We all know the story of Mowgli. A little boy got into a wolf pack and was fed by a she-wolf. He lived among the animals and became just like them. However, such a plot is not only found in fairy tales. AT 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 small child who frolic 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 heroes. 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 after 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.

All of us in childhood watched a cartoon about a little boy Mowgli, who was raised by a pack of wolves. And then it seemed to all of us that this was just a fictional story and this does not happen in life.

But, unfortunately, this is not the case. There are several shocking facts that prove that modern Mowgli can exist in real life. The following 12 facts may just shock you! Do not miss!

1. Madina, Russia, 2013

Another shocking fact is the story of a girl that will amaze you even more! It is known that until the age of 3, the real modern Mugli Madina lived only with dogs, ate the food they got, slept and basked on them when she was cold. The girl's mother was drunk for most of the day, and her father left the family before she was born. Eyewitnesses say that while my mother had alcoholic guests, Madina ran with dogs on all fours on the floor and pulled bones. If Madina ran out to the playground, she didn’t play, but simply attacked the children, because she didn’t know how to communicate in any other way. At the same time, doctors give an optimistic forecast for the future of the girl, assuring that she only needs adaptation and training.

2. Oksana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991

Oksana Malaya from Ukraine also got into the list of shocking facts about modern Mowgli. This girl was found in a dog kennel at the age of 8, of which exactly 6 she lived with four-legged. It is known that alcoholic parents threw Oksana out of the house, and the search for warmth and the desire to survive brought her to the doghouse. When the girl was found, she behaved more like a dog than a child - running around on all fours with her tongue hanging out, barking and baring her teeth. Intensive therapy helped Oksana learn minimal social skills, but development stopped at the level of a 5-year-old child. Now Oksana Malaya is already 32 years old, she lives in Odessa on a farm under careful supervision and care.

3. Bird boy from Russia, 2008

The story of the modern Mowgli Van Yudin from Volgograd has recently stirred up all the media. It turned out that a boy under 7 years old was locked by his mother in a room, the only furniture in which were cages with birds! And, despite the fact that Vanya was not subjected to violence, and his mother fed him regularly, he was deprived of the most important thing - communication! The boy filled this gap with the help of his roommates ... And as a result, Vanya did not learn to speak, but only chirped like a bird and flapped his wings. Now the bird boy is in the center of psychological rehabilitation.

4. Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998

Even at the age of 4, having endured domestic violence, Vanya ran away from home. In order to survive, the boy was forced to wander and beg. Soon a pack of dogs adopted him as one of their own. Vanya ate, slept and played with them. And even more - the dogs "appointed" the boy as their leader! For almost two years, Vanya lived a homeless life with four-legged animals until he got to a shelter. Today, this modern Mowgli has completely gone through social adaptation and lives a full life.

5. Janie, USA, 1970

Among the shocking facts about modern Mowgli, there is another story about the girl Janie. She was unlucky right after birth. Her father decided that she was lagging behind in development and isolated from society. Janie spent most of her childhood alone, sitting on a potty chair in a small room at home. She even slept in this chair! At the age of 13, the girl ended up with her mother in a social service, where workers suspected oddities in her behavior. And no wonder, because Janie could not utter a single articulate sound, and she was constantly scratching herself and spitting. This case turned out to be tempting for many specialists. Janie immediately became an object for research and experimentation. After some time, she learned a few words, although it was not possible to collect them into sentences. The biggest achievements were the reading of short texts and minimal social skills. After a little adaptation, Janie lived a little more with her mother and in other foster families where she went through humiliation and even violence! After the financing of doctors stopped, the development of the girl again went into regression and complete silence. For a while, her name was completely forgotten, until a private detective discovered that she was living in an institution for mentally retarded adults.

6. Sujit Kumar or chicken boy, Fiji, 1978

This baby for bad behavior parents locked him in a chicken coop as a punishment. This is a truly shocking fact. Well, after the mother shortened her life, and her father was killed, her own grandfather took up the upbringing. However, his methods also cannot be called innovative, because instead of taking care of his grandson, he preferred to close him with chickens and roosters. Sujit was rescued from the chicken coop at the age of 8. It is known that the boy could only cackle and clap. He pecked food, and slept like a bird - sitting and tucking his leg. Nursing home workers took him for some time for rehabilitation, but there the boy behaved very aggressively, for which he was tied to the bed with a sheet for more than 20 years! Now an adult man is cared for by Elizabeth Clayton, who discovered him as a child in a chicken coop.

