Mowgli children: Incredible and shocking stories. The most famous Mowgli children: how did the fate of kids who grew up among animals

Who among us is not familiar with Rudyard Kipling's touching story about Mowgli the Frog, a boy who grew up in the jungle? Even if you haven't read The Jungle Book, you've probably watched cartoons based on it. Alas, real stories children raised by animals are not as romantic and fabulous as the works of an English writer and do not always end in a happy ending.

To your attention - modern human cubs, who had neither the wise Kaa, nor the good-natured Baloo, nor the brave Akela among their friends, but their adventures will not leave you indifferent, because the prose of life is much more interesting and much more terrible than the work of even brilliant writers.
Boy from Uganda adopted by monkeys


John Ssebunya
In 1988, 4-year-old John Ssebunya fled into the jungle after witnessing a terrible scene - during another quarrel between his parents, the father killed the baby's mother. Time passed, but John never left the forest and the villagers began to believe that the boy was dead.
In 1991, one of the local peasant women, having gone into the jungle to get firewood, suddenly saw in a flock of vervets, pygmy green monkeys, a strange creature, in which, not without difficulty, she recognized a little boy. According to her, the boy's behavior was not much different from monkeys - he deftly moved on all fours and easily communicated with his "company". The woman reported what she saw to the villagers and they tried to catch the boy. As often happens with children raised by animals, John resisted in every possible way, not letting himself be taken in hand, but the peasants still managed to recapture him from the monkeys. When the pupil of the vervets was washed and put in order, one of the villagers recognized him as a fugitive who went missing in 1988. Later, having learned to speak, John said that the monkeys taught him everything necessary for life in the jungle - climbing trees, searching for food, in addition, he mastered their "language". Fortunately, after returning to the people, John easily adapted to life in their society, he showed good vocal abilities and now the grown-up Ugandan Mowgli is touring with the children's choir "Pearl of Africa".
Chita girl who grew up among dogs


Sasha Pisarenko
Five years ago, this story appeared on the front pages of Russian and foreign newspapers - a 5-year-old girl Natasha was found in Chita, who moved like a dog, lapped water from a bowl and instead of articulate speech made only barks, which is not surprising, because, as it turned out later, the girl spent almost her whole life in a locked room, in the company of cats and dogs. The child's parents did not live together and presented different versions of what happened - the mother (I really want to put this word in quotation marks), 25-year-old Yana Mikhailova claimed that her father had stolen the girl from her long ago, after which she did not raise her. The father, 27-year-old Viktor Lozhkin, in turn, stated that the mother did not pay Natasha due attention even before he took the baby to him at the request of her mother-in-law. Later it was established that the family could not be called prosperous in any way, in the apartment where, in addition to the girl, her father, grandparents lived, there was terrifying unsanitary conditions, there was no water, heat and gas.
When they found her, the girl behaved like a real dog - she rushed at people and barked. Having taken Natasha away from her parents, the employees of the guardianship and guardianship authorities placed her in a rehabilitation center so that the girl could adapt to life in human society, her "loving" father and mother were arrested.
Volgograd Prisoner of the Birdcage



The story of the Volgograd boy in 2008 shocked the entire Russian public. His own mother kept him locked up in a 2-room apartment inhabited by many birds. For unknown reasons, the mother was not engaged in raising the child, giving him food, but not communicating with him at all. As a result, the boy, up to seven years old, spent all his time with birds, when law enforcement officers found him, in response to their questions, he only “chirped” and flapped his “wings”. The room where he lived was full of bird cages and just overflowing with droppings. According to eyewitnesses, the boy's mother clearly suffered from a mental disorder - she fed street birds, took birds home and lay on the bed all day long, listening to their chirping. She did not pay attention to her son at all, apparently considering him one of her pets. When the "bird boy" became known to the relevant authorities, he was sent to a psychological rehabilitation center, and his 31-year-old mother was deprived of parental rights.
Little Argentine rescued by stray cats


In 2008, the police in the Argentine province of Misiones found a homeless baby of one year old, who was in the company of wild cats. Apparently, the boy was in the company of cats for at least a few days - the animals took care of him as best they could: they licked the dried dirt from his skin, brought him food and warmed him on frosty winter nights. A little later, they managed to get to the boy's father, who led a vagrant lifestyle - he told the police that he had lost his son a few days ago when he was collecting waste paper. Dad told the officers that wild cats had always protected his son.
"Kaluga Mowgli"


