# Feral Children
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [November 30, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527 "2011-11-30T03:53:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/1 "2011-11-30T03:53:09Z")
[Obligatory link](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/651/has-a-human-child-ever-been-raised-by-wolves-or-other-animals)
There was a case of a feral child on this side of the world recently, the [Cambodian jungle girl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_jungle_girl), found almost five years ago.
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### Author:  [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/2 "2011-11-30T04:14:26Z")
Any feral children stories always make me think of [Truffaut’s movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Child) about the “Wild Boy of Aveyron” found in 1800 in France.
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### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/3 "2011-12-02T20:10:57Z")
One thing I find fascinating about these situations is that many of the children do not walk upright. I would think that that would be something people could do without being taught.
In the article about the Cambodian woman, there is a mention that she could use a spoon and that she may have been held in captivity rather than being truly feral. But she still preferred to crawl rather than walk upright.
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### Author:  [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/4 "2011-12-02T20:47:55Z")
In the case of [Genie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)), she didn’t walk upright because she had spent most of her time strapped to a chair. Not sure what is going on with the others.
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### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/5 "2011-12-02T21:40:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Being a wild child may conjure up visions of some Blue Lagoon-type idyll, but the reality is unspeakably cruel.
My God, it is so painful to read some of these stories.
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### Author:  [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/6 "2011-12-03T02:02:40Z")
None of them ever really come out of it. Early development is so core to the human experience. There is a NOVA doc on Genie that can be found on YouTube that is fascinating and heartbreaking.
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### Author:  [@ZenPyramid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenPyramid)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/7 "2011-12-07T18:23:48Z")
> [@brittekland](#):
>
> Any feral children stories always make me think of [Truffaut’s movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Child) about the “Wild Boy of Aveyron” found in 1800 in France.
…may i also recommend [‘The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser’](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071691/) a brilliant and touching film by Werner Herzog?
A true story, of course, Kaspar Hauser was discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg in 1828, and subsequently became the subject of much rumour and speculation concerning his birth…
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/8 "2011-12-11T13:03:50Z")
> [@Hedda\_Rosa](#):
>
> There is a NOVA doc on Genie that can be found on YouTube that is fascinating and heartbreaking.
Genie’s story, I think, is particularly heartbreaking. For one thing, she was sent back for a time to the very mother who had allowed this treatment in the first place. For another, many of the people who probably sincerely wanted to help ended up making things worse.
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### Author:  [@John\_H.Tidyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_H.Tidyman)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/9 "2011-12-15T14:34:50Z")
Fascinating piece. Cynic that I am, I thought first of donating two neighborhood kids to be dropped in the wilderness and retrieved in a few years.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/10 "2012-06-15T13:09:47Z")
A recent hoax in Germany: [http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/germany-forest-boy/index.html?hpt=hp\_t3](http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/germany-forest-boy/index.html?hpt=hp_t3)
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### Author:  [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feral-children/604527/11 "2012-06-15T20:22:40Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> A recent hoax in Germany: [http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/germany-forest-boy/index.html?hpt=hp\_t3](http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/world/europe/germany-forest-boy/index.html?hpt=hp_t3)
I was just listening to this boy’s story on NPR yesterday. I had my suspicions.