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Feral Children

punychicken

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Boy adopted by chimps

chimps adopt child
The URL was: http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4136216^1702,00.html
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Boy adopted by chimps
15apr02

KANO, Nigeria: A disabled Nigerian boy believed to have been adopted and raised by chimpanzees for 18 months is in care in a specialist children's home in this northern city.

Named Bello by nursing staff at the Tudun Maliki Torrey home in Kano, he was brought to them six years ago by hunters after being found with a chimpanzee family in the Falgore forest, 150km south of Kano, staff told AFP.

Believed to have been aged about two when he was taken in, Bello is probably the son of nomadic ethnic Fulani people who travel through the region, Abba Isa Muhammad, the home's child welfare officer, said.

Mentally and physically disabled, with a misshapen forehead, sloping right shoulder and protruding chest, he was probably abandoned by his parents because of his disabilities, Isa Muhammad said.

Such abandonments of disabled children are common among the nomadic Fulani, a pastoralist people who travel great distances across the west African Sahel region, and in most instances the children die, specialists told AFP.

But in Bello's case, he was apparently adopted by a family of chimpanzees, Isa Muhammad said.

"We do not know exactly how long he would have been with the chimps. Based on the traits he exhibits, we estimate that he would have been adopted when he was no more than six months old and nursed by a nursing chimp," the welfare officer said.

When he was first brought in, Bello, who is about the size and weight of a four-year-old, walked in a chimpanzee-like fashion, moving on his hind legs but dragging his arms on the ground, the home's matron, A'isha Ibrahim, told AFP.

Still today he leaps, chimpanzee-like, and claps his hands over his head repeatedly, cupping his hands, as monkeys do, and does not speak but makes chimpanzee-like noises.

"When Bello was brought here in 1996, he used to walk like a monkey, with his feet and hands on the ground. He would jump and grunt or squeak like a chimpanzee," Ibrahim said.

"At first he was very restless. He would leap about at night from bed to bed in the dormitory where we put him with the other children.

"He would disturb the other children and smash and throw things. Now he is much calmer," she said, adding that all the staff were fond of the boy.

Isa Muhammad, the home's welfare officer, said staff had initially hoped that someone might come forward to claim the boy, but realised now that that was not going to happen.

"We are trying to see what we can do for him. We do not know how many years he will have to be here," he said.

Agence France-Presse
 
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British Columbia's wild boys

Vernon residents support 'wild boys'
Brothers surface in city, claiming to have been raised in the bush

VERNON, B.C. - Residents of Vernon, B.C., have rallied behind two brothers who claim they grew up in complete isolation in the remote backwoods of the province.

Tom and Will Green, who have no identification, and say they have never been to school or watched television, have been put up in a hotel and given food.

The so-called "wild boys" surfaced in Vernon this summer, living in the bush and surviving on food from local residents. Vernon is in the Okanagan Valley in southern B.C., east of Vancouver. Vernon's population is about 45,000.

Tom, 22, and Will, 16, attracted the attention of local social workers, residents and politicians, including Alliance MP Darrel Stinson of federal riding of Okanagan-Shuswap. Stinson believes the brothers' story could be true.

"I spent a lot of my former life in the bush," Stinson told the Vancouver Province. "I once met a person who hadn't been out in society since 1918. We took him out in 1976 and he flipped out seeing cars and stoplights. So is it possible, you bet it is."

Two weeks ago, the two men, who believe they were born in Canada, left the wilderness. They have met with staff from Stinson's office and have been put up in a hotel and given money.

They say they were born in the wilderness and raised in isolation by their mom and dad, who they have identified as Mary and Joseph Green.

They claim their mother taught them to read, using books she bought when she would leave the wilderness.

The brothers, described as wearing dirty clothes and looking emaciated, will not say where their parents are.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/03/wild031103
 
Canadian sequel to the "green children" story

Well, I wouldn't be surprised. Here in the pothead paradise anything's possible. BC is definitely the weirdest province in Canada. I bet there's a marijuana plantation nearby in the bush. Otherwise how would their pothead parents be getting all the supplies and food all these years and getting by, without any social insurance and health benefits? Okanagan, eh? Locals cash in big time on pot growing and trafficking in the BC Interior, that's something even kids are involved in. Slumping economy? What slumping economy? ;)
 
Try comming to North Wales - Some people in Rhyl haven't seen soap!
 
<<<Try comming to North Wales - Some people in Rhyl haven't seen soap!>>>

Is it because it doesn't grow in North Wales' climate?
Seriously, there are lots of people in Canada who have seen soap but never, literally never use it! This came as a complete shock to me when I first arrived here. In some parts of Russia, schoolkids would get lice because there's no soap at home and their parents drank and didn't care, while the overwhelming majority of people understands the importance of handwashing. But here in Canada where soap is so affordable and comes in dozens of delicious varieties many people I've met just go on all day long without touching it. Funny, eh? Probably believe a shower cleans you completely of any germs. What's more, there's still no control of who gets hired to work at fast food joints or even restaurants - that's why we hear about Hep A food handlers getting patrons sick all the time...

Getting back to the original thread, the whole "wild boys" story has proved to be far less exciting - turns out, they had lived with their parents in a log home in the woods, they would regularly go into the city for shopping or to rent a video, and they even had satellite TV. Not bad - fresh air and no taxes.;)
 
There didn't seem to a be a thread specifically for this apart from this one:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3028

but that discusses whether the Yeti might be feral hairy people but there are some good links.

Anyway tonight's Channel 4 'Bodyshock' show focused on feral kids and here is their info:

[edit: This documentary also gets shown quite often on the Discovery Channel]

Wild Child – The Story of Feral Children

Kate Roach

December 2003

American clinical neuroscientist Dr Bruce Perry has devoted his life to understanding and helping children who have been neglected, abused and maltreated. He never ceases to be amazed by their resilience: 'We should look at these children, not with pity, but with awe. They have this kernel of humanity that will not be crushed. You can't imagine what these children go through, being raised in a cage, in a dark room, nobody talking to you, nobody giving you anything to play with, nobody telling you you're special, nothing. It's fascinating that you could go through something like that and that you would still be willing, after what human beings have done to you, to put your hand out and touch another person.'

A terrified three-year-old sits sobbing in an outdoor kennel, cuddled up to a dog for comfort. She has been thrown out of the house by a drunken parent for crying with hunger. Another infant cries alone for hours in a dark room where she is left dirty and hungry. When her cries bring no comfort she turns and passively faces the wall. These are typical experiences in the extraordinary lives of Oxana, Edik and Genie, the children shown on the Channel 4 BodyShock series programme Wild Child. Sadly, their stories are not uncommon – millions of children across the globe experience a life of chaos and terror everyday.

We are all born with a full quota of brain cells, but in infancy they are poorly organised. During childhood, our brains become organised into networks of connected cells that mediate the way we feel, think and behave. Our deepest wishes and saddest moments, our loves and losses, all are stored, catalogued, sorted and organised, in the three-pound organ that defines us. Our brains make us who we are and our childhood experience makes our brains what they are.

A baby's brain is largely determined by genetic potential; babies arrive pre-wired to execute a number of survival strategy reflexes, like crying when hungry. But a baby's brain also comes with networks of connected brain cells (called neural networks) that have no specific function. How these will later function depends largely on sensory input. As a result of repeated experience, specific neural networks are formed and strengthened. Others undergo a kind of pruning, whereby connections that haven't been strengthened by experience are eliminated. The end result is that the brain is sculpted to fit the life of the child. Eventually, the structure and function of the brain will come to reflect the individual lifestyle of the person.

Fear changes children's brains

Consistent, predictable nurturing and stimulation is essential if children are to develop their potential. Fear brought on by neglect or abuse inhibits neural development because it deters learning, exploration and trust in others – all things that the brain needs in order to develop fully.

There is much debate in the scientific arena about the timing of development. If attributes don't develop at the usual ages or they are delayed, can they be learned later or has the critical period passed? Having never really heard language in her life, Genie, aged 12, was able to learn words, but not sentences. But Oxana, on the other hand, who was discovered living with dogs, aged nine, was able to master language. Individual cases will vary of course, and there may have been another reason why Genie could not master speech – her father had beaten her when she made a noise. Psychologists hold out good hopes for Edik who was found living with dogs at the age of four.

On the whole, the earlier a developmentally deprived child is discovered, the better are their prospects of recovery, in every respect. Though their ability to recover can be astounding, no child who has been neglected or abused can survive totally unscathed.

Below is a timeline noting key stages in human psychological development from birth to seven years old. As you read it, think of the children who through tragic circumstances miss out on many of the steps along the path. And remember the words of Dr Bruce Perry: 'We should look at these children, not with pity, but with awe.'

Timeline

At birth …
A baby's brain is already 25% of its adult weight.

Babies have a reflex-like tendency to turn and look at faces or face-like patterns more than other visual cues. This behaviour ensures they get maximum exposure to faces and from that learn to differentiate between individuals and to read facial expressions and body language.

