When considering animal intelligence, I also include the fascinating tales of feral children.
Feral children are those who, for whatever reason, have been raised outside the confines of normal human behavior. Most often they find themselves abandoned in the wilderness at a young age. Sometimes they are raised by other animals — monkeys, wolves, etc. — other times they fend for themselves. Two famous examples from fiction are Mowgli (of Kipling’s The Jungle Book) and Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes.
(Sadder, but just as interesting, are the class of wild children who, due to neglect, are raised feral.)
What are these children like as adults? Are their thought-processes the same as those raised in a standard human society? How do they adjust to the “real world”? How does their relationship with the natural world change once they’ve been assimilated into society? And how does the way these feral children live influence our understanding of animal intelligence?
FeralChildren.com features a long list of children raised by animals, such as Kamala and Amala, the wolf girls of Midnapore. Or The lobo wolf girl of Devil’s River.
For more on this subject, read Genie: A Scientific Tragedy and Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. The wikipedia also has a good article on feral children.
5 responses so far ↓
1 K // Aug 21, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Quite interesting. Very sad.
2 holly // Feb 9, 2008 at 7:33 pm
this is extremely sad!! people need to leave these children in the wild when you take them out they are being taken away from family!! Imagine all of a sudden people come in and say you need to come with us, and then just take you! seiriously! How would you like that?? All they know is what they grew up as! ex: if there was a boy who grew up with wolves, then one day people come in and take him, he will be scared and he will act as a wolf does, because thats all he would know!! my opinon on this subject is leave them!! dogs dont come in and take the puppies we adopt away do they?? why should we do it to them?? we are hurting more than one living thing!
3 Natalie // Feb 11, 2008 at 10:20 am
i’m doing a research project on feral children, and this helped alot. thank you.
4 Jeadiz // May 23, 2008 at 5:18 am
I totally agree with Holly!
5 vera // Jun 20, 2008 at 11:49 pm
i completely agree with holly too. Just because humans think we have the best and only way of life, doesn’t mean we have to inflict our ideals of “civilised society” on those with different ideas!
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