves. The girl was caught, but she ran away. In 1852, she was again seen nursing two wolf cubs. However, she ran away again, and since then the girl has not been seen again.

Oksana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991

Oksana was discovered in a kennel with dogs in 1991. She was 8 years old and she lived with dogs for 6 years. Her parents were alcoholics and one day they just left her on the street. In search of warmth, a 3-year-old girl climbed into a kennel, hiding from a mongrel.

When they found her, she looked more like a dog than a child. Oksana ran on all fours, breathed, sticking out her tongue, bared her teeth and barked. Due to the lack of human interaction, she only knew the words "yes" and "no".

With the help of intensive care, the girl was taught basic social conversational skills, but only at the level of 5 years. Oksana Malaya, now 30, lives in a clinic in Odessa and works with the hospital's pets under the guidance of her caregivers.

Shamdeo, India, 1972

Shamdeo, a 4-year-old boy, was discovered in a forest in India in 1972. He played with the cubs, his skin was very dark, he had sharpened teeth, long, hooked nails, matted hair and growths on his palms, elbows and knees. The boy loved to hunt chickens, he could eat the earth, and he wanted blood.

Shamdao was eventually weaned from eating raw meat, he never spoke, although he could communicate in sign language. In 1978, he was admitted to Mother Teresa's Home for the Poor and Dying in Lucknow, where he was named Pascal. He died in February 1985.

Rights - bird boy, Russia, 2008

Rights - A 7-year-old boy was found in a small two-room apartment where he lived with his 31-year-old mother. He was imprisoned in a room filled with bird cages, and the mother herself treated him like a pet. Although she fed the boy and did not beat him, she never spoke to him. Birds were his only source of communication. He could not speak, but only chirped and waved his arms like wings.

Prava was transferred to a psychological assistance center, where doctors are trying to rehabilitate him.

Marina Chapman - "Girl with no name", Columbia, 1959

Marina was kidnapped in 1954 at the age of 5 from a remote South African village and left in the jungle. Girl 5 years old lived with families of small capuchin monkeys until hunters find her. She ate berries, roots, bananas left by monkeys, slept in hollow trees and walked on all fours.

One day she got poisoned and the older monkey took her to the water, where she made her drink until she vomited and recovered.

The girl befriended young monkeys, who taught her how to climb trees and eat safe food.

When she was discovered, she completely lost the ability to speak. The girl was sold to a brothel, from where she escaped and lived on the street. She was then taken as a slave by a mafia family until Marina was rescued by a neighbor who sent her to Bogota to live with his daughter and son-in-law. When Marina reached adolescence, she was offered a job as a housekeeper and babysitter. She moved to the UK in 1977, where she still lives.

The girl is now married and has children. Together with the youngest daughter Vanessa James she wrote a book of her experiences, The Girl with No Name.

wild children

Madina, Mowgli girl, Russia, 2013

Madina from birth lived with dogs until she was 3 years old. She shared food, played and slept with them in the cold winter. When social workers discovered her in 2013, she was walking on all fours, naked and growling like a dog.

Madina's father left the family immediately after the birth of the girl. The mother, who was 23 years old, began to drink, did not care for her daughter and often disappeared. The mother invited alcoholic friends home, where she could eat at the table, while the daughter gnawed the bones with the dogs.

The girl ran to the playground when her mother became aggressive, but other children did not want to play with her, as she hardly spoke and fought. Dogs are her only friends.

Doctors came to the conclusion that Madina was mentally and physically healthy, despite all the trials that had befallen her. Veliki the chances that she will have a normal life when she learns to talk like children her age.

Gini, USA, 1970

When Jeanie was a child, her father thought she was "retarded" and tied her to a children's chair-toilet in a small room. There she spent 10 years and even slept on a chair. When the girl turned 13 in 1970, she and her mother contacted the social service.

The girl was not toilet trained and walked in a strange way to the side "like a rabbit". Gini did not speak or make any sounds, constantly spitting and scratching herself. She has been the subject of research for years. Gradually she learned to speak a few words, but could not arrange them grammatically. She also began to read simple texts and developed some form of social behavior.