7. Kamala and Amala, India, 1920

Another shocking fact - 8-year-old Amala and one and a half year old Kamala were discovered in the wolf den by pastor Joseph Singh in 1920. He was able to take the girls only when the wolves left the dwelling. But his act did not turn out to be a success. The captured girls were not ready for life with people, the joints of their arms and legs were deformed from life on all fours, and they preferred to eat only fresh food! But surprisingly, their hearing, sight and smell were absolute! It is known that Amala died a year after they were found, and Kamala even learned to walk upright and speak a few words, but at the age of 17 she died of kidney failure. Here is such a sad story about two modern Mowglis.

8. John Ssebunya or monkey boy, Uganda, 1991

Seeing how his own father kills his mother, three-year-old John Ssebunya ran away from home. He found his shelter in the jungle along with the monkeys. It was from these animals that he learned the techniques of survival. The basis of his diet was roots, sweet potatoes, nuts and cassava. After people found the boy, he was treated for worms and calluses on his knees for a long time. But, in addition to the fact that John quickly learned to speak, they discovered another talent in him - a wonderful voice! Now the monkey boy is a real celebrity, and he can often be seen on tour even in the UK as part of the Pearls of Africa children's choir!

9. Marina Chapman, Columbia, 1959

At the age of 5, Marina was kidnapped from her native village in South America and abandoned by the kidnappers in the jungle. All this time, the Mowgli girl lived among the capuchin monkeys until she was found by the hunters. She ate everything that animals got - roots, berries, bananas. She slept in the hollows of trees, walked on all fours and did not know how to speak at all. But after the rescue, the girl's life did not get better - she was sold to a brothel, and then turned out to be a servant in a mafia family, from where her neighbor saved her. Even though he had five children of his own, kind person adopted a girl, and upon reaching the age of majority in 1977 helped Marina get a job as a housekeeper in the UK. It was there that the girl decided to arrange her life, got married and even gave birth to children. Well, with her youngest daughter Vanessa, Marina also wrote an autobiographical book "The Girl with No Name"! Here is such an incredible and shocking fact!

10. Wild woman from Champagne, France, 1731

Marie Angelique Mammy Le Blanc, despite her age, is known and documented! It is known that for more than 10 years, Marie wandered through the forests of France alone. Armed with a club, the girl herself defended herself from wild animals, ate fish, birds and frogs. When Marie was caught at the age of 19, her skin was already completely dark, her hair was one tangled tow, and her fingers were twisted. The girl was always ready for an attack, looked around her and even drank water on all fours from the river. She did not know human speech and communicated with the help of howls and growls. It is known that she could not get used to ready-made food either, preferring to get and eat raw animals on her own! In 1737, rather for fun hunting, the girl was taken in by the Queen of Poland. Since that time, rehabilitation among people has borne the first fruits - the girl learned to speak, read, and even attracted her first admirers. The Savage from Champagne lived to the age of 63, and died in 1775 in Paris.

11. Leopard Boy, India, 1912

Even at the age of 2 years, this baby was dragged into the thicket of the forest by a female leopard. After 3 years, the hunter, having killed the predator, found her cubs and a five-year-old boy in the lair! Then the baby was returned to native family. It is known that for a long time the boy ran on all fours, biting and growling. And out of habit, he bent his fingers at a right angle, for convenient climbing on trees. And despite the fact that the adaptation returned him to his "human" appearance, the leopard boy did not live long, dying from an eye disease (this was not connected with his childhood adventures!)

12. Wolf girl, Mexico, 1845/1852

And this girl is a real modern Mowgli, brought up by wolves, and did not allow herself to be tamed! It is known that several times she was seen standing on all fours, in a pack of wolves attacking goats and sucking milk from a she-wolf.

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

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MUNICIPAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

"BASIC EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL №78"

Zavodskoy district of the city of Saratov

Research work

CHILDREN OF "MOWGLI"

Yulia Nikishina,

Shkunova Anna,

Vanzina Elena

students of 8 "B" class

Supervisor:

Emelyanova Valentina Nikolaevna,

biology teacher - chemistry

MOU "OOSH No. 78",

highest qualification category

Saratov

year 2013

1. Introduction_______________________________________________3

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

3. "Children of Mowgli" among us____________________________5

4. Signs of "Mowgli's syndrome" _______________________7

5. Is the process of human recovery possible?_________8

6. Conclusion _____________________________________________ 11

7. List of used literature _____________________12

8. Appendices__________________________________________13

Introduction:

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

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

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

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

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

Tasks:

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

Who are they - "children of Mowgli"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(slide number 5)

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

"Children of Mowgli" among us.