Babies prefer voices to other sounds; talking to them makes them feel safe and gets them accustomed to hearing language. They display a particular preference for their mother's voice.

Babies come packaged with six ready-made emotions: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, joy and sadness. Psychologists have developed complex methods of reliably interpreting the facial expressions that infants make when expressing these emotions. These expressions show great similarity across cultures. Given a nasty tasting substance, babies will make a disgusted face and try to spit it out. When entertained by an adult, they will show pleasure with a smile. These facial expressions have evolved in order to give adults clues as to what the baby needs. If nurtured, this ability to express emotions will form the basis of social and emotional relationships.


At three months …
The brain reaches about 40% of its adult weight.

The cells of the brain are creating an evermore complex network of connections, reflecting the increasingly sophisticated behaviour and understanding of the baby.

Babies begin to recognise familiar faces.



At six months …
The brain is 50% of its adult weight – something that the rest of the body won't be until the child is about 10 years old.


At seven to eight months …
As well as developing a fear of strangers, babies become capable of missing their mothers (or carers). This is a sign that the infant has made its first enduring attachment to another person, and, one that is not dependent on the physical presence of that person. In earlier months, attachments are indiscriminate – the baby will cry to call the attention of any adult. Now, the baby has learned that individuals are not interchangeable. This is a key point in development. Though capable of missing people, it will be another couple of months before they will search for missing objects, like their toys.


At twelve months …
Children begin to utter their first words. The words they use are very similar to the babbling sounds that they will have been making for some time. Considering babies' babbling is similar all over the world, it isn't surprising to find that the words they use for 'mum' and 'dad' are similar across many different languages. First words are most often used to describe things that are important in the baby's life, like mum, dad, toys, food, pets, brothers and sisters. Also they are inclined to name moving objects before they acquire words for static objects, so 'car' might come before 'lamp'.


At eighteen months …
Children begin to put words together to form rudimentary sentences, like 'Bye-bye teddy'.

Play becomes more sophisticated. At some stage between one and two years old, babies switch from merely exploring objects by feeling, shaking or sucking them, to making things out of them, a brick tower, for example.


The child is able to use their imagination. Pretend games begin to creep in. Objects are used to represent anything the child desires, a cushion might be a castle or a banana might be a phone.


Early pretend play often coincides with the first use of words as symbols. Children first use words by association and only in the presence of the object they are naming, but now they can begin to use words in the absence of the named object.

Cognitive development is underway, as children begin to use categories as a way of understanding the world. Give an 18-month-old child a number of toys, some of which are used for eating and others for washing, and they will sort them according to their use. This is an early stage of concept formation; one of the ways we all make the world seem less complex. Whenever we encounter a new object or experience, we immediately try to make sense of it by relating it to objects or experiences that we are already familiar with. Without this reaction, the sheer diversity of new events in our lives would be overwhelming.


At two years …
Children acquire more sophisticated ways of relating to other people. A six-month-old will cry as a reaction to pain, but a two-year-old will cry to summon their mum who can deal with the pain. What is more, the two-year-old will cry louder the further away mum is, and, if this doesn't work he or she will try other attention-attracting tactics, like shouting, following or clinging. This is a milestone: the child now understands they can effect how other people behave. The child's behaviour will become increasingly motivated by their feelings and desires. This is a shift away from the motivations of the younger child, whose more reflex-like behaviour is a response to circumstances.

Children begin to display new emotions and levels of self-awareness. Shame, pride, embarrassment and guilt all appear at around this time. These emotions are called the self-conscious emotions because they require a sense of self. It's possible to feel angry without any notion of self, but to feel shame or pride, we must have some objective view of ourselves to compare against a standard (set either by ourselves or others). Then we can conclude 'I've achieved something good' or 'I've done something awful'.

The use of symbolism is increasing. Around this time, children can feel emotion from symbolic representations. A two-year-old can be frightened when listening to a scary story, even though they're safely huddled up in a chair at home. At the same time, they become aware that pictures are meaningful and are able to point to a photograph of themselves and happily shout 'Me'.

Children gradually develop control over how they display their emotions. They are just beginning to learn manners, like not showing disappointment when a present turns out to be something unwanted.

Language development is in full flow. From now until they are about five years old, children learn new words at the astonishing rate of about nine per day. Between the ages of 18 months and five years, children don't appear to learn language as much as acquire it. Most experts would agree that children are genetically pre-programmed to acquire language. In fact, language is actually very difficult to retard. It takes extreme circumstances of neglect, abuse or brain damage to prevent children from learning language. Even deafness cannot interfere with the drive to communicate; other communication channels such as sign language may also be grasped at this age.


At three Years …
Children are developing their capacity for memory and beginning to talk about the past in an increasingly coherent manner. Up until now, past events are only referred to when they are just completed, but now they have the first real sense of their own personal history. At this age, the memory of events is greatly enhanced when the event and the memory of it is shared with a parent or adult. By sharing memories, children learn what to remember, how to remember it and the relevance of memories in following their own hopes and desires.

From about this age, children are sufficiently developed to begin to choose their friends. This is a milestone in their ability to form relationships with others. This development is suppressed though if the child has not made secure attachments earlier in their life, for instance, to their mother. In younger children, interactions rarely go beyond staring, touching and toy-snatching. But at three, children are more capable of playing together rather than just alongside one another. From now on, periods of playing together get longer and interactions become increasingly complex and selective. Peer relationships play an important role in childhood, contributing to social development and the establishment of a sense of identity. Friendship is important right through childhood and into adolescence, as being accepted and appreciated leads to feelings of self-worth: 'They like me, so I must be good'.

Children understand that others have emotions and begin to refer to them in words. Phrases like 'Mummy cross, me paint wall' are typical. By the age of three, children have moved on from just describing actions like 'smiling' or 'crying', to actually describing the feelings that underlie those actions. This is a shift to a psychological level. Now they can describe not only their own but also other peoples emotional states too.

The earlier propensity to categorise objects has developed into something far more complex. Children are now able to hold mental images that contain a sequence of events, or 'scripts' as psychologists call them. For example, a family meal involves preparing the food, laying the table, sitting down, eating and clearing up. At three, most children will be able to recount the order of mealtime events and the parts that family members play. In a year or two, the child's mealtime script will also include the behaviour and emotions that are socially expected of them.

Children make another step in language acquisition by adding grammar to their fast growing vocabulary. They don't have to be taught this; they pick it up by hearing language around them. They appear to pick up rules like the adding of 'ed' to verbs when signifying a past event. A comical early feature of rule learning is that children will use such rules indiscriminately to start with: 'play' becomes 'played', 'slept' becomes 'sleeped'. The fact that children use words they have not actually ever heard, like 'goed', 'wented' and 'comed', means they are not learning simply by imitation. On the contrary, it's as though children are actively engaged in rule learning. But as with all development, language progresses more quickly and easily if children have responsive carers who provide support and practice.


At four years …
Children have the ability to consider another person's view even though it conflicts with theirs. For instance, when told the following story, children respond differently, depending on their age:

Sally and Anne are friends. They are in a room playing with Sally's marble. Sally puts the marble in her basket and leaves the room. Anne removes the marble and puts it in her own basket. Sally returns to play with her marble. Where is the first place she will she look for it?

Of course, Sally would first look in her own basket, as that's where she left it. But most children of three and under say she will look in Anne's bag, because that's where they know the marble to be. They can't attribute a false belief to Sally and use that to predict her actions. At about four though, children begin to fathom that Sally will look in her own basket first. They know that others may hold beliefs that don't reflect reality, but which will still influence how they behave. This is called a theory of mind; it means we can put ourselves in another's position – obviously an important feature of our relationships.
Children begin acting out fantasy games like cowboys and indians. This role-play is an important way for children to explore their own emotions and those of others, and to expand their cognitive skills and ability to negotiate in social situations.


At five years …
Children begin to take part in rule-governed games. They begin to understand that play can be governed by mutually agreed rules to which they and the others taking part must conform. These increasingly take the place of pretend play and are excellent practise in socialising skills.


At six years …
The accuracy of memory recall in eyewitness accounts is as good as an adult's, as long as the time interval between event and recall is less than a month.


At seven years …
Self-awareness becomes more accurate, whilst self-esteem takes a dip. When younger children are asked to describe themselves, they will only recount positive traits, often expressing them in a haphazard way. At seven though, children will include their shortcomings as well as their achievements, and their descriptions are more closely aligned with teacher reports and school performance.


Resources

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites

Websites

The Child Trauma Academy
http://www.childtrauma.org
American not-for-profit organisation based in Houston, Texas whose mission is to help improve the lives of traumatised and maltreated children and their families. Dr Bruce Perry, a contributor to the Channel 4 Wild Child programme, is a senior fellow of the academy.

Feral Children.com
http://www.feralchildren.com
Well referenced and documented site. Houses a comprehensive list of cases of feral and confined children, discusses the nature of human versus animal behaviour and looks at communications and linguistics.