2007, Kaluga region, Russia. Residents of one of the villages noticed a boy who appeared to be about 10 years old in a nearby forest. The child was in a pack of wolves, who, apparently, considered him "their" - together with them he got food, running on half-bent legs. Later, law enforcement officers raided the "Kaluga Mowgli" and found him in a wolf's lair, after which he was sent to one of the Moscow clinics. The surprise of the doctors knew no bounds - after examining the boy, they concluded that although he looked like a 10-year-old, in fact he should have been about 20 years old. From life in a wolf pack, the guy's toenails turned almost into claws, his teeth resembled fangs, his behavior copied the habits of wolves in everything.
The young man did not know how to speak, did not understand Russian and did not respond to the name Lyosha given to him during the capture, reacting only when he was called “kis-kis-kis”. Unfortunately, the specialists were unable to return the boy to normal life- just a day after he was placed in the clinic, "Lesha" escaped. His further fate is unknown.
Pupil of Rostov goats



In 2012, the employees of the guardianship authorities of the Rostov region, having come with a check to one of the families, saw a terrible picture - 40-year-old Marina T. kept her 2-year-old son Sasha in a goat pen, practically not caring about him, while, when the child was found, the mother was not at home. The boy spent all his time with animals, played and slept with them, as a result, by the age of two he could not learn to speak and eat normally. Needless to say, the sanitary conditions in the two-by-three-meter room he shared with his horned "friends" not only left a lot to be desired - they were appalling. Sasha was emaciated from malnutrition when he was examined by doctors, it turned out that he weighed about a third less than healthy children his age.
The boy was sent to rehabilitation, and then to an orphanage. At first, when they tried to return him to human society, Sasha was very afraid of adults and refused to sleep in bed, trying to get under it. A criminal case was opened against Marina T. under the article “Improper performance of parental duties”, a lawsuit was filed with the court to deprive her of parental rights.
Adopted son of a Siberian guard dog


In one of the provincial regions of the Altai Territory in 2004, a 7-year-old boy was discovered who was raised by a dog. The mother left little Andrei three months after his birth, entrusting the care of her son to an alcoholic father. Soon after, the parent also left the house where they lived, apparently without even remembering the child. The guard dog, who fed Andrei and raised him in his own way, became the father and mother for the boy. When he was found by social workers, the boy could not speak, moved only like a dog and was wary of people. He bit and carefully sniffed the food that was offered to him.
For a long time, the child could not be weaned from dog habits - in orphanage he continued to behave aggressively, throwing himself at his peers. However, gradually, the specialists managed to instill in him the skills of communicating with gestures, Andrey learned to walk like a human and use cutlery while eating. The pupil of the guard dog was also accustomed to sleeping in bed and playing with the ball, attacks of aggression happened to him less and less and gradually faded away.

For several decades, scientists have been arguing about what is more important - acquired or innate traits of the human psyche? And what role do skills, conditions of existence, environment of a person play in the first years of his life. Studying the phenomenon called "Mowgli" reveals some of the answers to this question.

You can read about the amazing interaction between man and wild animals in the famous fairy tale by Kipling. The wolf pack rescued a little boy from a man-eating tiger and raised him. You can also remember about the series called "Tarzan", which tells about a man who grew up in the jungle among the monkeys. I would like to know what was the basis of such works - real events or pure fiction?

It turned out that there are documentary evidence of stories when children were indeed raised by animals. Bears, monkeys, wolves, tigers and even pigs acted as so-called "educators". In almost all cases, this happened in rural areas where parents could not carefully monitor their child. It also happened that for some time the parents simply did not notice the loss of their child.

One of the most famous cases occurred near the village of Midnapur in eastern India. In the autumn of 1920, two little girls were found near the wolf's lair. One was 8 years old and the other about 1.5. Judging by the observations of experts, the wolves took care of them in the same way as they took care of their offspring. The girls howled, scratched and dexterously moved on four legs. They were sent to an orphanage, where the youngest soon died, and the eldest lived to be 16 years old. Over time, this girl learned to stand upright and walk like normal person. She also began to eat human food. But she could only learn about 30 words.

In 1972, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a three-year-old child brought up by a bear was admitted to the orphanage of the Order of Mercy of Mother Teresa. Among people, the boy managed to live only about 14 years. It retained the habits of wild life. He was not interested in studying and was very cautious.

In the late 90s, a boy of 5-6 years old was found in the rainforests. His "parents" were baboon monkeys. Despite all the efforts of the people around him, he did not want to wear clothes, eat normal food (he only ate grass, fruits and vegetables), and continued to run on bent legs. Doctors believe that this child got into the jungle in infancy. The human world is hostile to him.

