List of fictional feral children

Feral children, children who have lived from a young age without human contact, appear in mythological and fictional works, usually as human characters who have been raised by animals. Often their dual heritage is a benefit to them, protecting them from the corrupting influence of human society (Tarzan), or permitting the development and expression of their own animal nature (Enkidu), or providing access to the wisdom and lore by which animals survive in the wild (Mowgli).

In most tales, the child is lost (Tarzan) or abandoned (Romulus and Remus) before being found and adopted in a chance encounter with a sympathetic wild animal. In some stories, the child chooses to abandon human society (''Where the Wild Things Are'') or refuses to enter society altogether ( Peter Pan). The child usually returns to civilization, but may decide to return again to life in the wild (Tarzan). In some cases, they find themselves trapped between worlds unable to enter entirely into either human society or animal society (Mowgli).

In mythology and ancient literature

* Enkidu, raised by unspecified beasts, becomes the friend of the hero Gilgamesh. (see also Epic of Gilgamesh)
* Iranian šāhnāmeh "''The Book of Kings / The king of books''", introduces Zaal, the mythical hero of Iran, raised by Simurgh, a very large and wise bird which darkens the sky when flying, said to be related to the phoenix.
* In Ibn Tufail's ''Hayy ibn Yaqdhan'', Hayy is raised by a gazelle on a desert island and becomes an autodidactic philosopher.
* In Ibn al-Nafis' ''Theologus Autodidactus'', Kamil is also raised by animals on a deserted island, and becomes an autodidactic scientist and theologian.
* According to American folklore, Pecos Bill was raised by coyotes.
* In Greek mythology, Atalanta was raised by a she bear after her father abandoned her in a forest until the day she was found by kindly hunters.
* In Mongolian Oirat mythology, the hero Jangar is taught to roar by a tiger, taught to hunt by an eagle, taught to run by antelope, suckled by she-wolves, and fed fruit by deer.