Harry Harlow and the Macaque Monkey Experiments
http://www.nepsy.com/book/0302_ne_book.html
Book review that looks at the work of Harlow who set up experiments in the 1960s, revealing the disastrous consequences of maternal deprivation on macaques.

Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A history of feral children
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,635802,00.html
Guardian review of Michael Newton's book on feral children. Newton was a contributor to the Channel 4 Wild Child programme.

Wild Children
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20030227.shtml
BBC presenter Quentin Cooper writes about feral children and interviews Michael Newton, author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys, and Dr James Law, Professor of Language and Communication studies at City University, London.

Books


Feral Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on human nature by Douglas Keith Candland (Oxford University Press, 1996)
Humans have long shown a wish to connect with the animals around them. In assembling and interpreting the compelling tales in this book, Candland offers us a new understanding not only of the animal kingdom, but of the very nature of humanity and our place in the great chain of being.
Buy this book from Amazon



The Forbidden Experiment: The story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron by Roger Shattuck (Kodansha America, 1994)
Shattuck asks: How do children acquire language? How do deaf and mute children learn? Can children who have been neglected or abused ever learn to trust the world?
Buy this book from Amazon



Genie: A scientific tragedy by Russ Rymer (Perennial, 1994)
The compelling story of a young woman's emergence into the world after spending her first 13 years strapped to a chair, and of her rescue and exploitation by scientists hoping to gain insights into language acquisition and what it means to be human.
Buy this book from Amazon



Introducing Child Psychology by H Rudolph Schaffer (Blackwell Publishers, 2003)
An introduction to child psychology that tells us about the nature and development of children. It begins with an explanation of the aims and principles of child psychology and describes the distinctive methods used to obtain knowledge about children, giving special attention to the most recent research findings.
Buy this book from WHsmith



Kaspar Hauser: Europe's child by Martin Kitchen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)
In 1828, a strange youth, barely able to speak and hardly able to walk, appeared in Nuremberg. This case of a 'wild man' excited widespread curiosity, and many prominent figures wanted to test their medical theories on such a promising subject. Many claimed he was the rightful heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden. This book examines the many ramifications of this extraordinary case.
Buy this book from Amazon



Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances by Dorothy Bishop and Kay Mogford (Psychology Press, 1993)
Includes a chapter on early childood, which talks about language development in circumstances of extreme deprivation.
Buy this book from Amazon



Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the science of affection by Deborah Blum (Perseus Publishing, 2002)
A biographical account of the seminal work of Harry Harlow and his macaque monkeys during the 1960s. At a period when most psychologists believed infants were better off isloated from their mothers, Harlow revealed that these monkeys would choose a soft cloth imitation mother for comfort, over one made of wire that provided milk.
Buy this book from WHsmith



Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A history of feral children by Michael Newton (Faber & Faber, 2003)
A collection of six extraordinary histories of abandoned and feral children. Much more than just an account of the weird and the bizarre, this is an ambitious exploration of what these stories, and our fascination with them, tell us about the shifting boundary between nature and civilisation.
Buy this book from WHsmith



Wild Boy by Jill Dawson (Sceptre, 2003)
In post-Revolution France, a child is discovered in the forests near Aveyron where he seems to have been living wild for seven years. He is handed over to the ambitious Dr Itard, who names him Victor and attempts to educate and civilise him. However, the boy soon becomes a pawn in the raging debate about nature versus nurture. This is a fictional account of a mysterious case that still resonates today.
Buy this book from WHsmith



The Wild Boy of Aveyron by H Lane (Harvard University Press, 1979)
Covers the complete history of Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, and places it in the context of the development of special needs education and the philosophies of the time. In a readable style that combines narrative with material from primary sources, Lane lays out the errors that Dr Itard made in his attempts at educating and socialising Victor.
Buy this book from WHsmith



The Wild Girl, Natural Man and the Monster: Dangerous experiments in the Age of Enlightenment by Julia V Douthwaite (University of Chicago, 2002)
This study looks at the lives of the most famous 'wild children' of 18th century Europe. The author recounts reports of feral children and offers a fascinating glimpse into beliefs about the difference between man and beast, and the means once used to civilize the uncivilized.
Buy this book from WHsmith

http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/science/body/bodyshock_wildchild.html

Emps
 
A facinating and terrifying program. I found myself wondering how some of the parents could really be human. To negelct a child so badly seems to go against the grain of humanity.

I can understand someone who strikes out at a child through anger, frustration or fear but I dan't understand how someone can keep a child locked up without human contact 24 hours a day.

Cujo
 
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culture

it shows just how much of our behaviour, is NOT genetically determined.
 
Canadian feral kids?

Youths emerge from Canada wilderness

Michel Comte
Posted Fri, 07 Nov 2003

Two half-starved male youths who recently emerged from the British Columbia wilderness claiming to have lived since birth in near isolation are now in limbo as officials try to determine how to help them.

The brothers, Thomas and William Green, were discovered camping in the bush behind a general store in Vernon, British Columbia some weeks ago by local residents who have since given them food, clothing and shelter.

Raised in backwoods

Thomas and William Green, 22 and 16 years old respectively, said they were born and raised in the backwoods by US parents who call themselves Mary and Joseph, but have no proof of their identities.

Even more unusual, they claim they have never been to school, seen a doctor, watched television or had any childhood friends, said Rhelda Evans, an aid to Canadian MP (member of parliament) Darrel Stinson.

They hunted and rummaged for food and their sole contact with the outside world was with a family friend who visited infrequently, and rare trips with their parents to the town of Revelstoke to buy supplies.

Decision to become vegetarian

Thomas Greens told Evans he left their remote homestead a few months ago after his decision to become a vegetarian horrified his mother, she said.

"She called him 'an alien influence.' The mother may have just realised there was no way he could survive in the winter in Revelstoke as a vegetarian and asked him to leave. Also, because he was now 22, he was old enough to go out on his own and look after himself," she said.

His younger sibling followed and together they found their way to Vernon, 280 kilometres east of Vancouver.

"They came in almost every day ... They weren't very talkative. They were very timid, didn't make much eye contact, just looked up to pass me money," said Chandace Chase, a cashier at the Kalamalka general store they frequented.

And unlike other teenagers, they never bought junk food, she said.

Media kept away

Reporters have not been allowed by their hosts to interview or photograph the brothers fearing it might scare them away, but Chase described them as very tall, very skinny and very pale.

Officials said it is not unusual to find people living in British Columbia's wilderness. The Kootenay region was a haven for US draft dodgers in the 1960s and police arrested two men in the past two years who survived on the spoils of cottage break-ins.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Henry Proce said the boys are not in any trouble and he has confirmed most of their wild tale, but he suggested they might have embellished some parts.

Youths were educated

"They certainly lived in an isolated area, but they had access to a television, a VCR and a radio. Their (log cabin) home was hooked up to solar power and turbine generators. Both of their parents are educated and taught the boys to read and write and operate all the modern conveniences," he said.

Police will now try to locate their parents or grandmother, who may still live in the United States.

Several government agencies are trying to help, but efforts have been hindered by the boys' inability to produce birth certificates or other proof of Canadian citizenship that would help provide financial aid or work here.

"We often don't recognise how much we rely on who we are as individuals in our society. When you have someone who can't be legally identified, that creates a number of problems," said Tom Christensen, a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly.

For now, they will remain in the care of their locals in their adopted community.

"If they're just now being introduced to society to the extent that they are, they've got some adapting to do," said their new lawyer Dale Kermod.

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/283852.htm
 
B.C.'s Wild Boys

Originally Broadcast March 30, 2004

They became instant celebrities in early November, 2003 – two disheveled young men who were living in a tent on the outskirts of Vernon, British Columbia. Now, appear for the first time ever on television. Disclosure's Gillian Findlay does an exclusive interview [see: Interview with Tom] and investigates the mystery of B.C.’s ‘Wild Boys’.

Their names are Tom and Will Green and they say that their parents – Mary and Joseph – raised them in virtual isolation in the B.C. interior near Revelstoke [see: link]. They left after a dispute with their parents [See: Interview].

When the local news media first heard about Tom and Will, they had a heyday - dubbing them ‘Bush Boys’ and ‘Wild Boys’. Then the world took an interest. “It attracted media attention from all over North America,” said local RCMP Corporal Henry Proce [see: Resources]. “I was getting calls from CBS in New York, CNN in Atlanta, Los Angeles, as well as all the Canadian networks.” But Tom and Will refused to talk – until now [see: Interview with Tom].

Through a local Vernon [see: link] woman, Tami Ryder, Gillian Findlay was introduced to Tom, 23, and Will, 16. Ryder befriended them after she became alarmed by Will’s emaciated appearance [See: The Trouble with Will]. She found them accommodation at a local hostel and tried to arrange for social assistance.

“I didn’t realize the magnitude of the whole situation,” said Ryder. “I brought them to the government to try and get funding for them but at that point, I didn’t know what was going on until [the officials] said, ‘we need I.D.’ And they said, ‘we don’t have any’.”

