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While the idea of being raised by wild animals – away from the constrictions and imposed expectations of society <\/a>– sounds intriguing and likely romantic, it is often anything but. Without the nurturing and education offered by human parents, children tend to become feral, similarly to the wildlife that took them in and taught them to survive.<\/p>\n Because the first few years of a child\u2019s life are usually the most important for learning<\/a>, being brought up in the wild can result in irreparable intellectual and\/or physical impairment. Feral children often lack basic social skills and seem uninterested in the constructs created by society. Effects such as these and much more are relayed in the 21 true stories of feral kids brought up amongst wild animals.<\/p>\n The modern-looking photographs were captured by German-born, London-based photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten, who was inspired to explore the darker side of growing up under unusual circumstances. Learn more here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1845, a Mexican<\/a> girl was spotted running with a pack of wolves and attacking a herd of goat. One year later, she was seen running with the wolves again. This time, she was eating a goat. In 1852, residents spotted her again, this time suckling two wolf cubs. After she ran into the woods, however, she was never seen again\u2026<\/p>\n A girl named Oxana Malaya was found living with dogs in a kennel in 1991. Reportedly, her alcoholic<\/a> parents left her outside when she was just three years old. To survive, she crawled into a kennel looking for warmth. For six years, she lived with the dogs outside, during which she learned how to run on all fours, pant with her tongue out and bark. Because she had little to no interaction with humans, she only knew the words \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n This is the first picture of a five-year-old ‘Mowgli’ girl raised by dogs after her parents neglected her. Natasha Mikhailova was kept locked in a room with dogs and cats for several years, causing her to behave like an animal. She does not speak, laps up her food and drink with her tongue. Additionally, she walks on all fours.<\/p>\n A young boy named Shamedo was first found playing with wolf cubs in 1972 in a forest. When he was brought to the village of Nayanpur, the villagers discovered that he liked dark places, had a craving for blood, and had be-friended wolves and jackals. He also enjoyed things like chicken-hunting and earth-eating.<\/p>\n One of the most well-documented cases of children raised by wild animals is that of Kamala and Amala, better known as the “wolf children.” Discovered in 1920 in the jungles of Godamuri, India, the girls, aged 3 and about 8, had been living with a she-wolf and her pack.<\/p>\n Some suspect that the girls weren’t actually feral, however, but were mentally disabled<\/a>. It is suspected that the owner of the orphanage told the public that they were feral to procure money.<\/p>\n Dina was removed from a wolves\u2019 cave by a group of hunters in 1867 when he was about six years old. Initially, he exhibited all the habits of a wild animal, tearing off clothes and eating food from the ground. He was eventually weaned off raw meat onto cooked, but never did learn to speak.<\/p>\n The Andes Goat-Boy was found in Andes, Peru<\/a>\u00a0in 1990 and was said to have been raised by goats for eight years. Reportedly, he survived by drinking their milk and eating roots and berries. Being in the wild, he developed the obvious feral characteristics.<\/p>\n A boy aged around 10 was found in the midst of a herd of gazelles in the Syrian Desert\u00a0and was only caught with the help of an Iraqi army jeep because he could run at speeds of up to 50 kph.<\/p>\n A seven-year-old boy named Prava was found in a tiny two-bedroom apartment living with his mother and dozens of pet birds. The boy\u2019s mother supposedly treated him like another of her pets, feeding and housing him, but never speaking to him. Because of this, the boy only knows how to communicate through chirping.<\/p>\n He has since been removed from his mother\u2019s care and is presently being rehabilitated<\/a> in a center for psychological care.<\/p>\n This young girl has had a crazy life. At age five, she was kidnapped and left in the jungle by her captors. She learned how to survive by watching the capuchin monkeys. At one point, she was poisoned. When an elderly monkey led her to a pool of water, however, she drank until she vomited out the poison.<\/p>\n By the time Marina was rescued by hunters,<\/a> she had lost the ability to speak. Without a care, they sold her to a\u00a0 brothel. She did escape but began living as a street urchin. After that, a mafia family enslaved her. Then, she was saved by a neighbor who sent her to live in Bogota with one of his relatives. Eventually, Marina was hired as a housekeeper and is now happily married with children. She co-authored a book with her daughter about her experience, entitled \u201cThe Girl With No Name.