In modern prose

* In 1879, Albert Robida created ''The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul''. Saturnin Farandoul a child raised by orangutans who becomes king of the apes.
* H. Rider Haggard's 1889 novelette, " Allan's Wife," features the antagonist Hendrika, a white Boer child who was stolen and raised by baboons. She is later rescued and "civilized" by an English family, but she retains baboon-like behavior and the ability to communicate with baboons.
* An early modern example of a feral child comes from Rudyard Kipling's 1894 short story collection ''The Jungle Book''. His protagonist Mowgli is raised by wolves and becomes the ruler of the jungle.
* Peter Pan, created by J. M. Barrie in 1902, is a boy who fled to the magical Neverland and refused to grow up.
* '' The Blue Lagoon'', created by H. de Vere Stacpoole in (1908) tells the story of two English children, a boy and a girl, stranded on a deserted tropical island in the Polynesia.
* Tarzan, of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ ''Tarzan of the Apes'' (1912), has become an iconic hero of novels, comic strips, and motion pictures.
* The German trilogy Die Höhlenkinder (1918-1920) by Alois Theodor Sonnleitner is about two children who grow up in a hidden area cut off from the outside world without adults, after they had to flee from the Thirty Years' War. Later they have a son who finds his way back.
* ''Shasta of the Wolves'' (1919) by Olaf Baker, in which a Native American boy is raised by a wolf pack in the Pacific Northwest.
* ''The Garden of God'' (1923), a sequel of '' The Blue Lagoon'' which features a new British child couple, descendants of the British child couple from the previous book generated by incest who live a new adventure on the same Polynesian island.
* '' Jungle Born'' (1924) by John Eyton, in which a boy raised by rhesus macaques in northern India inadvertently saves a teenage girl from her abusive father.
* '' The House Without Windows & Eepersip's Life There'' (1927) by Barbara Newhall Follett, in which Eepersip, runs away from home to live in idyllic Nature (successively, a meadow, the sea, and, finally, the mountains).
* '' Bijeli jelen'' / "White Deer" (1947) by Vladimir Nazor, in which a six-year-old girl named Anka was lost in the forest while herding a flock of geese. She is adopted by deer and soon befriends most of animals in the forest. Her main antagonist is a wolf, while her closest ally is a white deer. After growing up she becomes a powerful forest-warrior who helps both animals and humans living in the forest.
* In Howard Fast's 1960 short story "The First Men", a tale of a wolf-child starts off the series of letters.
* In Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 novel '' Stranger in a Strange Land'', Valentine Michael Smith is a human raised by Martians on Mars, as he returns to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with — and eventual transformation of — human culture.
* In Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's 1971 novel ''The Little One'' (also known as '' Space Mowgly''), a human from Earth, Piere Semyonov, has been raised by an alien non-humanoid civilization after his parents' spaceship crashed onto an uncharted planet. After his discovery by the Terran scientists, several attempts to integrate him back to human society were undertaken, but all were in vain.
* The theme of young adolescent runaways seeking shelter with wild animals and learning their ways is seen in novels such as the Newbery Medal-winning novel ''Julie of the Wolves'' by Jean Craighead George (1972).
* Philip Jose Farmer's anthology ''Mother Was A Lovely Beast: A Feral Man Anthology, Fiction And Fact About Humans Raised By Animals'' (1974) collects several stories of fictional feral children.
* Jane Yolen's ''Passager'' (1996), the first of the ''Young Merlin'' trilogy of short novels, depicts a slightly more realistic view of such childhood. Abandoned in a Welsh forest at the age of seven years, the boy who will become Merlin lives in the forest for a year nearly as well as its natives, until a falconer who is used to domesticating animals captures him and begins the long and difficult task of educating him in human behavior.
* In Karen Hesse's ''The Music of Dolphins'' (1996), a young girl called Mila is found after having been raised by dolphins for over a decade. In the book, Mila is taken to a clinic with other undomesticated human young, none of whom adapt to mainstream humanity as easily as she does. At the end of the book, Mila returns to the dolphin pod, showing her rejection of human society.
* In the "Firekeeper Saga" starting with '' Through Wolf's Eyes'' (2001) by author Jane Lindskold, the family of a young girl named Firekeeper and her colony are killed by a fire, and she is the only survivor. She is then taken in by the "Royal Wolves" who speak their own language with gestures and signals. Because Firekeeper had already learned a human language before going to live with the wolves, she was able to return to human society and became a valuable asset to the royalty, but she found that humans were not as noble as the wolves she loved as family. Firekeeper is always barefoot and tends to throw fits whenever she is told to wear shoes. It is her greatest wish to become a wolf herself and leave the humans behind again.
* ''Wild Angel'' (2001) by Pat Murphy tells the story of a young girl raised by wolves from the age of four in gold-rush-era California.
* '' World War Z'' by Max Brooks contain many references to feral children - in this case, children who were separated from normal humanity at some point during the zombie war, and were forced to live in the wild, contending not just with the problems of survival but also the hazard posed by the walking dead. The novel suggests they formed a kind of rudimentary social or "pack" structure with basic tool-using abilities, and in most cases were capable of being slowly rehabilitated.
* In the 2006 book ''Dogboy'' by Victor Kelleher, a young boy is abandoned at birth by his mother and is raised by a half domestic dog in a litter of puppies. He is later brought back to a nearby human settlement by the dog, searching for a home with her owner once again, and her only surviving pup but is rejected as an abomination.
* Camilla Way's 2008 novel '' Little Bird'' concerns a girl kidnapped as a toddler by a mute and held captive until the age of twelve.
* In 2009 Eva Hornung's novel ''Dogboy'', set in Moscow, tells the story of two feral children who live with a pack of dogs. One of the children was abandoned at the age of 4 and the other is brought to the lair, as a baby, by the dominant female in the pack. The children eventually come under the notice of two scientists working in a centre that rehabilitates abandoned children.
* ''The Dictator's Moustaches'', a 2009 Italian novel by Anna Russo concerns an abandoned baby rescued and brought up by dogs.
* ''Magic Hour'' by Kristin Hannah concerns a young girl who appears out of the forest, with no information as to her origins. She is called 'wolf girl'; she is cared for and eventually loved by fallen psychologist Julia.
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* In the Steven Bauer book '' Satyrday'', Derin was raised by a satyr named Matthew, after an evil great horned owl killed his family and destroyed his clan..