Corporal Proce has tried unsuccessfully to locate Tom and Will’s family. “Every policeman loves a mystery,” he said. “We’d love to know what the answers are” [see: Who to Believe?].

http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/040330_boys/main.html

Bits in the square brackets are links to other pages giving more details like interviews wth the boys including:

Who to believe?

According to the brothers, the homestead where they grew up was less than an hour’s walk from Revelstoke, B.C., but very, very hidden. Secrecy was paramount. As children, their parents always told them that if anyone ever found them, they could be taken away.

“I always felt like I had to be responsible, to not compromise that,” says Tom. “I always felt like it was something that was always like top priority, just second to surviving.”

Now that they have come forward, proving they are who they say they are has been a challenge [see: Interview with Tom]. The RCMP has tried to help. Corporal Henry Proce ran all the usual checks:

“We have contacted all the vital statistics in the province,” he says. “There is no record of these boys being born within British Columbia. There is no record of their parents, there’s no driving records, criminals records – nothing tangible, nothing concrete that we could follow up on. Basically, we have no idea where these boys came from who their parents are, their grandparents are … or basically who they are.”

What’s more puzzling is why the boys are so reluctant to help themselves. In November 2003, Tami Ryder drove the brothers back to Revelstoke. Tom had legal papers with him. He said he would ask his parents to sign them, which would help in documenting their births. Tami says she dropped Tom off in an isolated area and waited:

TAMI: He didn’t go into the bush, I guess ... He just waited for us for a couple of hours and came out and said his parents didn’t want to come forward.
DISCLOSURE: You know he didn’t go into bush?
TAMI: I do, yeah.
DISCLOSURE: How do you know that?
TAMI: He did admit that to me ... It just didn’t sit with me. I kept questioning him and questioning him. I don’t get it. ‘You were so cold when we came back to get you and if you hiked in an hour and a back that wouldn’t have happened.’ And he said ‘I’m sorry I had to lie to you.’

For Tom’s part, he says the lie was a ruse [see: Interview]:

TOM: I was kind of testing them. I had to see that no one would try to use dogs or anything to track me.
DISCLOSURE: So you lied, in essence, it was an elaborate lie … to people trying to help you.
TOM: Well, I had to make sure. I couldn’t compromise my parents.

Despite the deception, Tami continues to probe. She’s found, for instance, that the boys think they have grandparents in the San Francisco area [see: Interview]. But every time she feels she’s making progress, the information stops.

“I do believe them,” she says. “I mean, I don’t believe – I don’t know what to believe … just like everybody else, I don’t have concrete facts.”

With no facts, in Vernon and in Revelstoke conspiracy theories have taken over: the parents must have been draft dodgers … members of a religious cult …

According to the brothers, their parents used to make yearly trips into Revelstoke for supplies [see: Interview] and yet in this town of just 10,000 people, no one seems to remember them or the two boys who claim to be their sons.

And then there’s the problem of the weather. It can get pretty wicked in the mountains where the boys claim they grew up, especially in the winter [see: Interview]. Even if the family did survive the elements for 23 years, how did they get by with no income? Tom is vague about that, too:

DISCLOSURE: Tom, what do you know about your parents? Are they here legally?
TOM: I’m not certain and if they’re not even, they could be.
DISLCOSURE: Are they criminals? Have they committed a criminal act that they are escaping?
TOM: No, no. If they are, I don’t know anything about it.
DISCLOSURE: Were you and Will perhaps abducted by these people? Are they really your parents?
TOM: I’m pretty sure they are, because I have recognized certain features on me that match my parents. And I’m pretty certain Will, you know, is my real brother.
DISCLOSURE: You’re “pretty certain.” It’s crossed your mind that perhaps you’re not?
TOM: Well, there are things maybe I’m suspicious about but.
DISCLOSURE: Like what?
TOM: Well, I guess maybe even their names [Mary and Joseph] is little bit suspicious.
DISCLOSURE: What makes you suspicious about their names?
TOM: Well, the names of the parents of Jesus. And I think maybe if they did change their names, that’s a possibility, because nobody is able to find them under those names.

http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/040330_boys/believe.html

Emps
 
'Wild boys' saga turns out to be hoax

From

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/03/MNGIQ609LL1.DTL

'Wild boys' saga turns out to be hoax by 2 brothers Urban brothers spin tales of wilderness life

Roseville, Placer County -- Two brothers who said they were born and raised in the Canadian wilderness appear to be two brothers who were born and raised in urban California and left their home near Sacramento only last summer.

Their mysterious situation caught the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian network television after they were discovered camping in the woods near Vernon, a city of 33,000 about 175 miles northeast of Vancouver. They claimed their parents had moved north from the Bay Area years ago but refused to elaborate and could not produce any documents to prove their identity -- and they could neither work nor receive government assistance without such documents.

Police in Roseville and British Columbia said Friday that the younger of the pair, who called himself "William Anthony Green," actually appears to be Roen Horn, who ran away from his home in Roseville on June 10 when local police and child protective services came to his house to ask his parents about the boy's alarmingly low weight. The boy's self-imposed diet had gone from regular to vegetarian to vegan to what police called "fruitarian."

His concerned mother had earlier taken her son to a hospital to have doctors figure out why the boy wouldn't eat.

The police in Vernon are waiting for confirmation of identity by photos and other means, to be provided by the brothers' parents. But on Friday, asked if the "Green" brothers were really the Horn brothers, Henry Proce, the Canadian police officer working on the case, said, "It certainly looks like a slam dunk." In Roseville, police spokeswoman Dede Gunther, referring to the younger boy, said, "We think it's the same kid."

After Roen Horn fled home, Roseville police put out a "Missing Teenager at Risk" flyer on June 26, describing the boy as 6-feet-1 and 107 pounds. The boy, whose weight apparently dropped to 84 pounds, is in a hospital in Vernon.

His older brother, who appeared on a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. documentary about the case Tuesday night in which he said his name was "Thomas Green," is believed by police to be Kyle Horn, Roen's older brother. The brothers, who were born in San Jose, gave Canadian authorities accurate dates of birth -- Kyle is 23, Roen is 16 -- but that apparently was the only truthful part of their story.

When discovered camping in the woods outside Vernon last fall, they said they had been raised in the wilderness, outside the smaller town of Revelstoke, by parents who had fled the United States decades earlier. The brothers said their parents' names were "Mary and Joseph Green." In truth, the parents are Rodger and Diana Horn of Roseville.

The Horns were scheduled to fly to Vancouver on Friday night and meet with their sons today either in Vancouver or Vernon. Rodger Horn said he had talked to Canadian immigration authorities, who told him they would waive a deportation hearing and release the brothers to their parents.

At the Horn house in Roseville on Friday, there were tears of joy that the boys were alive and safe -- and expressions of abject bewilderment at the complicated ruse, used mostly by Kyle Horn, to explain the mysterious presence of these two young men in rural Canada. There was a flurry of press stories about the two "wild boys," who actually weren't wild and who lived all winter off the largesse of kindhearted townspeople in Vernon and some social assistance. About three weeks ago, Roen Horn was hospitalized because of his weight. His mother said yesterday she talked to him by phone, and he's back up to about 100 pounds.

Kyle Horn has been busy cleaning out a local hostel to make ends meet. He declined to come to the phone Friday for an interview. But earlier this week, in the widely broadcast CBC interview, he spun out an elaborate tale of his parents settling in the Canadian wilds, where the two boys were born. He adamantly refused to identify his parents beyond giving their supposed names, but he said that they were from California and that his grandparents on his father's side still live in the Bay Area.

Interviews with members of the Horn family and police in the United States and Canada paint a different picture:

By June, Kyle Horn, 22 at the time, "had gotten to the age where he wanted to move out," said his older brother Chad, who lives in Oregon and has put up an instant Web site about his brothers, http://www.wildboys.greatnow.com. "He wanted to be out in the wilderness."

At the same time, Roen Horn was having serious eating disorders. His mother, Diana, said she took him to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, where, she says, after failing to get the boy to gain weight, medical advisers wanted to put him in a mental institution.

"We really can't comment on a case like this due to patient confidentiality laws," said Kaiser spokesman Paul Vetter.

On June 10, an official with Placer County's child and adult protective services agency appeared at the family home with a police officer, Diana Horn said, to take Roen into emergency custody. Placer County Deputy County Counsel Martha Kuhns said she could not comment on the case.

"Roen was in the kitchen" the day of the visit, Chad Horn said, and heard the officials talking to his mother. "He slipped out the back door." From then on, he hid out in the neighborhood as Kyle slipped him food and clothing surreptitiously, Chad Horn said.

About a month after Roen disappeared, Diana Horn told The Chronicle, "Kyle said, 'You know that trip I've been planning to Canada for about two or three years now? Well I think I'm finally ready to take it.' And I'm thinking, good -- maybe he knows where Roen is, and we'll catch him on the way to Canada or at the border."

