Last month in movie theaters a new version of the movie "The Jungle Book" was released. The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–1894.

But few of us know that in science there is a phenomenon called "Mowgli Children." (Other names include wild children and feral children).

These are human children who grew up in extreme social exclusion - out of contact with people from an early age - without the care and love from another person and no experience with social behavior and communication. These children were abandoned by their parents and either brought up by animals or in isolation.

Descriptions of such cases have been written, although many could not get published. These cases are of great interest to researchers in the field of psychology and sociology. Trained animals show children (within the physical capabilities of the human) behavior, inherent to their foster parents, for example, fear of humans.

History has some pretty illustrative stories of the "wild child." And these cases are much more complex and interesting than the classic story of Mowgli. These are real people with names.

Bello from Nigeria. This is the boy in the press dubbed the Nigerian boy chimp. He was found in 1996 in the jungles of the country. It is unproven his exact age, but it is suggested that at the time of discovery he was about 2 years old. The boy was found in the woods, he appeared physically and mentally handicapped. This is due to the rejection by his parents at the age of six months. This practice is very common in Fulani. At such a young age the boy, of course, could not stand up by himself. But some chimpanzees that lived in the woods took him to their tribe. As a result, the boy adopted many features of the behavior of the monkeys, in particular, their walking. When Bello was found in the woods Falgore, this discovery was not widely reported. But in 2002, one of the popular newspapers found the boy in an orphanage for abandoned children in Kano, in South Africa. News about Bello has quickly become sensational. He himself had often fought with other children, he threw objects, and jumped and ran at night. Six years later, the boy has become much calmer, although he still shows many mannerisms of chimpanzees. As a result, Bello could not learn how to speak, in spite of the constant interaction with other children and the people in his house. In 2005, the boy died for unknown reasons.

The other example of the « Mowgli» is Vanya Yudin. News agencies have nicknamed him "Russian boy-bird." When social workers of Volgograd City found him in 2008, he was 6 years old, and he could not speak. The child's mother had abandoned him. The boy almost did not do anything, he just twittered and folded his hands like wings. That what he learned from his friends the parrots. Although physically Vanya is human, he was unable to interact with human contact. His demeanor began to look like a bird, he expressed emotion by waving his hands. Vanya had lived for a long time in a two-bedroom apartment where his mother had kept dozens of birds. One of the social workers (Galina Volsky) who found Vanya, said that the boy lived with his mother, but she never spoke to him, treating him as if he were another feathered pet. When people tried to talk with Vanya, he only chirped in response. Now the boy had been moved to a center of psychological care, where specialists are trying to get him back to normal life.

There are now American examples of Mowgli kids; Danielle Crockett from Plant City, Florida. Dani was found in 2008. She had been locked in her room and deprived of human interaction for the first seven years of her life. She was found and adopted and is currently undergoing efforts to acclimate her to human conditioning including learning English and effective communication.

In total, there are about 100 Mowgli kids now documented.

Among the common signs of "Mowgli syndrome" are isolated speech disorders or inability to talk, inability to walk upright, de-socialization, lack of skills to use cutlery, and fear of people. At the same time they often have excellent health, and much more stable immune systems than the people living in the community. Most psychologists have noted the fact that a man who has spent a long time among animals, begins to identify with the natural world and animals as his "brothers".

On the question of whether human recovery process is possible after a long-term stay outside the human environment in the society, the experts give ambiguous answers: everything depends on the individual. In that case, if a person is not found in time to develop human behaviors, recovery is practically impossible. According to experts, after the 12-13 years threshold an undeveloped man can only become like a trained dog or, in some cases, minimally adapted to the social environment; but whether it is possible to socialize as a person is the big question. If a child falls into a bestial community before he formed the skill to walk upright, then moving on all fours will be the only possible way for his entire life - to retrain will be impossible.