In comics

* "The Wild Wonders" in the 1970s British comic book series ''Valiant'' are two boys lost on a Scottish island and raised in a normal environment, developing their own language. Returned to human civilization at about a decade old, they become superb athletes and enjoy many comic adventures.
* In " Fishboy", written by Scott Goodall, (1968 - 1975 in ''Buster''), the hero of the title was abandoned on a remote island as a baby, implausibly learned how to breathe underwater and to communicate with aquatic fauna, and grew webbed fingers and toes.
* Goodall also created "Kid Chameleon" (1970–1972) in '' Cor!!'' Raised by reptiles in the Kalahari Desert after the murder of his parents, Kid Chameleon wears a suit of lizard scales that can change color to camouflage him like his namesake the chameleon.
* The French comic book ( bande dessinée) ''Pyrénée'' (1998), by Regis Loisel and Philippe Sternis, features a girl who is raised by a bear and taught wisdom by a blind old eagle in the French Pyrenees, the bear having named her after the mountains without the "s". This story has won critical acclaim and has been translated into German and Dutch, but has also drawn some criticism over the girl's nudity.
* Little Dee is a webcomic where a prevocal human who was lost in a forest is adopted by a bear, dog, and vulture. The strip contains purely fantastic elements (the characters live in a cave but occasionally fly planes or cook food) and focuses more on the natives and their issues of handling a human.
* In DC Comics' Elseworlds story '' Superman: The Feral Man of Steel'' (1994), Kal-El (Clark Kent) is raised by wolves in 19th century India, in an homage to ''The Jungle Book'', until he is discovered by an expedition led by Lex Luthor and Lois Lane and brought back to Britain.
* In the Marvel Comics universe, a Tarzan-inspired character Ka-Zar is raised by a sabertooth tiger named Zabu in the Savage Land, a vast tropical jungle hidden from the world in the depths of Antarctica. He goes on to have many adventures including features in the popular X-Men series where he also has some encounters with Spider-Man.
* The Quality Comics hero Black Condor, was a boy raised in Mongolia by highly intelligent condors, gains the improbable power of flight and later becomes a superhero. ''Secret Origins'' #21 revealed that Condor's flight ability was due to a radioactive meteorite near the condors' nest.
* Holyoke Publishing's hero Cat-Man was orphaned at a young age and raised by Burmese tigers. He adapted to life in the wild by developing super-strength, enhanced vision, and other talents which served him well when he returned to the US and became a superhero.
* The Hexagon Comics hero Zembla was a boy raised by lions.
* Cassandra Cain, the fourth Batgirl, was raised by her father David Cain to be the perfect assassin, taught to read body language instead of learning human speech and isolated from anyone who might talk to her until she was eight years old. In her initial appearances she was unable to speak, capable of picking up combat skills easily and predicting opponents' moves in a fight simply from the way they stood but unable to understand spoken language, but has since been shown to have learned how to speak and think in English with help from a psychic 'rewiring' her brain to accept language.
* Trolls de Troy features a human girl named Waha, who was accidentally raised by Trolls from infancy.
* In the Japanese manga ''Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba'', Inosuke Hashibara was raised by wild boars, wearing the hide of his boar mother after her death.

In film

These films have fiction and one is based on the true story:

* The 1965 film ''Mara of the Wilderness'' featuring Mara Wade (played by Lori Saunders) who was raised by wolves in the Alaskan wilderness (ever since her parents were killed in a bear attack) where she lives barefoot and only wearing a fur dress. Mara later befriends an anthropologist named Ken Williams (played by Adam West) who is interested in teaching her what is in the world. Ken also discovers that she is hunted by a ruthless carnival worker named Jarnagan (played by Theo Marcuse).
* '' L'Enfant Sauvage'', a 1970 French film directed by François Truffaut, is based on the true story of a nude feral boy (played by Jean-Pierre Cargol) discovered living in the forests of 18th century France. A doctor (played by François Truffaut) who is a deaf specialist tries to socialize the boy who cannot speak. Based on the account of Dr. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard.
* '' The Blue Lagoon'', a 1980 film directed by Randal Kleiser, two cousins Emmeline and Richard Lestrange left since Paddy died after a drunken bringe.
* The 1982 Italian comedy '' Bingo Bongo'' features a man who grew up among chimpanzees in the African jungle after escaping a plane crash as a baby.
* In the Kennedy– Miller film ''Mad Max 2'', a character called the " Feral Kid" lives in the wasteland near the refinery settlement. He flips, growls when displeased and has a fascination for the Gyro Captain's autogyro. The Feral Kid wears shorts and boots made from hide, hunts and defends himself using a lethal metal boomerang.
* On the Mexican "clone" of ''Tarzan'' called ''El Rey de Los Gorilas'' also known as ''El Simio Blanco'' (means ''The King of the Gorillas'' and also known as ''The White Ape''), a baby survived in the canoe that drifted away from the "Black Forest", the territory of the fearsome cannibal tribe called "The Plant Men". The gorilla that found the baby tore off the baby's clothes and the baby boy was naked. The narrator named him Ape. He grew up in a green loincloth with back length hair as a 12-year-old child and later sported a beard, shoulder blade-length hair, and a different loincloth as a man. Ape rescued a woman named Eva from the Plant Men to the jungle and they fell in love. Some months later, they had a son.
* In the 1994 film, " The Secret of the Roan Inish" Fiona's brother, Jamie was thought to be lost at sea as an infant but was raised by a seal-like creature called a selkie.
* In the ''Tarzan'' parody ''George of the Jungle'', the main protagonist George (as depicted in the live-action film) was traveling in the airplane above Bukuvu (a fictional nation in Africa) and the plane crashed. None of the passengers died, but George was lost. He was raised by an ape named ''"APE"'' who could speak in human language and even read books and played violin. In one episode of the 2007 reboot of the series, he came here in a monsoon of orphans.
* '' Walk Like a Man'' is a 1987 comedy film starring Howie Mandel about a man who was raised by wild dogs.
* '' Bad Boy Bubby'' is a 1993 Australian film by director Rolf de Heer in which the title character is subjected to lifelong social isolation by his mother. Events in the film lead Bubby to venture into the world where many of his interactions take on a darkly comical aspect.
* ''Nell'' is a film in which a young woman (portrayed by Jodie Foster) is raised by her extremely androphobic mother in an isolated cabin, and has to face other human beings for the first time after her mother's death.
* In the ''Friday the 13th'' film series, the main character Jason Voorhees was presumed drowned when he was 11 years old, but survived the drowning and grew up living in the woods.
* In '' Batman Returns'', the film's version of Penguin spent his childhood among penguins in Gotham City's sewers after being abandoned by his parents due to his deformity and vicious nature as an infant.
* In the Steven Spielberg film '' The Flintstones'', Barney and Betty Rubble adopt a feral child named Bamm-Bamm, who was raised by wild mastodons.
* In '' Jumanji'', the character Alan Parrish is lost in an alternate realm for 26 years due to the consequences of the eponymous board game where the clue read "In the Jungle You Must Wait Till the Dice Reads 5 or 8." After escaping, Alan (played by Robin Williams) seems relatively normal if a little bit eccentric and paranoid. The character Danny Budwing suffers a similar fate in '' Zathura''.
* The title character of Hayao Miyazaki's 1997 anime film ''Princess Mononoke'', called San, was raised by a wolf goddess along with her two wolf pups. San is drawn into a deadly conflict between the forest gods and the humans whose presence seems to threaten them.
* In ''Human Nature'', a man ( Toby Huss) experiences a psychological breakdown from the stresses of modern living as well as the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. He kidnaps his son to raise him in the woods. This boy (portrayed by Rhys Ifans) is eventually discovered by Dr. Nathan Bronfman (portrayed by Tim Robbins) and Lila Jute (portrayed by Patricia Arquette). Upon being named Puff, he is used by Dr. Bronfman as a living example of socialization's ability to "civilize" a wild human being.
* In ''The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D'', Sharkboy (portrayed by Taylor Lautner) is a young warrior who was raised by sharks after he was separated from his father, a marine biologist, when a waterspout sunk their floating laboratory. He has many shark-like adaptations to his body including gills, fins, sharpened teeth, claws (although they seem to only be attached to his gloves), peak strength, highly trained sense of hearing, strong sense of smell, agility, reflexes and swimming ability. Sharkboy can also communicate with marine life and is not affected by deep sea pressure.
* In the film '' Barbie as the Island Princess'', six-year-old Ro was shipwrecked on an island and raised by a red panda, peacock, and an elephant. Ro has no memory of her past and ten years later a prince discovers the island and takes her back to his kingdom. She is later revealed to be a long-lost princess who was lost at sea.
* In the 2013 horror film ''Mama'', young girls Victoria and Lilly are raised in the forest for 5 years by a spirit they call "Mama" after the spirit killed their depressed father before he could commit murder-suicide on them. As Victoria's glasses were taken from her, she mistook the spirit as the ghost of her mother. During that time, Victoria and Lily end up developing their own language, start acting like animals, and gain a filthy appearance while wearing what's left of their clothes. When they are discovered by trackers hired by their uncle and brought back to society, Victoria is able to reintegrate while Lily (whose only memories are of being raised in the forest and who sees the spirit as her true mother) is not.
* In the 2013 Disney film ''Frozen'', a young boy Kristoff had been raised along with his reindeer pet, Sven, by Rock Trolls in a valley until he grew up and left them to start his career as an ice harvester.
* In the film '' Barefoot'', the character Daisy Kensington (portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood) was raised in isolation all of her life and has been barefoot since childhood.
* In the film '' The Boxtrolls'', the main character Eggs is raised by the title characters in their underground cavernous home following the kidnapping of his father when he was a baby.
* In the film ''The Good Dinosaur'', a little feral caveboy named Spot befriends the main character Arlo the Apatosaurus who behaves like a dog.
* In the film '' Storks'', a girl named Tulip (voiced by Katie Crown) is the only human among the storks at Cornerstore on Stork Mountain after her homing location beacon was accidentally destroyed and was kept on Stork Mountain until she turned 18 to be returned to the human world but instead helps a top delivery stork deliver an unauthorized baby.
* In the 2016 film ''Pete's Dragon