\u201d<\/p>\n Until the age of 3, Madina lived primarily in the company of dogs. Reportedly, she was abandoned by her father and her mother was an alcoholic. When she was found by social workers <\/a>in 2013, she was walking on all fours and growling like a dog.<\/p>\n Despite all she\u2019s been through, doctors proclaim that Madina is both mentally and physically healthy. Once she develops language skills, she is expected to live a normal life.<\/p>\n Genie was a toddler when her father decided she was \u201cretarded<\/a>\u201d. His response was to tie her to a chair and leave her in a room for 10 years. When her mother removed her from the type of solitary confinement in 1970, she was taken to child services where social workers saw that she had an odd \u201cbunny-walk\u201d. Not only was she not toilet-trained, she couldn\u2019t speak and constantly spat and clawed herself.<\/p>\n She passed through foster homes for a number of years, where children often made fun of her. When she returned to a children\u2019s hospital, she was completely silent. Because funding for her rehabilitate stopped in 1974, she lives in a home for mentally underdeveloped adults.<\/p>\n At two years old, this boy was taken in by a Leopardess and raised with her cubs. Three years later, the Leopardess was shot. When he was discovered, the boy was taken to his family in a small village in India. He could run fast on all fours, bit and fought anyone who came near him, and couldn\u2019t speak though he grunted and growled.<\/p>\n After years of living with humans, he finally learned to speak and walk upright.<\/p>\n A boy named Sujit was often punished by his parents by being locked up in a chicken coop. After his mother committed suicide and his father was murdered, Sujit\u2019s grandparents decided to keep the boy locked up with the chickens. When he was eventually released, he\u2019d perch on a chair and peck at his food, making rapid clicking noises with his tongue.<\/p>\n After being taken to an old people\u2019s home by carers – where he was too aggressive for the workers, he was tied to a bed for 20 years. Now 30 years old, he is cared for by a woman who rescued him from the abusive home.<\/p>\n To avoid abuse from his family, Ivan (born 1992) ran away at age four and began living with a pack of dogs. He begged in the streets ad shared the scraps of food he obtained with his canine friends. Eventually, they learned to trust him and he became the pack leader.<\/p>\n Two years later, he was caught and placed in a children\u2019s home. He has recovered relatively well and now lives a normal life.<\/p>\n A woman named Memmie lived in the forests of France for ten years, surviving by eating birds, frogs, branches, and leaves. Reportedly, she used a club to beat off wild animals. At age 19 (1737), she was captured by the Queen of Poland. Memmie would only eat the rabbits she skinned herself, and was said to be fast enough to catch the critters with her hands.<\/p>\n Eventually, a rich patron sponsored her recovery and she learned to read, write and speak French fluently. At age 63, she died well-off, as a nun, in France.<\/p>\n Life couldn\u2019t have started worse for John Ssebunya. At just two years old, he witnessed his father murder his mother. To escape the horror, he fled to the jungle to live with monkeys<\/a>. At age six, he was captured and was found to only eat roots and berries. He also had a severe case of intestinal worms, some over a half a meter long.<\/p>\n Eventually, he learned to speak and discovered a love for singing. He is now famous for his voice and tours the UK with the Pearl of Africa children\u2019s choir.<\/p>\n Victor of Aveyron (c. 1788 \u2013 1828) was a French feral child who was found around the age of twelve. It is \u00a0unknown when or how he came to live in the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, though he was reportedly seen there around 1794. In 1797 he was spotted by three hunters; he ran from them but they were able to catch him when he tried to climb a tree. Later, it was reported that he\u00a0could barely feel the cold.<\/p>\n Andrei Tolstyk was born with hearing and speaking deficiencies, and this was enough for his parents to abandon him in the remote areas of Siberia, close to Lake Baikal. However, he was lucky enough to be adopted by a guard dog\u00a0and was taught how to survive<\/a>.<\/p>\n Like a guard dog, he had strong teeth, sniffed the food before eating it, he was afraid of people and generally behaved very erratically. It took him two weeks to start to walk on just two legs.<\/p>\n1. Lobo Wolf Girl, Mexico, 1845-1852<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"1-lobo-wolf-girl-mexico-1845-1852\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/1.-Lobo-Wolf-Girl-Mexico-1845-1852.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n2. Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, 1991<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"2-oxana-malaya-ukraine-1991\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2.