A sufficient number of studied examples, when small children lived among animals, allowed scientists to draw disappointing conclusions. These children are almost impossible to retrain and teach human habits. If in the fairy tale about Magli events developed according to the highest level of morality, then in real life everything is much worse and more difficult. The famous Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified the animal world. His work became the foundation of modern biology. In the section on the study of man, Linnaeus singled out a special section called "Rational man feral."

Those children who began their lives in the circle of animals, scientists refer to the third civilization. Mowgli are not animals, and they cannot be attributed to ordinary people either. Children - Mowgli get used to such an "animal" environment, they can growl or howl, some even began to glow in the dark eyes. However, human physiology does not allow them to quickly move away from danger, hunt well, get food and compete for leadership in their flock.

To completely go into the life of the wild nature for children - Mowgli is not destined, just as they will completely return to the usual "human". Although, if such a child worked with a psychologist for many years, he took on an "approximate human appearance." But, unfortunately, there have not yet been cases with a complete return to normal life.

Raised by hermits. For seventeen years he lived in a dugout, where he was later abandoned by his parents. The young man himself said that, according to his parents, he was born in 1993 in the vicinity of the village of Kaitanak outside a medical facility. He did not receive education, he has no social skills and no idea about the outside world.

IN November 2011 in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg, Mowgli girls were discovered - 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.

IN February 2010 employees of the Inspectorate for Juvenile Affairs - without the necessary education and in unsanitary conditions. The hostess born in 1971, her daughter born in 1989, an eight-month-old grandson and two granddaughters lived in a private house, one of whom was two years old and the other two months old. At the same time, the older girl did not speak at the age of two, but only mumbled, the boy at eight months looked like a five-month-old, and the younger girl was exhausted. The police did not find any documents for the children.

IN February 2010 in one of the apartments in the Sormovsky district, which was not cared for by the parents. He was not fed or clothed, his health was not monitored, his development and training were not taken care of. He was born with a mental disorder and previously went to a remedial school. In connection with improper care for him, his health condition has deteriorated significantly.
The child was found thanks to the neighbors, who began to feed him and showed him to the doctors. The boy spoke poorly and did not remember when last time washed.

IN July 2009 the court of the Zheleznodorozhny district of Chita deprived the parents of their parental rights. According to the Department of Internal Affairs, the five-year-old girl has never been on the street. The owners of the house where she lived did not let anyone into the apartment, did not communicate with neighbors, and appeared on the street mainly to walk their pets. Despite the fact that the baby lived in a three-room apartment with her father, grandmother, grandfather and other relatives, she hardly spoke, although she understood human speech.

IN February 2009 Inspectors for juvenile affairs in one of the houses of the Leninsky district of Ufa found a three-year-old girl who ate and slept with dogs. Her mother drank, hunted in the garbage. The girl was afraid of people, strove, like a dog, to get on all fours. She didn't know what a spoon was.

IN February 2008 a six-year-old child with Mowgli syndrome was discovered in Volgograd. He was nicknamed "bird boy" - he could not talk, he only tweeted like a bird. According to social workers, the boy chose parrots as a role model. According to social workers, his mother isolated the child from the world, locked him in an apartment, did not let him walk, did not give him to Kindergarten. She motivated her refusal to allow her son to communicate with other children and adults by the fact that she was afraid of human cruelty.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Since childhood, we all know one of the most unusual heroes of Rudyard Kipling's famous work The Jungle Book. Mowgli is a boy who got into the Indian rainforest as an infant. The baby was found and raised by animals - a family of wolves, as well as Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. A variety of adventures awaited Mowgli in his forest life, but the main thing was the fight against the bloodthirsty tiger Sherkhan.

Rudyard Kipling is a writer of English origin, but he spent all his childhood in India when his father was appointed to a post in one of the English colonies - in Bombay. In the memory of little Rudyard, this country remained a wonderful magical world, which is why it was especially easy and pleasant for the author to write about it. India is still full of the most incredible stories and unusual events, and in those ancient times even more so struck the imagination of contemporaries. It is not at all excluded that the story with Mowgli really took place in real world and not just on the pages of a book. In this article, together with you, we will try to figure out what is the truth and what is fiction in this story about a wolf boy.

Let's try to remember, have we ever heard stories about children fed and raised by animals? At school, they often talk about two brothers - Romulus and Remus, who founded Rome, which eventually grew into the great Roman Empire. According to legend, the little twin brothers were abandoned by the evil ruler to the mercy of fate, which apparently favored them, because. the she-wolf found the babies and nursed them with her milk. On the one hand, this is just a myth, because nowadays it is impossible to find any evidence to claim that this is true. On the other hand, it is quite surprising that it was the she-wolf who acted as the nurse, because. in subsequent history, there were repeatedly documented cases when human cubs lived in packs of wolves. Therefore, it is small, but still, the likelihood that the legend of Romulus and Remus is true does exist.

