Growing up, I finally real-
ized Tarzan and Mowglie
where pure fiction. Wolves,
tigers and bears made a quick
meal of any small humanoids
that they found wandering
around in the brush. They
did not take them into their
pack and teach these small
lost children the ways of the
Wild, or did they?
It was a photo and head-
line on the cover of a National
Enquirer that caught my atten-
tion when I was in Jr. High
School. it read in large, bold
print, “Boy Raised By
Wolves!!” Well I bought it
and I devoured every sensa-
tional word of that article.
That article inspired me to
research other writings on
the subject of children being
raised by wild animals. Turns
out there are hundreds of sto-
ries about lost or abandoned
kids being raised and cared
for by dangerous carnivores.
Most are myths, old legends,
and wives tales, with no facts
or proof whatsoever. But
there are nine well-docu-
mented cases of children
being raised by monkeys,
wild dogs, and wolves.
The earliest known writ-
ten account is about twin
brothers Romulus and
Remus, who were aban-
doned by their unwed moth-
er. Left to perish in the harsh
elements, they were found a
few years later alive and well,
sucking milk from a she-wolf.
Later in life, when they grew
to manhood, these brothers
built a large city on a hill... we
know it as Rome, Italy. We
will never know if the whole
story is true or not, but it
remains one of the oldest
written records of wolves rais-
ing human children.
In 1800 in France a young
man was spotted by hunters
in a forest. He was naked and
wild. The hunters captured
him and returned him to civ-
ilization. He had been living
with a pack of wolves for
years. He howled for the
pack’s help for days, and
wolves howled back. Wolf
tracks were seen around
where he was confined, but
he could not break free. He
became very famous and was
known as Victor of Aveyron.
In Nigeria a young boy
was abandoned by his par-
ents, because of physical
problems that prohibited him
from keeping up with the
nomadic tribe. Bello, as he
came to be known, was found
a year and a half later living
with
chimpanzees!
In
Cambodia,
Rochom
P’ngieng became separated
from her sister while herding
the family’s water buffalo
when she was eight years old.
She was found 19 years later
living with and following a
band of monkeys. Some dis-
pute the claim, but it makes
for good reading. In the
1920s Amala and Kamala
were found living with wolves
in the jungles of India.
Another boy was seen crawl-
ing into a den with a she-wolf
by hunters. They smoked the
wolf out of the den and killed
it, then captured the boy and
brought him back out to civi-
lization. Marina Chapman
lived in the jungles of
Columbia. She was provided
for by Weeper Capuchin
monkeys for five years before
she was found.
Old stories set in exotic
places make for great reading
and inspire the imagination.
But what if they happened a
little closer to home, like the
deserts of far West Texas and
New Mexico?
J. Frank Dobie recorded
one of the strangest accounts
of a man living alone with
wild animals in Texas, even
being “adopted” by them
and allowed to be nursed by
one. In 1941 J. Frank Dobie
published the book The
Longhorns. It was a completely
factual history of the Texas
Longhorn cattle in America.
In this book he recorded a lit-
tle-known story about a wild
man dwelling with some of
the last wild Longhorns in
Texas. The man’s tracks
were discovered by one of the
cowboys helping with a
roundup on the Pear Plains,
which was a virtual no man’s
land at the time. A few days
later while hunting cattle, the
cowboy saw the feller (who
was buck naked) up out of the
thick brush and prickly pear
cactus where he was hiding.
As he fled, the cowboy
spurred his horse up and pur-
sued him with a hungry loop.
After a short chase the cow-
boy roped the man and
brought him back into camp
that night, the man still fight-
ing and protesting his capture
on the end of the cowboy’s
rope.
The crew tied the wild
man to a tree, then got him
some food and water. The
wild man refused to eat for
the first few days, and bawled
like a cow or calf and tore at
the rope around his neck.
The first evening a cow came
up and spent all night bawl-
ing, just outside the camp for
her ‘calf,’ as the wild man
bawled back for his ‘mother!’
This continued for many
nights as the cow tried to get
him to follow her back to
their home range. Dobie
didn’t reveal too many details
about how that man came to
be living in such strange,
harsh conditions. Even the
Indians and Mexicans avoid-
ed this inhospitable terrain.
But after he got gentled
down, the wild man said that
he survived by robbing pack
rat nests, and by following
javalinas and picking through
what they rooted up. The
shocker was he had befriend-
ed a wild cow and was
allowed to suck milk from her
just like her own calf!
I believe the wild man was
possibly still alive when
Dobie wrote his story. Dobie
out of respect never revealed
the man’s identity, other than
to say he became a top trail
driver, going up the trail with
numerous herds of Texas
Longhorns.
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continued on page 18
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