For a while she began to live with her mother again, but then for several years she was in foster families where she experienced abuse. Jeanie returned to the children's hospital, where she regressed and became silent again.

Funding for Jeanie's research and treatment was discontinued in 1974. For a long time, her fate was not known until a private researcher found her in a private specialized institution for mentally retarded adults.

Leopard Boy, India, 1912

The boy was 2 years old when he taken by a female leopard in 1912. Three years later, a hunter killed her and found three cubs, including a 5-year-old boy. He was returned to his family in a small village in India.

When he was first found he was squatting and ran on all fours faster than many adults on two legs. His knees were covered with growths, and his toes were wrapped almost at right angles to the instep, the palms and pads of his big toes and hands were covered with dense and callused skin. He bit and fought with anyone who approached him, ate poultry raw. The boy could not speak, uttering only grunts and growls.

He later learned to talk and walk upright. Unfortunately, he became blind from cataracts. But this was not due to his stay in the jungle, but to the fact that the disease was hereditary.

Sujit Kumar - chicken boy, Fiji 1978

Sujit was characterized by dysfunctional behavior in childhood. Parents locked the boy in the chicken coop. His mother committed suicide and his father was killed. The grandfather began to raise the boy, but he still kept him in the chicken coop.

At the age of 8, Sujit was found in the middle of the road clucking and flapping his "wings".

He pecked at food and bent over in his chair as if perched on a perch and made clicking sounds with his tongue.

His fingers were twisted inwards. Social workers took him to a nursing home, but because he was violent, he was tied to a bed with sheets for 20 years. Now in his 30s, he is cared for by the woman Elizabeth Clayton, who rescued him from his home.

Kamala and Amala, India, 1920

This is one of the most famous cases of feral children. Kamala, 8 years old and Amala, 12 years old, found in 1920 in the lair of wolves. They were discovered by Reverend Joseph Singh, who was hiding in a tree above the cave where the girls were. When the wolves left the cave, he saw girls who ran on all fours and did not look like people.

When they were caught, they slept curled up, growled, tore their clothes, and ate only raw meat. Their tendons and ligaments in their arms and legs were deformed and shortened. They showed no interest in interacting with people. However, their hearing, sight and smell were exceptional.

Amala died on next year after the girls were caught. Kamala eventually learned to walk upright and began to speak a few words, but died in 1929 from kidney failure at the age of 17.

Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998

Ivan was abused by his family and ran away from home when he was only 4 years old. He lived on the street, begging, and in time made friends with a pack of wild dogs and shared food with them. The dogs began to trust him and eventually he became something of a leader to them.

Thus, he lived for about 2 years, but, in the end, he was found and placed in an orphanage. Ivan was helped by the fact that he retained his language skills through begging. That and the fact that he was feral a short time helped him recover faster. Now he living a normal life.

John Ssebunya (monkey boy), Uganda, 1991

John ran away from home in 1988 when he was 3 years old after witnessing his father kill his mother. He fled to the jungle, where lived with monkeys. He was discovered in 1991 and placed in an orphanage. When they washed him, they found that his entire body was covered with hair.

His diet consisted mainly of roots, nuts, sweet potatoes and cassava, and many intestinal worms were found to be up to half a meter in length. He had growths on his knees from walking like a monkey.

John learned to talk, he was found to have a good voice to sing, and he became famous by touring the UK and performing with the African Pearl children's choir.

Mowgli children in world history

Marie Angelique Memmie Leblanc (The Feral Girl of Champagne), France, 1731

Story Marie Angelique Memmie Leblanc(Marie Angelique Memmie Le Blanc), which took place in the 18th century, has been well documented. For 10 years the girl herself walked thousands of kilometers through the forests of France. She ate birds, frogs, fish, leaves, twigs and roots.

Armed with a club, she fought off wild animals, especially wolves.

When she was discovered at the age of 19, she had grown hair, her skin had turned dark, and her hands had claws. When she leaned over to drink water, she constantly looked around due to being in a state of constant alertness. She could not talk and communicated only through screams and squeals.