But the effort to find the boys failed. During the year, their mother said, "He would call us once a month and say, 'I'm in Canada, I'm doing fine, I don't know where Roen is, but don't worry, I betcha he's OK.' "

The brothers' ruse of being on their own in the wilds of Canada, parents living underground and off the radar, unraveled this week when the CBC broadcast their interview and The Chronicle reported on the case Thursday. Thursday night, Sacramento TV station KOVR (Channel 13), citing The Chronicle's report, did a short story on the case.

A friend called the Horn family to report seeing the story, and from there it was a matter of a few hours before the parents were in touch with their children.

As the Canadian officer, Henry Proce, said, there's just one big question now: "Why did they spin this whole tale?"

Chronicle staff writer Alan Gathright contributed to this report.E-mail the writers at [email protected] and [email protected].


Cheers

Zane
 
'Wild boys' saga turns out to be hoax by 2 brothers Urban brothers spin tales of wilderness life


Michael Taylor and Greg Lucas, Chronicle Staff Writers

Saturday, April 3, 2004




Roseville, Placer County -- Two brothers who said they were born and raised in the Canadian wilderness appear to be two brothers who were born and raised in urban California and left their home near Sacramento only last summer.

Their mysterious situation caught the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian network television after they were discovered camping in the woods near Vernon, a city of 33,000 about 175 miles northeast of Vancouver. They claimed their parents had moved north from the Bay Area years ago but refused to elaborate and could not produce any documents to prove their identity -- and they could neither work nor receive government assistance without such documents.

Police in Roseville and British Columbia said Friday that the younger of the pair, who called himself "William Anthony Green," actually appears to be Roen Horn, who ran away from his home in Roseville on June 10 when local police and child protective services came to his house to ask his parents about the boy's alarmingly low weight. The boy's self-imposed diet had gone from regular to vegetarian to vegan to what police called "fruitarian."

His concerned mother had earlier taken her son to a hospital to have doctors figure out why the boy wouldn't eat.

The police in Vernon are waiting for confirmation of identity by photos and other means, to be provided by the brothers' parents. But on Friday, asked if the "Green" brothers were really the Horn brothers, Henry Proce, the Canadian police officer working on the case, said, "It certainly looks like a slam dunk." In Roseville, police spokeswoman Dede Gunther, referring to the younger boy, said, "We think it's the same kid."

After Roen Horn fled home, Roseville police put out a "Missing Teenager at Risk" flyer on June 26, describing the boy as 6-feet-1 and 107 pounds. The boy, whose weight apparently dropped to 84 pounds, is in a hospital in Vernon.

His older brother, who appeared on a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. documentary about the case Tuesday night in which he said his name was "Thomas Green," is believed by police to be Kyle Horn, Roen's older brother. The brothers, who were born in San Jose, gave Canadian authorities accurate dates of birth -- Kyle is 23, Roen is 16 -- but that apparently was the only truthful part of their story.

When discovered camping in the woods outside Vernon last fall, they said they had been raised in the wilderness, outside the smaller town of Revelstoke, by parents who had fled the United States decades earlier. The brothers said their parents' names were "Mary and Joseph Green." In truth, the parents are Rodger and Diana Horn of Roseville.

The Horns were scheduled to fly to Vancouver on Friday night and meet with their sons today either in Vancouver or Vernon. Rodger Horn said he had talked to Canadian immigration authorities, who told him they would waive a deportation hearing and release the brothers to their parents.

At the Horn house in Roseville on Friday, there were tears of joy that the boys were alive and safe -- and expressions of abject bewilderment at the complicated ruse, used mostly by Kyle Horn, to explain the mysterious presence of these two young men in rural Canada. There was a flurry of press stories about the two "wild boys," who actually weren't wild and who lived all winter off the largesse of kindhearted townspeople in Vernon and some social assistance. About three weeks ago, Roen Horn was hospitalized because of his weight. His mother said yesterday she talked to him by phone, and he's back up to about 100 pounds.

Kyle Horn has been busy cleaning out a local hostel to make ends meet. He declined to come to the phone Friday for an interview. But earlier this week, in the widely broadcast CBC interview, he spun out an elaborate tale of his parents settling in the Canadian wilds, where the two boys were born. He adamantly refused to identify his parents beyond giving their supposed names, but he said that they were from California and that his grandparents on his father's side still live in the Bay Area.

Interviews with members of the Horn family and police in the United States and Canada paint a different picture:

By June, Kyle Horn, 22 at the time, "had gotten to the age where he wanted to move out," said his older brother Chad, who lives in Oregon and has put up an instant Web site about his brothers, http://www.wildboys.greatnow.com. "He wanted to be out in the wilderness."

At the same time, Roen Horn was having serious eating disorders. His mother, Diana, said she took him to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, where, she says, after failing to get the boy to gain weight, medical advisers wanted to put him in a mental institution.

"We really can't comment on a case like this due to patient confidentiality laws," said Kaiser spokesman Paul Vetter.

On June 10, an official with Placer County's child and adult protective services agency appeared at the family home with a police officer, Diana Horn said, to take Roen into emergency custody. Placer County Deputy County Counsel Martha Kuhns said she could not comment on the case.

"Roen was in the kitchen" the day of the visit, Chad Horn said, and heard the officials talking to his mother. "He slipped out the back door." From then on, he hid out in the neighborhood as Kyle slipped him food and clothing surreptitiously, Chad Horn said.

About a month after Roen disappeared, Diana Horn told The Chronicle, "Kyle said, 'You know that trip I've been planning to Canada for about two or three years now? Well I think I'm finally ready to take it.' And I'm thinking, good -- maybe he knows where Roen is, and we'll catch him on the way to Canada or at the border."

But the effort to find the boys failed. During the year, their mother said, "He would call us once a month and say, 'I'm in Canada, I'm doing fine, I don't know where Roen is, but don't worry, I betcha he's OK.' "

The brothers' ruse of being on their own in the wilds of Canada, parents living underground and off the radar, unraveled this week when the CBC broadcast their interview and The Chronicle reported on the case Thursday. Thursday night, Sacramento TV station KOVR (Channel 13), citing The Chronicle's report, did a short story on the case.

A friend called the Horn family to report seeing the story, and from there it was a matter of a few hours before the parents were in touch with their children.

As the Canadian officer, Henry Proce, said, there's just one big question now: "Why did they spin this whole tale?"

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/03/MNGIQ609LL1.DTL

Why does anyone? ;)

[edit: See also:

http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_bushboys20040402 ]

Emps
 
There is a lesson in here somewhere:

Boy raised by dog dies on welfare

From correspondents in Bangkok
April 12, 2004


A THAI boy who was partially raised by a dog was found dead at a welfare centre where he had been taken for protection, police and welfare officials said today.

Two-year-old Prateep Chumnoon made headlines in the Thai media last year when he was taken from his impoverished 60-year-old grandmother who regularly left him in the care of her pet.

The toddler's body was discovered early Sunday morning inside a high plastic container used for laundry at a welfare centre in the southern Thai province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, local police said.

Welfare officials reportedly removed Prateep from his grandmother's care after neighbours alerted them that the boy had began making dog, rather than human, sounds.

"She left him at home with the dog while she went out for work," chief provincial welfare officer, Theerasak Kwanphet said.

Theerasak said an internal investigation had been ordered into the boy's death.

A police spokesman said the boy had died from injuries that might have been caused by a fall into the container.

"We are investigating as doctors do not know yet whether his death was accidental or not," the police spokesman said.

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9260924^13762,00.html
 
Possibly the worst article I have read in an awful long time (on a par with a dim teenager's scribblings) but its a nice reminder of the anniversary (are they really sure about the date?):

Wild boys

Apr 21, 753BC



On this day, April 21, 753BC, Romulus, founder of Rome, and his twin brother Remus were found as children being suckled by a wolf. MegaStar was there to lap up the hirsute news...

"Hope your kids turn feral!"

Yes, the popular retort heard resounding across rough mud hut estates everywhere, garnered new meaning today.

Two boys have been found in the big foot-shaped bit of Europe being raised by a she-wolf.

And we don't just mean she's a minger.

This lady's the real deal - four paws, fangs and body hair to rival Richard Keys.

Singing songs about needing just the bear necessities, or something, the uncultivated duo has been taken into care pending a social services enquiry.

Named Romulus and Remus by some poncy civil servant, we have renamed the twins the more apt Dwayne and Wayne for ease - and to save the poor dogboys' blushes.

Despite howling at the moon and having a penchant for girls in red hoods, there luckily appears to be few ill affects of their strange upbringing.

Except Dwayne's over boisterous attempts to murder his brother and create a new national, all-powerful citadel.

http://www.megastar.co.uk/news/news/2004/04/21/sMEG01MTA4MjUzNDUxNjI.html

Emps
 
Chicken boy

A lost 'boy' learns life from the start

03.07.2004
By CATHERINE MASTERS

The people who look after Sujit Kumar in Fiji call him a boy, even though he is 32 years old.