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

(slide number 7)

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

(slide number 8)

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

(slide number 9)

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

(slide number 10)

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

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

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

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

Many other examples are known:

Volgograd bird boy.

Ufa dog girl.

Vyazemsky girl-Mowgli.

Dog girl from Chita and many others.

(slide number 11)

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

(slide number 12)

Signs of "Mowgli's syndrome".

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

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

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

Is the process of human recovery possible?

(slide number 13)

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

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

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

(slide number 14)

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

(slide number 15)

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

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

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

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

(slide number 16)

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

Long since in legends and tales different peoples there were stories about how animals raised human children. For a long time this was considered a fiction, until such poor fellows began to be found in the forests. “Children of Mowgli”, raised by animals, were studied back in the Middle Ages, but only psychiatrists of the 20th century could really explain their behavior and justify the impossibility of returning to the human environment.

The concept of "feral man"

If we consider the concept of “feral people” from the position of psychologists and sociologists, then we can find out that these are individuals who were brought up outside of human society. Translated from Latin, feralis means "dead, buried." People deprived of the opportunity to communicate with others like themselves were considered lost to society.

In the English version, the word feral means "forest", "wild", "uncivilized". The term was first used by Carl Linnaeus, an 18th-century Swedish scientist. He singled out for people who grew up among animals their step in the evolutionary ladder and gave them a scientific definition of Homo ferns.

In modern sociology, they are given the name “feral people”, and the first representative of this science to study their phenomenon was the American scientist Davis Kingsley. He began working on this issue in 1940.

Children became pupils of animals different ages. There are cases when a pack of wolves, dogs or birds became “parents” for babies, and there are examples that they accepted, nursed and fed children 3-6 years old.

feral animals

At all times and among different peoples of the world, there were myths about children raised by animals. As scientists explain this phenomenon, animals are excellent "educators" of human cubs, and not only in their natural environment.

Today, one can often observe how pets take part in the lives of babies: they lull them, protect them, protect them, do not let them fall or harm themselves in some way. The same instincts are characteristic of wild animals, especially those living in a pack. This is due to the fact that the animal community has its own hierarchy, ways of communicating between its members and raising young animals.

Stories of antiquity about feral children

The most famous feral children of antiquity are Remus and Romulus, fed by a she-wolf. As you know, many legends are based on historical facts, here is the story of two brothers who lost their mother, can also be true.

The boys were lucky that the shepherd found them, and they did not have time to run wild. In memory of their “adoptive mother,” Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the very hill where they had spent their early years with a pack of wolves.

Unfortunately, such stories rarely end so romantically, because feral people - children raised by animals - have serious mental disorders and are not able to become full-fledged members of human society.

Wild "foundlings" of past centuries

Most often, wolves became the adoptive “parents” of children. This is due to the high level of parental instinct natural for these animals and the fact that they unite in packs in which there are long-term relationships between its members.

The first documented evidence that a pack of wolves nursed children was the Chronicle of the English city of Suffolk for 1173. Unsuccessful attempts to return a wild child to human life were recorded in 1341 in Hesse. The hunters found the boy in the wolf's lair. When he was taken out of the hole, he behaved like an animal: he bit, scratched, squealed and growled. Thanks to the surviving records, it became known that he died, unable to withstand captivity and feeding on human food.

No one at that time studied such phenomena, experts simply tried to return the human form to the captured children, which most often ended in failure.

Children-"bears"

There are frequent cases when feral people (examples from history are direct proof of this) were brought up by bears. So, in 1767 in Hungary, hunters discovered a girl with blonde hair eighteen years old. She was distinguished by excellent health, had a strong tanned body and behaved very aggressively. Even after being placed in an orphanage, she refused to eat anything other than plant roots, berries, and raw meat.

How such children survive is hard to say. Bears do not gather in packs, although they have strong long-term alliances between males and females. In the same way, it is not known what the babies ate in winter, when the animals hibernated. Only a few cases of bears raising children have been recorded, one of them is a boy found in the 18th century in Denmark, the second is an Indian girl discovered in 1897.

All the documents of those years indicated that the children found had the habits of animals, had sharp eyesight, an excellent sense of smell, and could only “talk” only with the sounds that the animals that raised them usually make.