In India, especially wolf children were found. Between 1843 and 1933, there were 15 known cases of such children being found. One of the very first such people was Dean Sanichar, found in 1872. The child was found in a den of wolves when he was 6 years old. He moved on all fours and ate raw meat. The boy did not learn to speak, but only growled and howled, like him to gather in a flock. They began to study with Dean, trying to teach something, but it turned out to be not at all easy.

From the story of Rudyard Kipling, we know that Mowgli returned to the village of people, becoming its full-fledged resident. In fact, children who in their first years lived in a completely alien human environment adopt the habits and lifestyle of their environment. It is almost impossible to retrain them later, as well as to teach them to speak human language. The main part of the brain is formed in the first five years of life, and if you miss this time, it is already impossible to catch up.

Just 2 years after Din Sanichar was found, the Indians found another wolf boy in another part of the country. All these cases fell on the childhood of little Rudyard, who was brought up by an Indian nanny, telling him about everything that she herself heard. Undoubtedly, this could not but be deposited in the memory of the writer, who later told these extraordinary stories to the whole world. The stories from the Jungle Book series were first published in English magazines in 1893-1894.

Thus, we can conclude that the hero himself named Mowgli, of course, did not exist, he is an absolutely fictional character with his own life story. However, the real wolf cubs found earlier became the prototype of Mowgli. Reality is intertwined with fiction in Kipling's stories. In the biography of a wild boy, the writer superbly intertwined the lifestyle of many exotic animals - a bear, a panther, a tiger, monkeys, a python. It was from his book that the children of many countries first learned about these inhabitants of the jungle.

It was also from The Jungle Book that many of us first heard about the cities lost in the rainforests. Do you remember where the banderlog monkeys took Mowgli? To the ruins of the capital of the once existing state. We have already mentioned on the website fascinating story about one thing, but there were a lot of similar cases, because ancient empires have long lived on the territory of India. When this or that civilization for some reason disappeared, its abandoned cities were overgrown with giant tropical trees over the years, after which it was almost impossible to find them. Judging by the descriptions of Rudyard Kipling, the inspiration for his book was the city of Hampi, which was the capital of the great Vijanayagara empire during the period of the 14th-17th centuries.

The life of this English writer was rich and varied, he skillfully composed all his experience, feelings and thoughts into wonderful works. This was appreciated by the whole world and in 1907 Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was one of the first English writers to receive this legendary award.

In the book, Mowgli's life turned out quite happily, but in real life, the fate of such wolf cubs is mostly sad. Let's look again at this wonderful cartoon based on the famous book of the great writer.

Description

An Indian boy named Nathu at birth. He is swarthy and dark-haired, like most Indians. His parents abandoned him to escape the tiger Sher Khan. The boy miraculously survived and was brought up in a family of wolves. Sher Khan came and demanded "his prey", but Mowgli's adoptive mother, the she-wolf Raksha, flatly refused to give him up and was even ready to fight. In the end, Mowgli is accepted into the pack. The bear Baloo becomes his teacher, and the panther Bagheera becomes his girlfriend and protector. When Mowgli grew up, he had to go through many adventures: he is captured by monkeys (banderlogs, as they are called); restores the power of Akela, who was "set up" during the hunt, when he fought with red dogs. But Sherkhan remains his main opponent. The tiger could not forget that unsuccessful hunt when he was left without prey. There is an erroneous opinion among some readers that during this hunt, Shere Khan went limp when he burned his paw in a fire, but in fact he was born lame, confirmation of which can be found in Kipling's The Jungle Book.

• Although this is unrealistic, Mowgli learned to speak like a human, and quite clearly. But he got to the wolves when he was only a year old (it is said that he did not know how to walk properly and held on to a branch). He talks to his adoptive mother, who adopted him in the village. Mowgli also retained some childhood memories, for example, that he was lying by the “red flower” (fire) and he was warm.
• Mowgli is not a name, but a nickname. It is untranslatable, but according to Kipling it means "Frog". It was given to the adopted son by the wolf mother Raksha ( Raksha in turn means "demon" - so she was nicknamed for her fury in battle). Many mistakenly consider Akela to be the adoptive father of Mowgli, but this is not so. Akela was the leader of the pack that adopted Mowgli, and the adoptive father of the "man-cub" (and, by extension, Raksha's husband) was another wolf. His first name is unknown, he is simply referred to as "Father Wolf".

see also

Notes

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