He cannot speak and is only just learning to communicate with humans.

The reason, they say, is that he was brought up among chickens.

One of those helping to look after him is Elizabeth Clayton, president of the Suva Rotary Club.

Ms Clayton - widow of New Zealand mountain climber Roger Buick, who died on Mt Everest in 1998 - admits it is an astonishing claim, but says it is true.

She says that when she first met Sujit he pecked at his food and would crouch down as if roosting.

His fingers still turn inward from scratching around in the dirt. Although he has progressed to eating from a plate, he seems detached from much that goes on around him.

Ms Clayton discovered him in an old people's home in Suva. He had been tied to his bed for 20 years after being found in the middle of the road one night and taken to the home by welfare officers.

She has been piecing together his past and says when his mother committed suicide and his father was murdered, Sujit fell into the care of his elderly grandfather.

But his grandfather had no idea what to do with him and locked him in the chicken coop.

It is thought he lived there for years with nothing to model himself on but the chickens around him.

A sister in the Samabula Old People's Home, where Sujit lives in Suva, told Ms Clayton that when he first arrived it was obvious he had been badly mistreated, traumatised and environmentally deprived.

"Sujit would mostly hop around like a chicken, peck at his food, perch like a chicken and make noises like a chicken," she said.

"He would prefer to roost on the floor to go to sleep rather than sleep in a bed."

According to a report in a Suva newspaper which quoted American behavioural scientists, he displays no signs of mental illness or conditions such as autism.

The Rotary Club in Suva has taken responsibility for his education and Ms Clayton is calling on any members of his family to come forward and share his babyhood experiences so he might be helped to learn to speak.

Ms Clayton provides the school room for Sujit in an old factory.

It is next door to another old factory on the outskirts of Suva which achieved notoriety last month as the scene of a $1 billion methamphetamine bust.

Link*
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004081...D=3576206&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
 
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More on him:

Doctors Trying To Rehabilitate Man Raised By Chickens

POSTED: 9:38 am CDT July 9, 2004
UPDATED: 2:26 pm CDT July 9, 2004

SUVA, Fiji -- Social workers in Fiji are trying to rehabilitate a 32-year-old man they say was raised by chickens, according to NBC.


As a young child, the man was locked in a chicken coop for several years by his grandfather after his parents died. He had little contact with humans and picked up the habits of the birds.

After escaping from the coop, the man was taken to a local hospital. No one knew how to treat him, so hospital workers locked him in a room and tied him to his bed for more than 20 years.

Now, doctors are trying to treat the man. They say he has no mental defects and agree his condition is from years of abuse and neglect.

"He had imitated or imprinted with the chicken," said Elizabeth Clayton who is rehabilitating the man. "He was perching, he was picking at his food, he was hopping around like a chicken. He'd keep his hands in a chicken-like fashion, and he'd make a noise which was like the calling of a chicken -- which he still has."

Doctors said the man has made remarkable progress and is now learning to walk and speak like a human.

theneworleanschannel.com/news/3510738/detail.html
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Man Raised As Chicken

Cluck
Link is dead. No archived version found.

A man in Suva, Fiji, is being taught to act human after being raised as a chicken.

Sunjit Kumar was locked in a chicken coop for several years as a young boy, after his parents died and he was handed over to his grandfather.

He had little contact with humans during that time and picked up the habits of the birds.

Kumar escaped from the chicken coop and was taken to a local hospital. But the staff did not know how to treat him, so they confined him. He spent 20 years there, often tied to his bed.

Kumar, who is now 32, finally got a second chance at life when he was discovered by Elizabeth Clayton, a native New Zealander and president of the Suva Rotary Club.

Clayton said doctors examined Sunjit and found no mental defects. Professionals agreed that his condition was the result of years of neglect and abuse.

"He had imitated or imprinted with the chicken," Clayton said. "He was perching, he was picking at his food, he was hopping around like a chicken. He'd keep his hands in a chickenlike fashion, and he'd make a noise, which was like the calling of a chicken, which he still has."

Clayton took over Kumar's care and he has reportedly made "remarkable progress," learning to walk and speak like a human.
 
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Been doing some research on Feral Children to help me teach kids about Language Acquisition. Found lots of helpful stuff (in amongst quite a lot of sensationalist stuff). However, one of the best documented cases has rather caught my imagination and got me thinking...

There's a good synopsis of the case here:
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=genie



Anyhow, "Genie" would be about 47 years old by now (if she's still alive), but all accounts of her life stop in the late seventies when her mother regained custody; sued and severed ties with Curtiss' scientists and eventually moved the girl into some kind of accomodation for retarded adults.
Am I being ghoulish in wondering what happened to this terribly sad individual? I just feel like there's at least another 'chapter' of her life that we're not going to get to know about - But, then, I guess there's no moral standpoint from which I can claim a right to find out about someone else's personal life...
 
From todays Independant-

Siberian boy, 7, raised by dogs after parents abandoned him
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow

04 August 2004

A Mowgli-like wild boy who appears to have been raised by a dog since he was three months old has been discovered living in a remote part of Siberia seven years after he was abandoned by his parents.

Andrei Tolstyk, now seven, was found by social workers who wondered why the boy had not enrolled at his local school in the beautiful Siberian region of Altai.

Deprived of human contact for so long, Andrei could not talk and had adopted many dog-like traits including walking on all fours, biting people, sniffing his food before he ate it and general feral behaviour.

Andrei, like Rudyard Kipling's fictional Mowgli in The Jungle Book, had spent almost his entire youth in the company of animals. According to the local press, his very existence had been forgotten. His mother left home when he was just three months old, entrusting Andrei's care to his alcoholic, invalid father who also appears to have abandoned the boy soon afterwards and drifted away.

The hamlet of Bespalovskoya, where the family lived, was so sparsely populated and the house so remote that the parents' absence went unnoticed by the few other inhabitants. Instead, Andrei reportedly forged a close bond with the only other living thing around, the family guard dog, which somehow helped him survive and grow up.

Doctors say Andrei was born with speech and hearing problems but that his wayward parents made no effort with him before their departure. Known as the "dog boy" by some in the Russian media, he has now been moved to a shelter for orphans in a nearby town where he is being encouraged to mix with other children.

When he first arrived at the shelter, staff told the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti that he was afraid of people, behaved aggressively and erratically and continued to sniff all his food before eating it. They were, however, able to communicate him using basic sign language. Two weeks after his arrival they say he began to walk on two legs and has since mastered the art of eating with a spoon, making his own bed and playing with a ball.

The other orphans are reported to be suspicious of the boy they call "wild" but Andrei is said to have struck up a friendship with a little girl with whom he communicates using sign language.

Doctors, paediatricians and psychologists are currently trying to work out whether Andrei can be taught normal human behaviour. If the answer is yes he will be transferred to another children's home; otherwise he will be dispatched to a specialised boarding school. Police are hunting for his parents, who are likely to face charges of neglect and endangerment.

Andrei Tolstyk's is not the first case of a "feral child" in Russia. In 1998, police near Moscow rescued Ivan Mishukov, then aged six, from a pack of wild dogs with which he had lived for two years. Ivan had left the family home when he was four to get away from his mother and her abusive alcoholic boyfriend. He took to begging and won the dogs' trust by offering them scraps of food. In return, they protected him, from the cold and from ill-wishers, and made him their pack leader. Police finally managed to separate the boy from the dogs by leaving bait for the pack in a restaurant kitchen.

There have, however, been a number of "feral child" hoaxes. The website FeralChildren.com website lists some far-fetched cases - among them are the "The Wild Boy of Burundi", "The Delphos Wolf Girl", and "the Syrian gazelle-boy".


4 August 2004 15:56


Original story here.
 
Another report on that last one:

Boy Raised by Dog Found in South Siberia

Created: 03.08.2004 10:46 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:03 MSK

MosNews


Regional authorities in the Siberian Altai region have discovered a seven-year-old boy who has been raised by a guard dog since he was three months old, the Newsru.com site reports, citing regional papers.

When authorities discovered the boy, Andrei, in the care of a guard dog three weeks ago, he did not know how to speak, and behaved much like a dog: he walks on all fours, bites, and first smells the food he is given. He was taken to a shelter in the Kalman district.

It turned out that Andrei’s mother abandoned him when he was three months old. His father, who was an alcoholic, also left him. The family had been living in a house in an unpopulated area, and the only other living thing that was able to care for the boy was the guard dog that lived outside.

Since he has been living at the shelter, Andrei has learned to walk upright and make his own bed, as well as eat with a spoon and play ball. He still cannot talk, and has only made friends with a girl. The other children are still frightened of him.