Feral people of the 20th and 21st centuries

Most often in the last century, children of the jungle met in India. Among them were wolf children, panthers and leopards. For example, the world learned about two girls - Kamal and Amal, who were caught in 1920. One of them was one and a half years old, the other - 8 years old, but both had already developed wolf instincts. So, they did not tolerate daylight well, but at night they saw perfectly if only raw meat, lapped water, moved on bent arms and legs rather quickly, hunted chickens and small rodents.

The younger girl could not stand captivity and died a year later from jade. Kamala lived for another 9 years and during this period she was able to master primitive human skills: walk straight, wash her face with water, eat from plates and even pronounce a few words. But until her death, she ate raw meat and offal.

As scientists note, feral people who have lived among animals for a long time completely adopt the habits of their “foster parents”, which do not disappear even after a long stay in human society.

Cases of finding feral people in the period from the 1990s to the present day are especially frequent. Whether this is due to the fact that the kids got negligent parents, or they themselves got lost in the forest in childhood, or maybe their habitat was simply disturbed, and therefore they were able to be caught, is unknown.

Significance of the child's social development

Scientists love doing experiments to prove their scientific theory. This way of knowing the truth was not bypassed by psychologists who wanted to prove that a child is already born with a need for socialization.

During the experiment, newborns were divided into 2 groups. In one, the children were nursed, talked to them when feeding or changing diapers, kissed. In another group, they did not communicate with the children, but did everything necessary so that they were fed and well-groomed.

After a while, scientists noticed in children who were deprived of affection, weight loss and other deviations from the norm, so the experiment was interrupted. Thus, scientists have proved that a person initially has a need for love and communication with his own kind.

Thus, it becomes clear why feral people are deprived of human feelings and rely purely on the animal instincts they have acquired.

The nature of feral people

All cases of discovery of individuals raised by animals indicate that in the wild they had a strong desire for survival. Just so feral people could not stay alive, even with the most best care from their animal "parents".

Animals always act according to their instincts, although there are cases when they experienced anguish, losing their offspring. It doesn't last long and short term memory allows them to forget about the loss, which is not at all like the behavior of people. A person can suffer from the death of a child all his life.

All Mowgli children acted as their instincts told them: they sniffed food and water before they began to eat, defecate, hunt, run away from danger and defend themselves like their wild “parents”. This animal nature cannot be eradicated if the child has spent a long time among the animals.

Humanization of the Aveyron Savage

Attempts to humanize feral children have always been made. One of the successful examples is the story of the Aveyron boy. It was discovered in the south of France in 1800. And although this teenager moved on straight legs, all other habits betrayed an animal in him.

It took a lot of time and patience to teach him to go to the toilet where it is supposed to, keep his clothes on and eat from dishes. At the same time, the boy never learned to play games, communicate with peers, although no deviations in his psyche were found. This "savage" lived to be 40 years old, but never became a member of society.

Based on this, we can conclude that children deprived of human love lose the ability to socialize inherent in them at birth. They are replaced by instincts that are less developed in ordinary people than in animals.

If the child is lucky and found back in early age, then he can return the human essence and instill proper manners. So it was, for example, with five-year-old Natasha from Chita. She was raised by dogs that turned out to be the best parents than mom and dad. The girl barked, walked like dogs, and ate the same as they did. The fact that she was found at such an early age gives hope that she will be able to “humanize” again.

A boy from Uganda, who was raised by green monkeys, was able to fully recover. He came to them at the age of four, and when he was discovered 3 years later, he lived and acted as his “adoptive parents”. Since too little time had passed, the child was able to return to society.

The reason for the appearance of fertile children

Too often in our time, children who were raised by animals are mentioned. This is due in most cases to the indifference, carelessness or cruelty of their parents. There are many examples of this:

• A girl from Ukraine who grew up in a dog house. From 3 to 8 years old she lived with a dog where her parents left her. In such a short period of time, the baby began to walk like a dog, bark and behave like her dog.
• A 6-year-old boy from Volgograd, raised by birds, could only chirp and flap his arms like wings when he showed emotions. He ate bird food while locked up by his mother in the parrot room. Now the child is being rehabilitated by psychologists.

Similar cases take place in our time in large cities and small towns around the world: in Africa, India, Cambodia, Russia, Argentina and other places. And what is most terrible, today the unfortunate are found not in the forests, but in houses, animal booths and in garbage dumps - prowling in search of food.

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

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

Aveyron Savage

Savage from Aveyron in life and in the movie wild child» (1970)

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

Peter from Hannover

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

Dean Sanichar

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

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

Amala and Kamala

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