-Oxana-Malaya-Ukraine-1991.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n3. Natasha Mikhailova, Siberia, 2009<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"3-natasha-mikhailova-siberia-2009\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/3.-Natasha-Mikhailova-Siberia-2009.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n4. Shamdeo, India, 1972<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"4-shamdeo-india-1972\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/4.-Shamdeo-India-1972.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n5. Kamala and Amala, India, 1920<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"5-kamala-and-amala-india-1920\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/5.-Kamala-and-Amala-India-1920.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n6. Dina Sanichar, India, 1867<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"6-dina-sanichar-india-1867\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/6.-Dina-Sanichar-India-1867.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n7. Daniel, Peru, 1990<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"7-daniel-peru-1990\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/7.-Daniel-Peru-1990.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n8. The Syrian Gazelle Boy, Syrian Desert, 1946<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"8-the-syrian-gazelle-boy-syrian-desert-1946\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/8.-The-Syrian-Gazelle-Boy-Syrian-Desert-1946.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n9. The Bird Boy, Russia, 2008<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"9-the-bird-boy-russia-2008\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/9.-The-Bird-Boy-Russia-2008.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n10. Marina Chapman, Colombia, 1959<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"10-marina-chapman-colombia-1959\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/10.-Marina-Chapman-Colombia-1959.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n11. Madina, Russia, 2013<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"11-madina-russia-2013\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/11.-Madina-Russia-2013.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n12. Genie, USA, 1970<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"12-genie-usa-1970\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/12.-Genie-USA-1970.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n13. The Leopard Boy, India, 1912<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"13-the-leopard-boy-india-1912\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/13.-The-Leopard-Boy-India-1912.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n14. Sujit Kumar, Fiji, 1978<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"14-sujit-kumar-fiji-1978\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14.-Sujit-Kumar-Fiji-1978.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n15. Ivan Mishukov, Russia, 1998<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"15-ivan-mishukov-russia-1998\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/15.-Ivan-Mishukov-Russia-1998.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n16. Marie Angelique Memmie Le Blanc (The Wild Girl of Champagne), France, 1731<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"16-marie-angelique-memmie-le-blanc-the-wild-girl-of-champagne-france-1731\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/16.-Marie-Angelique-Memmie-Le-Blanc-The-Wild-Girl-of-Champagne-France-1731.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n17. John Ssebunya (The Monkey Boy), Uganda, 1991<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"17-john-ssebunya-the-monkey-boy-uganda-1991\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/17.-John-Ssebunya-The-Monkey-Boy-Uganda-1991.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n18. Victor (The Wild Boy of Aveyron), France, 1797<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"18-victor-the-wild-boy-of-aveyron-france-1797\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/18.-Victor-The-Wild-Boy-of-Aveyron-France-1797.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n19. Andrei Tolstyk, Siberia, 2004<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"19-andrei-tolstyk-siberia-2004\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/19.-Andrei-Tolstyk-Siberia-2004.png\")
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\n<\/p>\n20. Lyokha The Wolf Boy, Moscow, 2007<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"20-lyokha-the-wolf-boy-moscow-2007\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/20.-Lyokha-The-Wolf-Boy-Moscow-2007.png\")
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![\"21-saturday-mthiyane-africa-2005\"](\"https:\/\/trueactivist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/21.-Saturday-Mthiyane-Africa-2005.png\")
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