She skinned rabbits and birds and ate them raw. For many years, Memmi did not eat cooked food. Her thumb her arms were deformed as she used them to dig up roots and swing from one tree to another like a monkey.

In 1737, the Queen of Poland, the mother of the French Queen, took Memmi hunting with her, where she ran fast enough and killed rabbits.

Memmi's recovery after a decade in the wild was amazing. She had several wealthy patrons, she learned to read, write and speak French fluently. She became a nun for a time in 1747, but her patron died soon after. She fell ill and was left without a livelihood, but soon again found a patron. In 1755, Madame Hecquet published her biography. Memme died prosperous in Paris in 1775 at the age of 63.

Victor - a wild boy from Aveyron, France, 1797

This is a historical and well-documented case of a feral child that has been extensively researched to understand the origin of the language.

Victor seen late 18th century in the forest Saint Cerny-sur-Rance in southern France, he was captured but escaped.

However, on January 8, 1800, he was caught again. Victor was about 12 years old, his body was covered with scars, and he could not speak. When news of his capture spread, many wanted to study him. It is believed that he spent 7 years in the wild.

A biology professor tested Victor's resilience by sending him naked into the snow, and Victor held up well.

Others tried to teach him to talk and behave normally, but to no avail. Perhaps the boy was able to talk in early childhood, but was unable to regain these skills when he returned from the wild. As a result, he was taken to an institute in Paris, and he died at the age of 40.

Mowgli children

We all know the story of Mowgli. Little boy fell into a pack of wolves 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), an employee railway discovered a strange creature in a dead end carriage. 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 2 summer 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 that time, but how have they changed little son. 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 helpless crying baby 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.

Mowgli and Tarzan, being fairy tale characters, skillfully found mutual language both with animals and then with people, understood the laws of the animal and human world. There are many stories of human children growing up wild. But is the process of adaptation possible and are their stories so exciting and happy?

According to the documentation, there are about a hundred wild children in the world. They can be "adopted" by any animals, and they will adopt all the habits, they will eat what the "educators" do. However, most often children live with dogs or monkeys.

The story of how a bear brought up a boy in the Altai Territory was described either by a writer or a photographer. According to him, she looked after the boy, and before winter, realizing that she would fall into hibernation, she transferred him to China. And when, a few years later, the author of this story went again to those parts, on one of the rocks he saw no longer a boy, but an adult man. Only it was impossible to approach him - in front of him stood a wild beast.

This story is more like a fairy tale, which, after all, all such stories are like. Sometimes it is really difficult to distinguish where is the truth and where are the authors' inventions.

Among real stories, those when children become wild due to the negligence of their parents, and not because for some reason they ended up among animals, prevail.

"Wolves" Kamal and Amal

The most famous story of wild children is about the Indian girls Kamal and Amal. In India, in general, almost the most a large number of stories about these children. Perhaps because of the proximity to the jungle.

In 1920, in one of the villages, local residents noticed "strange ghosts" in the jungle. People began to hunt them and found that human children live with wolves. When they began to tear apart the lair, the she-wolf who defended it was killed. Together with the cubs, two girls, about two and eight years old, were found in the hole. Both girls were running on all fours, unable to speak. They were named Kamala and Amala. The youngest died a year later. The eldest lived another nine years, barely learning to stand up straight and utter a few words. When the youngest girl died, Kamala cried for the first time in her life. It was noticeable that both girls were unhappy in captivity.

Ukrainian dog girl

One of the loudest stories of our time. In 1992, a strange child was brought to the Odessa boarding school for children with developmental defects, who had to be kept in an isolation cell for a month.

The medical card indicated that she was an eight-year-old girl. True, as soon as someone approached the newcomer, she grinned and growled menacingly. The girl really was very similar to a dog: she moved on all fours, easily jumped on the table, bench, refused to sleep on the bed, barked and could bite painfully. The girl did not know how to cry, and when she was offended, she squealed plaintively.

The dog girl did not speak, although she perfectly understood human speech. Over time, in the boarding school, Oksana Malaya (that's the name of the girl) learned to behave like a human being. Until the age of 18, she learned to read and write a little, and also to count within 20. However, Oksana did not become a full-fledged one.