Doctors and psychologists are out to determine whether the boy can be taught human behavior so that he can lead a normal life.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/08/03/boydog.shtml
 
The Wild Boy of Kronstadt (and others like him): feral human

I found this from a thread about the Almas at cryptozoology.com: http://www.rfthomas.clara.net/papers/paran.html

Among other descriptions of possible Neanderthaloid creatures reported in Europe and Asia between ancient and early modern times, there is this account of "The Wild Boy of Kronstadt":
Here you have information about the wild boy who was found a few years ago in the Siebenburgen-Wallachischen border [Rumania] and was brought to Kronstadt [now Brasov], where in 1784 he is still alive. How the poor boy was saved from the forests.. I cannot tell. However one must preserve the facts, as they are, in the sad gallery of pictures of this kind.

This unfortunate youth was of the male sex and was of medium size. He had an extremely wild glance. His eyes lay deep in his head, and rolled around in a wild fashion. His forehead was strangely bent inwards, and his hair of ash-gray color grew out short and rough. He had heavy brown eyebrows, which projected out far over his eyes, and a small flat-pressed nose. His neck appeared puffy, and at the windpipe he appeared goitrous. His mouth stood somewhat out when he held it half open as he generally did since he breathed through his mouth. His tongue was almost motionless, and his cheeks appeared more hollow than full, and, like his face, were covered with a dirty yellowish skin. On the first glance at this face, from which a wildness and a sort of animal-being shone forth, one felt that it belonged to no rational creature. . . . The other parts of the wild boy's body, especially the back an the chest were very hairy; the muscles on his arms and legs were stronger and more visible than on ordinary people. The hands were marked with callouses (which supposedly were caused by different uses), and the skin of the hands was dirty yellow and thick throughout, as his face was. On the finger he had very long nails; and on the elbows and knees, he had knobby hardenings. The toes were longer than ordinary. He walked erect, but a little heavily. It seemed as if he would throw himself from one foot to the other. He carried his head and chest forward. ... He walked bare-footed and did not like shoes on his feet. He was completely lacking in speech, even in the slightest articulations of sounds. The sounds which he uttered were ununderstandable murmuring, which he would give when his guard drove him ahead of him. This murmuring was increased to a howling when he saw woods or even a tree. He seemed to express the wish for his accustomed abode; for once when he was in my room from which a mountain could be seen, the sight of the trees caused him to howl wretchedly. ... When I saw him the first time, he had no sense of possession. Probably it was his complete unfamiliarity with his new condition, and the longing for his earlier life in the wilds, which he displayed when he saw a garden or a wood. Similarly I explain why, at the beginning, he showed not the slightest emotion at the sight of women. When I saw him again after three years thus apathy and disrespect had disappeared. As soon as he saw a woman, he broke out into violent cries of joy, and tried to express his awakened desires also through gestures. ... Yet he showed anger and unwillingness when he was hungry and thirsty; and in that case would have very much liked to attack man, though on occasions he would do no harm to men or animals. Aside from the original human body which usually causes a pitiful impression in this state of wildness, and aside from walking erect, one missed in him all the characteristic traits through which human beings are distinguished from the animals; it was rather a much more pitiful sight to see how this helpless creature would waddle around in front of his keeper growling and glaring wildly, and longing for the presence of animals of prey, insensible to everything which appeared before him. In order to control this wild urge, as soon as he came near to the gates of the city, and approached the gardens and woods, they used to tie him up in the beginning. He had to be accompanied by several persons, because he would have forced himself free and would have run away to his former dwelling. In the beginning his food consisted only of all kinds of tree leaves, grass, roots, and raw meat. Only very slowly did he accustom himself to cooked food; and, according to the saying of the person who took care of him, a whole year passed before he learned to eat cooked food; when very obviously his animal wildness diminished.

I am unable to say how old he was. Outwardly he could have been from twenty-three to twenty-five years old. Probably he will never learn hoe to speak. When I saw him again after three years, I still found him speechless, though changed very obviously in many other respects. His face still expressed something animal-like but had become softer. ... The desire for food, of which he now liked all kinds (particularly legumes), he would show by intelligible sounds. He showed his visible contentment when one brought him something to eat, and sometimes he would use a spoon. He had gotten used to wear shoes and other clothes; but he was careless about how much they were torn. Slowly he was able to find a way to his house without a leader; the only work for which he could be used consisted of giving him a water jug which he would fill at the well and bring to the house. This was the only service which he could perform for his guardian. He also knew how to provide himself with food by diligently visiting the houses where people had given him food. The instinct of imitation was shown on many occasions; but nothing made a permanent impression on him. Even if he imitated a thing several times, he soon forgot it again, except the custom which had to do with his natural needs, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, etc., and everything which had connection with these. He found his home in the evening, and at noon, the house where he expected food, led only by his habits. He never learned to know the value of money. He did accept it but only with the intention of playing with it, and he did not care when he lost it again. Chiefly he was in every respect like a child whose capacities had begun to develop, only with this difference that he was unable to speak and could not make any progress in that regard. He showed his likeness with a child in the fact that he would gape at everything which one showed him; but, with the same lack of concentration, he would change his glance from the old objects to new ones. If one showed him a mirror he would look behind it for the image before him. But he was completely indifferent when he did not find it, and would allow the mirror to get out of his range of vision. The tunes from musical instruments seemed to interest him, but it was a very slight interest which did not leave any impression. When I led him in front of the piano in my room, he listened to the tunes with an apparent pleasure, but did not dare to touch the keys. He showed great fear when I tried to force him to do so. Since 1784, the year he left Kronstadt, I never had a chance to receive any more reports about him.
The author of the web page believes that this "wild boy" was not just a feral human (like the Indian "wolf children") but a relict Neanderthal-type hominid, citing the nearness to human of this and other reports as marking out "wildmen" as Neanderthals and not Paranthropus (which AFAIK was a robust australopithecine), but reckoning the differences from normal human are enough to suggest that he wasn't human.

The other thing that needs to be considered IMO is that it's probably often true that "feral" children were abandoned in the wilderness in the first place because they had physical or mental impairments (eg things like autism or Down's syndrome), and that children who are deprived of human contact from an early age have been proven to permanently lose the ability to learn language. The physical abnormalities of the "Wild Boy" could be down to some genetic disability, or even due to dietary deprivation, but still sound remarkably like the features of Neanderthal man.

Is this case generally known as a "feral child" case, or has anyone else suggested that there could be a crossover between reports of feral children and of relict or cryptid hominoids?

(I'd also be interested to know whether this is the same Kronstadt from the infamous battle of the Russian Revolution...)
 
Personally I think you're probably right in saying the *Wild Boy* had some genetic condition as most of the facial descriptors reminded me of Cri-Du-Chat Syndrome:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001593.htm

note though, I say reminds me.

Although males with CDC usually tend to be more learning disabled than say a female with the condition- speech may never develop and the greying of hair at a young age is also part of the syndrome.

Guttural noises may be apparent if a person lacks the ability of speech, the *cat's cry* that is apparent as a baby, develops into a low moaning.

The thickened neck sounds about right, as CDC causes microcephaly and although it may appear that a person's neck is somewhat enlarged etc. it may not be the case because the microcephaly makes it appear larger, same with the tongue.

The tongue may be the same size as someone without CDC (i.e. you or me) but due to the facial differences it may appear lolling or too large for a person's mouth.

edit-

forgot to mention as well, the sexual overtones that the *Wild Boy* displayed apparently towards a woman, how would he recognise a woman if he lived out in the woods on his apparent own? (unless of course there was tribe of *Wild People*,

anyway, in some cases inappropriate sexualised behaviour occurs, I wonder if he was just displaying the behaviour as he would not have sufficient social skills to realise that this is not *normal* behaviour and because a female happened to be around, it was misconstrued.
 
Somewhere I have a "best of the fortean times" book that talks about kids who were raised in the wild. I remember one of them actually attacked chickens(I think to eat them, but I can't remember). I believe this kid walked on all fours though. Not really crawling, kind of walking like a dog or something.
 
Abandoned boy said to have been raised by a dog

04.08.2004
By ANDREW OSBORN in Moscow

A Mowgli-like wild boy who appears to have been raised by a dog since he was three months old has been discovered living in a remote part of Siberia seven years after he was abandoned by his parents.

Andrei Tolstyk was discovered three weeks ago by social workers who wondered why the seven-year-old had not enrolled at his local school in the beautiful Siberian region of Altai.

Deprived of human contact for so long, Andrei could not talk and had adopted many dog-like traits, including walking on all fours, biting people, sniffing his food before he ate it and general feral behaviour.

In an extraordinary case of life imitating art, Andrei, like Rudyard Kipling's fictional Mowgli in 'The Jungle Book', had spent almost his entire youth in the company of animals.

According to the local press, his existence had been forgotten.

His mother left home when he was three months old, entrusting Andrei's care to his alcoholic invalid father who also appears to have abandoned the boy soon afterwards and drifted away.

Incredibly, the hamlet of Bespalovskoya where the family lived was so sparsely populated and the house so remote that the parents' absence went unnoticed by the lonely outpost's few other inhabitants.

Instead, Andrei reportedly forged a close bond with the only other living thing around, the family guard dog, which somehow helped the young baby survive and grow up.