Mowgli from the Kaluga region

And in 2008 in Russia, residents of a village in the Kaluga region found a boy in the forest who looked about 10 years old. The boy was with wolves and completely copied their habits. When the doctors decided to catch the boy, they found him in a wolf den.

In fact, the guy turned out to be about 20 years old. From life in a wolf pack, his toenails turned almost into claws, his teeth resembled fangs, his behavior copied the habits of wolves in everything.

The young man could not speak, did not understand Russian and responded to "kis-kis-kis". Unfortunately, the specialists failed to bring the guy back to normal life, and just a day after he was locked up in the clinic, he ran away. His further fate is unknown.

Chita pupil of dogs

In 2009, in the city of Chita, Russia, a five-year-old girl Natasha was found, who spent most of her life among dogs, because her parents did not care for her at all. The girl had never been on the street, and her parents did not let anyone into the apartment where she lived. She lived in a three-room apartment with relatives and animals, did not speak, but understood human speech a little. The mother claimed that the girl was kidnapped by her father, and the father claimed that the mother was never interested in the child.

Both of the girl's parents were alcoholics. The girl moved like a dog, drank water from a bowl, and instead of speaking, gave out only barking, could throw herself at people. When they found her, they transferred her to a rehabilitation center.

Jeanie from California

In 1970, American police found a girl in one of the houses in California, who lived in complete isolation from the world for the first 12 years of her life. For the first six months of her life, Jeanie was regularly examined by a pediatrician. According to medical records, she was a normal child.

At the age of 14 months, Jeanie was diagnosed with "acute pneumonia", the doctor said that she was showing signs of "probable delay mental development". This assumption became a turning point in Gini's life: the girl's father isolated her in one of the rooms of his house from contact with her mother and older brother. He fed the girl only with baby formula in milk and communicated with her, mainly imitating dog barking and growling.

Every time she tried to speak, he beat her with a stick. At the age of 13, when Genie was admitted to the children's hospital, she couldn't run, couldn't fully straighten her arms and legs. The girl did not respond to the temperature environment, was not toilet trained, could not chew, did not control salivation. Gini never learned human speech, limiting herself to a few simple phrases. At the same time, the level of non-verbal intelligence has risen over time to a more than acceptable level.

Dog sisters

In 2011, Mowgli girls were found in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg - two sisters of six and four years old. They never ate hot food, did not know how to speak, and expressed gratitude, like dogs, trying to lick adults' hands. The girls' parents are experienced alcoholics.

Lviv "Mowgli"

Probably, many people remember the story of two brothers from Lvov, whom their parents isolated from the world and kept in complete unsanitary conditions. The brothers were 14 and 6 years old. They couldn't speak or walk. The youngest has never been outside. The children were unwashed long hair and in a dirty room that did not resemble an apartment. In such conditions, the elder brother lived for 12 years, the younger - all his life.

The boys' mother did not go outside either. She didn't let anyone into her house either. The woman suffered from a mental illness, but the father was completely healthy. According to the doctors, the youngest boy has changed somewhat, being among people - he smiles and learned to eat properly. It is more difficult for the older brother - because of atrophied feet, he cannot walk, he is more withdrawn and silent.

As a rule, children run wild from the lack of attention of their parents, or from the influence of adults with mental disorders on them. However, how parents manage to completely isolate their own children from the world and turn them into savages in the conditions of civilization is unknown.

Psychologists who study the Mowgli syndrome say that a wild child can be taught to imitate human behavior, but only through training. True, if a child was returned to people before the onset of the "teenage threshold" of 12-13 years, he can still be adapted to society, but mental deviations will remain with him until the end of his life.

For example, if a child enters the animal community before he has formed the skill of upright walking, then movement on all fours will become the only possible way for life - it will be impossible to retrain.

Those who lived among animals for the first 3-6 years of their lives practically cannot master human speech, walk straight, communicate meaningfully with other people, despite the years spent later in human society. If children had some social behavior skills before isolation from society, the process of their rehabilitation is much easier.