Doctors say that Andrei was born with speech and hearing problems anyway but that his wayward parents made no effort with him for the short time that they hung around.

Dubbed a 'dog boy' by some in the Russian media, he has now been moved to a shelter for orphans in a local town where he is being encouraged to mix with other children.

When he first arrived, the shelter staff told RIA-Novosti that he was afraid of people, behaved aggressively and erratically and continued to sniff all his food before eating it. They were, however, able to communicate him using basic sign language.

Two weeks after his arrival they say he began to walk on two legs and has since mastered the art of eating with a spoon, making his own bed and playing with a ball.

The other orphans are reported to be suspicious of the boy they call 'wild' but Andrei is said to have struck up a friendship with a little girl with whom he communicates using sign language.

Doctors, paediatricians and psychologists are currently carrying out a series of tests on Andrei to ascertain whether he can be taught normal human behaviour. If the answer is yes he will be transferred to a normal children's home; otherwise he will be dispatched to a specialised boarding school.

Police have initiated a search for his parents, who are likely to face various charges of neglect and endangerment if and when they are found.

Andrei Tolstyk's is not the first case of 'a feral child' in Russia. In 1998 police near Moscow 'rescued' Ivan Mishukov, then six years old, from the clutches of a pack of wild dogs he had lived with for the last two years.

Mishukov left the family home when he was four to get away from his mother and her abusive alcoholic boyfriend. He took to begging and won the dogs' trust by offering them scraps of food. In return they protected him, from the cold and from ill-wishers, and made him their pack leader. The police tried to rescue him three times but each time he was protected by the dogs.

They eventually managed to separate the boy from the dogs by leaving bait for the pack in a restaurant kitchen.

Mishukov, who could speak before he went wild, has been successfully reintegrated into society though is said to still dream of dogs.

Link*

*EDIT: Link shortened by WhistlingJack
 
Interesting follow up on a feral child - on tonight (10pm Channel 4):

Wild Child – The Story of Feral Children

Kate Roach

December 2003

American clinical neuroscientist Dr Bruce Perry has devoted his life to understanding and helping children who have been neglected, abused and maltreated. He never ceases to be amazed by their resilience: 'We should look at these children, not with pity, but with awe. They have this kernel of humanity that will not be crushed. You can't imagine what these children go through, being raised in a cage, in a dark room, nobody talking to you, nobody giving you anything to play with, nobody telling you you're special, nothing. It's fascinating that you could go through something like that and that you would still be willing, after what human beings have done to you, to put your hand out and touch another person.'

A terrified three-year-old sits sobbing in an outdoor kennel, cuddled up to a dog for comfort. She has been thrown out of the house by a drunken parent for crying with hunger. Another infant cries alone for hours in a dark room where she is left dirty and hungry. When her cries bring no comfort she turns and passively faces the wall. These are typical experiences in the extraordinary lives of Oxana, Edik and Genie, the children shown on the Channel 4 BodyShock series programme Wild Child. Sadly, their stories are not uncommon – millions of children across the globe experience a life of chaos and terror everyday.

We are all born with a full quota of brain cells, but in infancy they are poorly organised. During childhood, our brains become organised into networks of connected cells that mediate the way we feel, think and behave. Our deepest wishes and saddest moments, our loves and losses, all are stored, catalogued, sorted and organised, in the three-pound organ that defines us. Our brains make us who we are and our childhood experience makes our brains what they are.

A baby's brain is largely determined by genetic potential; babies arrive pre-wired to execute a number of survival strategy reflexes, like crying when hungry. But a baby's brain also comes with networks of connected brain cells (called neural networks) that have no specific function. How these will later function depends largely on sensory input. As a result of repeated experience, specific neural networks are formed and strengthened. Others undergo a kind of pruning, whereby connections that haven't been strengthened by experience are eliminated. The end result is that the brain is sculpted to fit the life of the child. Eventually, the structure and function of the brain will come to reflect the individual lifestyle of the person.

Fear changes children's brains

Consistent, predictable nurturing and stimulation is essential if children are to develop their potential. Fear brought on by neglect or abuse inhibits neural development because it deters learning, exploration and trust in others – all things that the brain needs in order to develop fully.
Edik

There is much debate in the scientific arena about the timing of development. If attributes don't develop at the usual ages or they are delayed, can they be learned later or has the critical period passed? Having never really heard language in her life, Genie, aged 12, was able to learn words, but not sentences. But Oxana, on the other hand, who was discovered living with dogs, aged nine, was able to master language. Individual cases will vary of course, and there may have been another reason why Genie could not master speech – her father had beaten her when she made a noise. Psychologists hold out good hopes for Edik who was found living with dogs at the age of four.

On the whole, the earlier a developmentally deprived child is discovered, the better are their prospects of recovery, in every respect. Though their ability to recover can be astounding, no child who has been neglected or abused can survive totally unscathed.

www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/s ... hock2.html
 
Half-human, half-animal: return of the girl who was lost in the wild for 18 years
Nick Meo

To the man who insists that he is her father, there is no doubt that the filthy, naked woman caught stealing rice from loggers in the jungle like a wild animal is the daughter he gave up as lost 18 years ago.
The woman, found last Saturday in a remote area in Cambodia, has long, matted hair, grunts and screams instead of speaking and has a hunted expression and a fear of people.

But Ksor Lou said that he instantly recognised the daughter he had last seen when she was 8. The girl, Ro Cham H’pnhieng, had been herding buffalo in the jungle when she vanished in 1989. Mr Ksor always believed that she had been killed by wild animals.

When rumours reached his village that a naked woman had been caught by loggers he decided to have a look.

To his astonishment he recognised her from a childhood scar on her arm from a knife cut. The reconciliation was a joyous one for the father, but apparently not for the daughter, who refuses to wear clothes or eat with chopsticks, fights off anyone who approaches, will not wash and has tried to escape back to the jungle.

Because she can apparently speak no language, it is impossible for her to explain who she is or how she has been living.

“It is not easy, but life is waiting ahead for her,” said Mr Ksor, a policeman who belongs to the Jrai ethnic minority group. He is optimistic about the future, and yesterday, six days after her discovery, the woman’s behaviour was said to be improving a little. “When she is hungry, she pats her stomach as a signal,” Mr Ksor said. “If she is not sleeping, she just sits and glances left and right, left and right.”

The discovery was made in the Oyadao district of Rattanakiri province, 200 miles (320km) from the capital, Phnom Penh, in the northeast of Cambodia near the border with Vietnam.

Mr Ksor told the Associated Press news agency: “When I saw her, she was naked and walking in a bending-forward position like a monkey . . . she was bare-bones skinny. She was shaking and picking up grains of rice to eat. Her eyes were red like a tiger’s eyes.”

Mao San, the police chief of Oyadao district, has described the woman as “half-human and half-animal”, saying that she sleeps all day and is awake at night. Local officials believe that she is Mr Ksor’s daughter.

Sketchy reports from the remote area suggest that the woman lived wild and alone for years. But according to another report yesterday she had been with a naked male companion, who was armed with a machete when she was caught. She had marks on her arm from being bound, suggesting that she might have been kidnapped and kept for years as a slave.

The woman was discovered after a woodsman’s food disappeared from his lunchbox. Chea Bunthoeun, a police officer, said: “He decided to stake out the area and then spotted a naked human being, who looked like a jungle person, sneaking in to steal his rice.” The man gathered some friends and managed to catch her.

Police plan to send the woman to a hospital for medical checks and a blood test to establish her parentage, but villagers are convinced that she is Ro Cham H’pnhieng.

Many Cambodians were forced to spend years hiding in the jungle during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime and the years of civil war after its fall. In 2004 a party of former refugees who had fled into the jungle reappeared after more than two decades. They were clad in bark and leaves and had no idea that the war was over. Twenty-two babies had been born during their wanderings, several of whom had grown into adulthood without meeting any other people.

Cut off from civilisation

A boy aged about 12, known as Victor of Aveyron, was found in woods in southern France at the end of the 18th century. He became a case study in the Enlightenment debate about the difference between humans and animals. Attempts failed to civilise him or to teach him speech

A missing Indian child, Ramu, aged 6, became known as the Lucknow Wolf Boy when he was found in 1954, pictured left. His parents said that a wolf had snatched him as a baby. When reunited with his parents, he lapped milk, chewed on bones and showed more interest in wolves at the zoo. He died in 1968 at Lucknow hospital

In 1970 a girl aged 13 was discovered in a house in California, tied to a potty chair. For ten years she had been locked alone in a room throughout the day. She was unable to talk or walk properly. The girl, Genie, initially made good progress — scoring well on spatial reasoning tests — but she never fully learnt to talk. She lives in a care home

timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 07,00.html
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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I read in the newspaper today that the Cambodian girl desperately wants to go back to the jungle because she hates her new life in civilisation. Sad story.
 
I'll be interested to see the results of the DNA tests as I suspect she might not be their daughter. We'll wait and see.
 
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